Yachting: Brits get serious about regaining the Cup

By ROBIN BAILEY

The history of the America's Cup is studded with the names of some commercial giants. Dunraven, Lipton and Sopwith were early British challengers. Business barons including Morgan and Vanderbilt were among the first defenders.

Today's biggest players come from equally challenging commercial arenas, including some who amassed their millions in the information technology field. Among them is Peter Harrison, the man behind the first British challenge since White Crusader in Fremantle in 1987.

Like the people backing the other syndicates preparing to try to wrest the cup from Team New Zealand next year, Harrison is realistic about the challenge ahead.

He knows that today's players need the same sort of determination - and similarly deep pockets - as those who fought for 132 years to force the New York Yacht Club to relinquish sport's oldest trophy.

Alan Bond and John Bertrand did it first in 1983, and then Dennis Conner won it back for the US in 1987, although for his home port of San Diego, not the New York Yacht Club. Two Kiwi challenges, in 1988 with the Big Boat and again in 1992, were unsuccessful. That all changed in 1995 when Team New Zealand blitzed the defender 5-0 to bring the cup to Auckland.

By successfully defending the cup in 2000, Team New Zealand provided all future contenders with a benchmark in yacht design and sailing ability. It is a lesson that has been taken on board by Harrison and all the challengers in this year's Louis Vuitton challenger series.

Harrison is serious about his campaign: "It is my vision to be the catalyst for Great Britain to compete in the America's Cup for a number of years.

"Our goal is to return the trophy to the place where it all began 150 years ago," he said at the GBR launch in Auckland in November. "The challenge is not a one-off."

Step one was recruiting David Barnes, the Kiwi veteran of five America's Cup campaigns as general manager. Barnes sees his objective as achieving the same level of professionalism as Team New Zealand reached in the first defence in 2000.

Barnes played a key role in Dawn Riley's America True campaign in 1999 and says that while they managed to reach the finals, the team did not have the sailing strength to go on to win. The failure was not because America True could mount only a one-boat campaign.

The GBR Challenge secured a virtual America's Cup starter kit with the purchase of the two Nippon Challenge America's Cup Class (IACC) yachts and one from 1995, plus six 12m containers of support equipment.

This has allowed the talented British sailing crew, brought together by Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker, to put in the hours on the Hauraki Gulf to get to know the yachts, experience essential for a talented bunch of mainly young sailors with little America's Cup background.

The team responsible for the new yacht is formidable. GBR has signed two former Nippon Challenge design engineers, Taro Takahashi and Akahiro Kanai, who worked on the 1992, 1995 and 2000 Nippon campaigns. Together with Jo Richards, a bronze medallist in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and Derek Clark, who was involved in formulating the IACC rule in 1992, they form the technical design group.

To help them, Harrison commissioned a testing programme out of the Wolfson Marine Unit in Southampton and the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in Gosport. Quarter-size models (18ft long) are continually being evaluated in tank tests as the design for the new yacht is fine-tuned. The Hauraki Gulf will be host to the GBR challenger early next summer.

Harrison is unequivocal about his objective. "I first began talking America's Cup with interested British business people who put up and discarded all sorts of multi-sponsorship options. Things were going nowhere, so I decided to go solo." A computer internet-working IT entrepreneur, he sold his company Chernikeef Networks Ltd for £300 million ($1 billion) in two stages in July 1999 and August 2000.

A keen rugby player until into his early-50s, Harrison has had considerable top-level sailing success. With his hands firmly on the helm of GBR Challenge, he is relishing his role flying Britain's America's Cup flag once again.

* It's not all about sailing. The Peter Harrison Foundation was set up in 2000 with a £30 million ($104 million) endowment. It is a charity that helps disabled and disadvantaged people by creating opportunities through sport and education.

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