Yachting: Coutts resigned to losing cup heroes

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Russell Coutts expects to lose a couple of Team New Zealand sailors to chequebook raids from rival America's Cup syndicates.

It seems inevitable that some of the crew from the successful defence will be lured away by million-dollar offers from bigger-budget American and European interests.

But Coutts, one of the new leaders of Team New Zealand, says he will fight to keep his team together - and find out if these offers are coming from genuine syndicates.

"None of these teams have entered the Cup yet, except for Italy," he said from New York yesterday.

"Are they real teams? There's nothing to substantiate whether these offers that have been presented to our guys are real.

"To be honest, there will be some changes, and it is Team New Zealand's job to manage their way through them.

"But we do know that no one in our team has gone yet."

A Team New Zealand lawyer, Sean Reeves has left, however, to manage the Seattle syndicate which has accosted most of the top-line black boat crew with offers at least doubling what they earned last time.

No one knows who has the money behind the new challenge - Netscape multi-millionaire Jim Clark has denied his involvement.

Right now, Team New Zealand have little to offer their men but reassurances, while the sign-over arrangements from the old trust to the new are still being negotiated.

Coutts said the handover would take place within the month, and then Team New Zealand could offer contracts to their sailors.

The offers, some rumoured to be well over $1 million, will push up the sailors' asking price, but Coutts could see good in that.

"The nice thing about people being approached is the high value it has placed on these people," he said. "At least we have that problem now - we certainly didn't after 1992.

"The fact that this event was so successful has prompted a lot of influential people, who came down to see the Cup, to want to be involved in it."

Coutts said he had known about the offers since soon after the Cup was won in March, and the crew members had been open about them.

"But it's not as though people have been sitting on their butts doing nothing," he said. "There has already been a lot of work go into the salary budget - we are taking these pressures into account."

Coutts and Tom Schnackenberg are in New York meeting ESPN to begin negotiations for TV and Internet rights.

Schnackenberg said it was natural attrition to lose crewmen to challenging teams.

"I suppose its a no-brainer for a challenging syndicate to try to get people from us," he said. "We lost four people last time. But I'm pretty sure the bulk of the team would rather work for Team New Zealand.

"I can't imagine working for another team, given the level of support we've enjoyed. Even if I was in another industry, I would want quite a lot of money to live in another country, compared with living here in Auckland."