Yachting: Team glad to catch lifelines

It was too symbolic to miss. As Emirates Team New Zealand's new TP52 yacht headed out from the Alicante marina towards the start line for the first race, they passed lifeboats taking part in a drill from the cruise ship Grand Princess.

You could say the America's Cup has the lifeboats out - but it's not a drill. The men aboard NZL 380 (the sail number referring to Emirates' 700-passenger A380 aircraft) should have been sailing in Valencia in the 33rd America's Cup this year.

Instead, they are in the intensely competitive Audi Med Cup, populated thickly by America's Cup sailors and crews and held over five regattas in Alicante, Marseille, Cagliari (Sardinia), Portimao (Portugal) and Cartagena (Spain) between now and September.

The America's Cup was back in court last week, with Alinghi and BMW Oracle contesting the date of the multi-hull challenge, now set for February next year.

Many viewed Alinghi's court action as a delaying tactic - like that of its espionage claim involving a BMW Oracle team member trying to glean information on Alinghi's giant catamaran. It is due to be launched soon to take on the trimaran Oracle have built for the Deed of Gift challenge.

But back to our metaphor. The America's Cup has become a bloated, stationary thing - not unlike the 3000-passenger Grand Princess which has more than 700 balcony staterooms. It is distinguished by a giant spoiler on the stern which looks aerodynamic. It actually houses a nightclub.

There's the thing. The America's Cup has been tied to the jetty of the law, lashed there by the posturing and bickering of billionaires, for nearly two years - able only to send out little lifeboats of interest instead of what people really hanker for: racing.

When the fathers of sailing built the first wind-powered vessels, they cannot have foreseen anything like the Grand Princess - a jaw-dropping feat of engineering, but also homage to modern pointlessness; why go to sea if you take your en suite with you?

It's a bit like the America's Cup. The founding fathers would have had no idea their trophy would end up in court so often, the subject of legal points of order, public relations campaigns and point scoring. The public, the sailing community, hell, even the America's Cup sailors in Alicante have had enough.

But it's the reason Team New Zealand are here - to ensure the team continue to combine, to keep their competitiveness so they are well placed to take advantage when the Cup finally stops being a billionaires' plaything and returns to the sea.

It's also a sign that Team NZ are not withering under the money-eating delays caused by the current Cup court action. TP52 yachts are not cheap.

The cost has been estimated at about $3m to build and about $1m to operate - although Team NZ may well have been able to cut costs significantly. They have a sailing and shore team and, even though most of the Team NZ people here have technically been made redundant as the syndicate waits out the court action, they have been re-hired for this on a daily rate.

Team NZ head Grant Dalton said: "We thought of this about 10 months ago when it looked like the Cup might not be held again until 2010 or 2011. We needed a mechanism to keep this team developing together and competing well and to provide a vehicle that would keep us visible to the public and for sponsors.

"The TP52 was a natural class for us because you can take all of the elements from the Cup and they are present in the TP52s. It is a development class so there was a good chance for the designers. It also had an unforeseen benefit in that it has allowed us to hire all these guys [the team] on a daily rate. Apart from a few people on retainers, most had been made redundant so this was a chance to give them some work to help keep them alive."

Dalton went to Emirates for sponsorship but also needed to call again on Matteo de Nora, the Swiss-Italian billionaire who has quietly backed Team New Zealand since 2003. So while Team NZ has its own billionaire, he carefully chooses the back seat, avoids headlines and, thankfully, lawyers.

"Matteo's motivation is not so much the Med Cup or the TP52s," said Dalton. "He is in it for the team - has been since the start. He knows the importance of keeping the team together and developing them."

So it was possible, as the chase boats passed under the gigantic frame of the Grand Princess, to feel a bit smug. Dwarfed by the cruise ship, they were viewed by some curious passengers - like a collection of expensive battery hens.

The Med Cup yachts had the freedom of the sea - or the freedom of the course, anyway. Theirs was the spirit of sailing; the spirit of the Grand Princess seemed more likely to be a rum mojito. Most of the passengers were off in Alicante's shops, just as the lawyers of Oracle tycoon Larry Ellison and Alinghi's Ernesto Bertarelli were in the New York Supreme Court, shopping for advantage.

WHEN IT came to racing, Team New Zealand did well, although not without some discomfort - getting to third overall after four of the scheduled 10 races.

The fourth race was their best, starting well in the first halfway decent blow of this regatta - up to 14 knots at times.

Most of their previous races, in lighter airs, were about recovery. Team NZ may not yet be quite as skilled at fleet starts as match racing starts and, in the third race, they found themselves with only one boat behind them. They pulled up to third before being ambushed by the yachts that correctly chose the left-hand side of the course in the run home, dropping to sixth.

In the fourth race, they seemed to have it won before the Russian boat, Synergy, discovered wind that propelled them past the Kiwis, eating up over six boat lengths in moments. So while two fourths, a six and a second may not sound particularly sexy, Alicante conditions are tricky, especially in the light airs, and even the best can go from first to last if the competition is good enough - or fortunate enough - to detect or luck onto even a puff of wind.

The pre-regatta words of defending champion, favourite and current leader Terry Hutchinson, of Quantum Racing, remain valid: any team with a top-five placing in each of the races will go close to winning the regatta and the Med Cup series. Quantum have been easily the most consistent, never finishing lower than fifth.

Hutchinson was Team NZ strategist in the 2007 America's Cup who bore some of the brunt of that finals defeat by Alinghi.

The boats are largely identical although designers can move within the constraints of the box rule - something at which Team NZ designer Marcelino Botin is said to be skilled. The boat is regarded as one of the more radical and is the new version of that used by Quantum, also designed by Botin, which won last year's Med Cup convincingly.

After four races, the pattern seemed to be that the Kiwi boat may be better in stronger winds; that the Argentinian syndicate Matador - second on the same points as Team NZ but with one higher placing - may prefer lighter airs; and that Quantum appears to be good in everything.

"It's not the boat," said skipper Dean Barker when asked about Team NZ's comparatively sluggish starts to the first three races. "We are still getting to grips with how we sail it. Today [after the fourth race] was satisfying but it was also frustrating in that we are not yet sailing the boat as well as we can. It takes time and we are coming up the scale so it's good to be so close to Quantum."

The Russians, who pipped them on the post to win the fourth race, had been left alone in clear air while Team NZ tried to manage the main body of the fleet on the way to the line. The Russians found some good pressure and finished over the top of the Kiwis.

"It happens like that sometimes," said Barker. "You attempt to manage things but someone finds something that no one else does. As far as the boat is concerned, we are looking competitive speed-wise but things like pressure make a huge difference here. It's sometimes not really about winning out there; it's about surviving. It's that tricky."

Matador - also with a new boat - are a big threat; Artemis, Russell Coutts and all, are not out of it yet; and Switzerland's Marazzi had the same results as Team NZ before a nightmare 10th place in the fourth race. The regatta finishes on Monday morning (NZT) but it seems the Kiwis will be well placed in this and the series.

MED CUP

Results after four races (protest pending involving Marazzi and Desafio):

1. Quantum Racing 13 points
2 Matador (Argentina) 16
3. Emirates Team NZ 16
4. Marazzi (Switzerland) 24
5. Synergy (Russia) 25
6. Artemis (Sweden) 25
7. Bigamist (Portugal) 25
8. Desafio (Spain) 28
9. Pisco Sour (Chile) 31
10. Audi (Italy) 33
11. Valars (Russia) 39
12. Bribon (Spain) 40

* Paul Lewis was in Alicante courtesy of Emirates.