Yachting: 'Eiffel Tower' on Cup waterfront

By Suzanne McFadden

If the French America's Cup base resembles the Pompidou Centre, then Young Australia's home is a floating Eiffel Tower.

The 100-tonne floating crane Hikinui will serve as the Australian base during the cup challenger series.

But what would you expect from a syndicate already stealing the limelight with the youngest crew, the oldest boat and the smallest budget?

Australia's boat AUS29 was carried into the village yesterday on the deck of the crane and parked in front of the Waitemata Plaza - on the opposite side of the Viaduct Basin to all of the other cup syndicates on their more conventional land bases.

The massive crane, which will carry out other jobs around the village over the next seven months, even towers above the neighbouring waterfront apartment building under construction.

Crewman Andrew Crow said his young team-mates - aged between 18 and 25 - loved their base.

"We've got our own little pad, and it's pretty cool," he said.

"We'll probably feel like we're in a fish bowl, with everyone walking past being able to look down and see what we're doing.

"We're not hiding the keel from anyone. But it's good that we can show people what really happens in an America's Cup campaign with these boats.

"I'd rather have this than locking the boat away in a shed at night."

And if it rains? "We get wet."

The crane will lift the boat on and off a 50m barge each day, where the crew can work on the five-year-old hull.

There are three containers on board the barge - for sails, rigging and tools.

There's even room for the crew to park their bicycles - their mode of transport from their downtown living headquarters in the old Railway Station.

Syndicate head, 72-year-old self-made millionaire Syd Fischer, argued from the outset that the sites in the village were too expensive.

But they will pay rent to the America's Cup Village Ltd for their waterspace.

The Australians were the last of the 11 challenger syndicates to book into the village.

All that now remains is the arrival of some syndicates' second boats, and for racing to begin on October 18