Yachting: Team NZ win 2006 America's Cup season

VALENCIA, Spain - Team New Zealand flew past old rivals Alinghi in the final America's Cup warm-up of 2006 today, winning the season but aware that the defenders still have a new boat to launch.

The New Zealanders lavished excitement on Act 12 of the America's Cup with tight battles in the semifinals and finals before sailing clean away on the last downwind leg of the final race, steaming over the line 84 seconds ahead of the Swiss team.

"We had a flamethrower on us in terms of pressure when it came down to the last race but we didn't crack," said New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson.

The team were cool about their win, pointing out that they were racing the new boat they will sail next year while Alinghi were still in the one they used at the last America's Cup.

"It would be a huge mistake to look much beyond the fact that we beat a guy in a three-year-old tub -- and barely -- while he has a new boat sitting in the shed," Hutchinson said.

The rivalry between Alinghi and Team New Zealand goes back six years.

When Alinghi syndicate leader Ernesto Bertarelli decided he wanted to mount an America's Cup challenge, rather than build a team from scratch he simply hired six members of the New Zealand team that had wrested the Cup from America in Black Magic in 1995.

The defectors were scorned as national traitors when Alinghi won the 100 Guineas Cup from New Zealand in Auckland in 2003 to take it to Europe for the first time.

"Having an old boat is no excuse not to have won," said Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth. "We had enough grunt on board but it just didn't happen on the day."

Winning Act 12 and the season pushed New Zealand to the top of the rankings that will settle the start of next year's Louis Vuitton Cup -- the regatta that decides which team will take on Alinghi for the America's Cup in a nine-race head-to-head competition.

New Zealand are followed by US boat BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa Challenge, who crashed in their race for third place. The Italian boat, which now sports a gash in its side, was penalised for tacking too close and ended fourth.

Although the three teams are well ahead of the rest of the 11-challenger pack, home team Desafio Espanol 2007 and South Africa's Team Shosholoza impressed their rivals with marked improvement over the season.

Most teams will stay in Valencia over the Spanish summer to practise for next year, christening and tweaking their new boats.

The challengers race a final warm-up Act in April before the Louis Vuitton Cup, from April 18 to June 12. The winner then takes on Alinghi for the America's Cup from June 23-July 7.

- REUTERS