Yachting: Coutts shuns spotlight of media

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

No winning skipper at the first America's Cup press conference? It went down like a pub with no beer.

Team New Zealand helmsman Russell Coutts failed to face the world's yachting media last night after the Kiwis' opening victory against Prada.

Trimmer Warwick Fleury, who fronted up instead, said the black boat's brains trust had been too busy to cross the basin for the conference.

"It's our first race - they wanted to spend some time amongst themselves for a debrief," he said.

But Prada's skipper Francesco de Angelis and tactician Torben Grael were there - and after losing on day one, they would have been more in need of a closed doors discussion.

Team New Zealand navigator Tom Schnackenberg was last night apologetic and said they had not realised that it would be seen as such a big deal.

It should have been no shock. Coutts had said a week before that he would probably only go if the New Zealanders lost a race.

But Team New Zealand have been, and always will be, different from the rest.

Where the Italians left the dock to loud music and a hundred-strong crowd on their base, the New Zealanders slipped off to cheers and applause from a tight cluster of family members.

As they won the race yesterday, there were handshakes and low-fives - no hugs and air punches. It was just like 1995, when anyone who showed too much emotion would be thrown overboard.

The Kiwis' ability to control their emotions was pretty useful yesterday, sailing in the middle of a crowd 2000 boats thick.

"It's the closest thing to sailing in a stadium," said trimmer Tony Rae. "I've never run onto a field like the All Blacks, but after sailing into the finish today with people screaming and hooters blaring, you get the idea of how they feel.

"It was a huge relief to finally get going. It was more tiring sitting around doing nothing out there the day before than it was racing."