Yachting: The evolution of speed

Innovation has been the hallmark of New Zealand's America's Cup adventures for nearly 20 years, from fibreglass to the hula.

1987, Freemantle: KZ7 was New Zealand's first entry into the America's Cup, when the boats were 12m.

The fibreglass "plastic fantastic" flew through the Louis Vuitton Cup round robins with a 33-1 record. It then beat French Kiss 4-0 in the semifinals before losing 4-1 to Stars and Stripes in the challenger series final.

1988, Freemantle: The New Zealand Challenge: KZ1 the 90ft-waterline monohull.

Tired of waiting for the San Diego Yacht Club to reveal the timing of the next cup, Sir Michael Fay challenged in the maximum size sloop permitted.

San Diego attempted to have the New York Supreme Court throw out the challenge but Fay won that battle at least. Dennis Conner's weapon of choice was a 60ft catamaran, producing a major mismatch - the cat winning 2-0 in the best of three series.

Although the outcome of the Big Boat challenge was less than glorious, it did have the positive effect of retiring the 12m class. In its place came a new breed of high-tech state-of-the-art yachts, built to what is known as the International America's Cup Class (IACC) Rule.

1992, San Diego: The International America's Cup Class is born. The New Zealand Challenge: NZL20 - The Red Sled. Small and dinghy-like, NZL20 raced with a radical tandem keel and no rudder. It also sported a bowsprit which was its undoing. NZL20 comfortably made it to the Louis Vuitton Cup final where it met Italy's Il Moro.The Red Sled was up 4-1 in the best of nine series when Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard launched an aggressive series of protests against the bowsprit. Race five was annulled and New Zealand was forced to revisit the way it used the bowsprit to help control the boat's gennakers. The Kiwis failed to win another race and Il Moro progressed to the America's Cup match where they were beaten by America3.

Boat builder Mick Cookson, who helped with the appendages, doubts the Red Sled would ever have beaten America3 anyway. "The tandem keel was weak in the light, that is why Il Moro thumped it."

1995, San Diego: NZL32 was launched around August 1994, NZL38 a little later in San Diego.

It wasn't long before Team New Zealand proved they had plenty of pace, losing only one match on the water and one in the protest room in five months of intense racing. Such was their pace that during their first-round race against Tag Heuer, they almost passed OneAustralia who started in the match before, 10 minutes earlier. Team New Zealand used NZL38 for the Louis Vuitton Cup rounds before it was retired to make way for NZL32 which was unbeaten in the semifinals, before beating OneAustralia 5-1 in the Louis Vuitton final and Dennis Conner and Young America 5-0 in the America's Cup match.

2000, Auckland: NZL57's first tentative steps into the wide world were a terrible mess. Four hours after being loaded on to a big rig at Cookson's Glenfield boatyard, NZL57 finally arrived at the Team New Zealand base just 7km away.

In between, the yacht became stuck in mud, was almost banned from crossing the Harbour Bridge and then jammed in a tree. Yet the Team New Zealand guys were laughing. Bad luck, they say, is a good omen for Team New Zealand boats. They remembered a similar start to the life of NZL32 before the 1995 Cup when Black Magic I fell off its truck and into the mud as it came out of the Cookson yard.

NZL60 was clearly in a different class to opponents Prada. Its greater beam gave it more stability, and this was part of its overall superiority in winds above 12 knots. The winglets were situated in the middle of the keel bulb and not at the aft end. The other striking feature of the New Zealand boat was the bow shape, which featured a distinct knuckle at the waterline, which influences the distribution of volume along the hull.

The "millennium rig" featured three spreaders instead of the usual four, but the diagonals are arranged in an X-formation between the spreaders, providing more lateral support for the mast tube with less weight and windage. Cookson says: "I think the boats were the result of being able to keep a team of guys together from 1995 to 2000 - they were a tight design and sailing team. They had the desire and motivation to improve on every aspect and they did."

2003, Auckland: With its hull appendage, four-spreader rig, different boom, and extremely long keel bulb, NZL82 was vastly different from any of the challengers.

The innovative hull appendages of Team New Zealand's NZL81 and NZL82 became the talk of the sailing world. Fitted snugly against the hull, its aim was to increase the waterline length of the boat and therefore its speed. Its downfall was that it produced drag, especially in light conditions.

"They looked a good direction to be going in," Cookson said. "I would have preferred if one had been a conventional boat and one a hula boat but the danger there is the hula would have got ruled against. The designers had really high expectations for it. At the time when you are building a boat you have to believe the designers."

Trounced 5-0 by Alinghi, NZL81 and NZL82 are possibly best remembered as innovation gone too far.

Unable to complete two of the five Cup races due to gear failure, NZL82 was anything but the black rocketship New Zealand had hoped for.