Yachting: Foreign brains sign with Team NZ

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Self-made man Chris Miller sailed 16,000km to a new life in New Zealand - and fell into his dream job with Team New Zealand.

The American software guru - who at 36 has earned enough money to retire - is about to make his America's Cup debut, helping to figure out how to make the black boats faster.

Yesterday in California a new challenge emerged from the world's second-richest man, Larry Ellison, who has enticed a raft of Kiwi sailors and designers.

At the same time on the other side of the world, the defenders of the Auld Mug had their roll call, revealing a few foreign acquisitions of their own.

Among them were Miller, English yacht engineer Andy Claughton and esteemed Australian weatherman Roger "Clouds" Badham - probably the most sought-after man in the Cup this time.

Miller retired from his profession writing software two years ago, after buying a 52ft yacht to wend his way through the Pacific. At the end of his travels he bought a home on Kawau Island, next door to friends of Team NZ head Tom Schnackenberg.

Last January, he started re-analysing data from the last Cup on his computer, and sent his ideas to Schnackenberg.

Team NZ saw his potential and took him on.

"I never thought I would be working in software again, but this is the perfect job for me," he said. "I'll just sail down to Auckland, sit in my boat at my computer to find ways to improve the boats' performance."

Claughton is another new name in the Team NZ design line-up, yet he has worked with the Kiwis, running their tank testing, for 15 years.

Claughton, head of the Wolfson yacht-testing unit at the University of Southampton, could never have an input into the design of the Kiwi boats because he did not have residency. But he has decided to take a couple of years off his job and move to Auckland.

Badham is regarded as Team New Zealand's biggest single coup.

He has replaced American weather veteran Bob Rice after Team NZ decided it was time to "update their efforts" reading Auckland's unpredictable weather.

"Bob was a seat-of-the-pants forecaster and we've moved to someone who is more of a scientist," Schnackenberg said.

" 'Clouds' is the only member of Team New Zealand who has been approached by every single America's Cup team."

Team NZ lost a decent chunk out of their design team, but Schnackenberg believes they have been strengthened by it.

"We lost two or three key guys to Seattle, and they'll be a big asset to them," he said. "But we had those chaps for years and years, and we had got the best out of them. So we won't miss them as much as we thought."

On the sailing front, the defenders have found 25 of the 32 yachties they want for 2003.

Only four of those are new to the crew - round-the-world helmsman Erle Williams, who was with the original KZ7 challenge, trimmer Chris Salthouse from the '88 big boat crew, Jeremy Lomas and Daniel Fong.

The sailing programme will kick off next January with NZL57 and NZL60 back in the water.

Five models for the new black boats are now on a ship heading to England for testing in October.

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