Yachting: Cayard fancies Cup chances

By Suzanne McFadden

Paul Cayard has changed his mind - he no longer fears that Team New Zealand will totally dominate the 2000 America's Cup.

"For the first two or three years [after the `95 cup] I thought the Kiwis would win the thing hands down. But I'm not so convinced of that anymore," said the AmericaOne skipper, the losing finalist in the last two Cup regattas.

"I've seen what my team's doing and looked at our boat design. I got the data off NZL32 when I raced them last time, and the predictions of our new boat look good.

"I think the Kiwis will have it tough just racing their in-house buddies while the challenger series is going on. And this Cup is going to be a huge deal - there's a lot of pressure on them to win.

"There could be a little political in-fighting, you never know."

But one thing is for sure about the defenders: "They will never be as off the pace as the US were in 95."