KEY POINTS:
Tom Schnackenberg wants Luna Rossa to beat Team New Zealand in the America's Cup challengers' yachting final, but it's nothing personal.
Schnackenberg had a lengthy association with Team NZ, including being syndicate head for the failed 2003 defence, before parting ways and joining the Italians.
But the man American legend Dennis Conner described as "the best brain in yachting" laughs when asked if the Louis Vuitton Cup final beginning this weekend has an extra edge for him.
"No, I'm just looking forward to a contest that I think is going to be entrancing for everybody involved," he said from Valencia.
To conclude that it would be no different from Luna Rossa racing anyone else was "exactly right".
Wellington-born Schnackenberg, 62, is into his 10th America's Cup campaign going back to 1977.
He was involved in Australia 2's historic success in 1983, when the sport's holy grail was prised from the New York Yacht Club's grasp after 132 years.
He won the cup again with Team NZ in 1995 and 2000, and then held the syndicate together when compatriots Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth and others jumped ship and switched to Swiss challengers Alinghi.
When Alinghi powered to a 5-0 victory off Auckland in early 2003, it was Schnackenberg and skipper Dean Barker who were the public faces of a bad defeat.
An independent report later identified the management structure that Schnackenberg and Barker operated within as the key reason for Team NZ's failure to retain the Auld Mug.
After Grant Dalton was hired to take over as managing director, Schnackenberg found his role in the organisation diminishing and he left at the end of 2003.
He later took legal action against Team NZ to lift a restraint-of-trade covenant so he could join another syndicate.
While listed as a navigator for Luna Rossa, Schnackenberg said his job involved mainly performance analysis, with numerous hours spent watching from a tender.
"I spend a lot of my days looking at numbers, trying to keep our guys honest."
As for Team NZ's performance, Schnackenberg had plenty of praise for a syndicate who topped the round-robin stages after falling to third on the table at one point.
"Speaking as a former member who has got a lot of friends in the team, I'm very proud of them," he said.
"They've picked themselves up from difficult situations and have been very calm and staunch. I think they've been great."
The best-of-nine showdown for the right to challenge Alinghi for the America's Cup begins early Saturday (NZT).
Schnackenberg was understandably reluctant to talk about what changes Luna Rossa might have made to their boat since their semifinal upset over highly-fancied Americans Oracle Racing.
But he agreed with the general public perception that a tight contest was in store between two evenly matched crews in yachts of similar speed.
"We are cautiously expectant," he said.
"We saw Oracle and Team NZ both as tough teams. We sort of rose to the occasion against Oracle and anything can happen against Team NZ."
Starts would be important, as they could end a race before it began, but he predicted an even duel between Barker and young Australian gun James Spithill.
"Both guys are very good starters," he said.
"We would expect them to be fairly even in starts over the course of the contest, although some of them may be one-sided."
The key to victory would be the same as in any other sporting encounter, he said.
"Learning from mistakes and not changing things that are good, even if one is losing."
In the semifinals, Team NZ beat Spanish underdogs Desafio Espanol 5-2, while Luna Rossa despatched Oracle 5-1.
Asked if he had been surprised by the apparent ease of Luna Rossa's victory, Schnackenberg said: "The thing that probably surprised everybody was the behaviour inside the Oracle team."
He felt Oracle had sailed well until the penultimate race, when New Zealand skipper Chris Dickson copped two penalties in the pre-start.
Dickson was then taken off USA98 and Dane Sten Mohr called in to take the wheel.
"In the second to last race, obviously they had a bit of a problem at the start where Chris was able to take a bad situation and make it worse," Schnackenberg said.
"Then in that last race, we were racing against a new unpractised helmsman who did a pretty creditable job, but they were not going to win the series on that note."
- NZPA
