Yachting: Team NZ wait on slick new 'McLaren'

MALMO - Team New Zealand are counting down the days, if not hours, until their slick new racing machine emerges from the boatyard.
The Emirates-sponsored syndicate finished third behind Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing in the sixth America's Cup pre-regatta in Malmo, Sweden.

Team New Zealand won nine out of 11 races. They could have ended with a 10-from-11 record had they not been over the startline against Italian syndicate +39 or if a jib sheet had not blown out against Oracle.

But it was always going to be difficult for them to beat defenders Alinghi, who are clearly a click faster than everyone else.

After securing the start they wanted, Team New Zealand were simply outpaced by the Swiss boat, which went on to win by 2m 03s.

"We are driving a bloody Jordan, not a flippin' McLaren," said managing director Grant Dalton.

"Since the very first day I started at Team New Zealand I have never been particularly happy with the boat, no matter what we did to it."

The syndicate's first new boat is under construction at Cookson's boatyard in Auckland, but probably will not sail until early next year.

Aside from their lack of speed against Alinghi, Team New Zealand's report card following the match-racing regatta would feature mostly As, with the exception of a C for their loss against Oracle, the result of gear failure, and maybe a D for their mis-timed start against +39.

"We set some objectives at the end of last year which were for Dean [Barker] and the afterguard to gel as a unit and to improve our starting and to get our weather working properly," Dalton said.

"With the exception of being over the line, I think we have won every start, or we have got the side we always wanted and in every case we have got the first cross.

"As a unit, I'd tick that box. We are right on track there."

Skipper Barker agrees his team are sailing better.

"It is just frustrating when you are not getting the results on the board."

Alinghi's win over Team New Zealand was their 22nd consecutive match-racing victory.

Syndicate head Ernesto Bertarelli made special mention of the New Zealand contingent in his team.

"Alinghi is made of many individuals, and we have a group of individuals, and I'd like to mention a few," Bertarelli said.

"Brad [Butterworth] to start with, Simon [Daubney], Warwick [Fleury], Murray Jones and Dean Phipps. These guys are record-holders in the number of times they have won the America's Cup and if we are where we are, it is because of them ...

"They are a very, very strong group in putting together a team ... "

Considering Oracle's in-house dramas, they did well to finish second, losing just one race, against Alinghi, where they broke their spinnaker pole.

Spain's Desafio Espanol and +39 had solid regattas, improving on past results to finish fifth and sixth.

But it was not a good regatta for home-town favourites Victory Challenge, who were eighth, or France's K-Challenge, one place behind.

"You look across at these other teams, some are sailing old, slow boats, which makes it tough for them," Barker said. "I am sure we'll see some of these teams, when they launch their new boats next year, become much tougher."

One of the highlights of the regatta was Team Shosholoza's win over Sweden's Victory Challenge, their first cup victory.

While there has been some criticism of the cup pre-regattas and their worth, it would be hard to find a regatta more action-packed than the event in Malmo.

"It has been brilliant sailing here with 20 knots breeze each day," Barker said. "The guys have enjoyed the extra pressure it has put on the crew-work. It has been a lot of fun."

* The seventh America's Cup pre-regatta, a three-day fleet-racing regatta, starts in Malmo on Saturday.