|
Note:
links in archived stories may have expired due to the removal of the stories
from, or changes to, the websites from which they were derived.
Pole position
Emirates Team
New Zealand (ETNZ) has won the Louis Vuitton challenger series, crushing
American rival BMW Oracle Racing by 1m 34s. The victory gave ETNZ the right to
choose its opponent for the best-of-nine semifinals. Skipper Dean
Barker elected to race fourth-place finishers Desafio Espańol of Spain,
leaving BMW to square off against Italy's Luna Rossa. "The media can say
what they want but we have 100 per cent belief in our team and we are looking
forward to getting on to the next stage," said Barker in the NZ Herald. The
semifinals will take place 14-24 May. The two winning teams will race in the
America's Cup final against defending champion Alinghi (Switzerland) from 23
June to 4 July.
(9 May 2007)
Schnack attack
"They have lured away many of NZ's best sailing minds and talents in
the quest for the Cup, but they are all still chasing one Kiwi who did not budge
and whose mind and talents may well make up for all those lost." Washington
Post interviews Tom Schnackenberg; Team NZ's syndicate chief, design
coordinator, navigator and "constant."
(27 December 2002)
The (edge) spirit of a sailor
USA Today ponders Kiwi dominance of the America's Cup. "No matter
that the boats will fly the flags of Switzerland and the United States. The men
at the helm are Kiwis, New Zealanders, "mates." Kiwis are in demand
not only for their sailing skills but for their ingenuity. After all, it was a
New Zealander who split the atom; a Kiwi who first climbed Mount Everest; and,
some believe, it was a Kiwi who first flew a plane, months before the Wright
brothers lifted off from Kitty Hawk."We're more hands-on people," Don Cowie
(kiwi trimmer of OneWorld) says. "Americans are more technical — they'll sit down and have a
meeting about it, while Kiwis are out there fixing it." Chris Dickson helms
One World above.
(22 November 2002)
Kiwi Hero laid to rest
A thousand mouners gather at the parish church
of St Thomas a Becket in Warblington to pay their respects to the late Sir Peter
Blake. "Peter Blake was a living legend. I believe that he was held in high
esteem for many reasons - for his achievements, for his courage, for the causes
he espoused, and for being a decent human being" - Prime Minister Helen
Clark.
(14 December 2001)
History of the cup
A rundown on the history of the world's oldest sporting trophy, currently
held by Team NZ.
(22 July 2001)
Kiwi leads Brits
"Most of Kiwi Andrew Longmore's working life has been devoted to the
pursuit of sailing's Holy Grail. No one has helmed more miles in an America's
Cup boat than Barnes, in racing, testing and development over five different Cup
projects; no one can bring the same breadth of knowledge to bear on a British
challenge which is already short of time."
(4 February 2001)
America's Cup turns 150
"It would have felt very wrong to have hosted a celebration of the fact
that we lost the cup in 1851, haven't seen it since and are making no attempt to
get it back," says John Caulcutt, a backer for Britain's first America's
Cup bid since 1986.
(28 January 2001)
Pdf copy
Our Cup overflowed
The America's Cup generated NZ$640 million in economic activity. Competing syndicates spent $149.2 mill, nearly
matched by $118 mill from super-yacht spectators.
(26 October 2000)
"The America’s Cup is New Zealand’s Cup" ...
exclaimed a
jubilant Peter Montgomery when New Zealand won in 1995 – and doesn’t
the world know it now. The humid Hauraki Gulf breeze not only
filled the sails of Team New Zealand to carry it to a historic 5-0 whitewash of
Prada’s Luna Rosa, but also puffed up the sports pages, technology, style, business and
travel sections of the world’s press.
(2000)
Yacht to watch this animation
You won't get the sea-breeze or the sea spray, but an internet animator from
New Zealand can almost get you to the America's Cup.
(23 February 2000)
Nuclear Physicist has designs on America’s Cup
New Zealanders say their country was built with
No.8 wire, corrugated iron and Kauri logs… what is its key to success in
high-tech battles against world technology leaders?
(25 February 2000)
|
 |
Auld Mug stays with Swiss
Alinghi has successfully defended the America's Cup, defeating Emirates
Team NZ 5-2 in the best-of-nine series. The 2007 event was the closest in
years, with the Swiss team winning the seventh race by a mere second. "Just
not enough has been the theme," said Team NZ tactician, Terry Hutchinson.
Alinghi beat Team NZ 5-0 in 2003, taking the America's Cup to Europe for the
first time in its 150-year history. Alinghi's five-strong NZ contingent - Brad
Butterworth, Dean Phipps, Warwick Fleury, Simon Daubney and Murray Jones - will
stay with the Swiss syndicate for the next America's Cup Challenge. "We're
mates and we've sailed together for years," said Alinghi skipper and
tactician Brad Butterworth in the NZ Herald. "It's very important because
that's been our career and that's been our strength. Why break it up?" The
five NZ sailors have now won the America's Cup four successive times, the first
two with Team NZ before they switched with then-skipper Russell Coutts to
Alinghi in 2000.
(5 July 2007)
Challenging times ahead for Team NZ
The NZ government has pledged $5.14 million in an effort to win back the
America's Cup. Says America's Cup Minister Trevor Mallard; "This new
funding will allow Team New Zealand to start the process of re-signing key team
members. Without it, the human capital and intellectual property built up by
Team New Zealand could disperse, putting at risk New Zealand's ongoing
participation in the America's Cup." Grant
Dalton will lead Team NZ in their efforts to recover the cup.
(6 March 2003)
Kiwi's Cup
"America's Cup? Why, we call it the Kiwi's Cup now!" An encounter with
"a proper cocky Kiwi" sees Post writer Angus Phillips ruminate
over this auld mug called the America's Cup. This year's competition sees New
Zealanders sailing and working behind the scenes on all the top boats, bringing
former team-mates face to face. Phillips: "It's not easy being from a
remote island of 4 million souls thousands of miles from anywhere when you have
to compete in the global mix against the world's superpowers […] But Kiwis,
who have proved themselves the best sailors in the world, can crow and throw
their little darts. They've earned the right."
(10 November 2002)
Auckland holding its breath
The 2002 America's Cup challengers series has begun (click here for BBC,
CNN
coverage), launched with fanfare on the streets of Auckland. The
competing teams paraded through the central city, the Swedes blasting ABBA, the
French accompanied by can-can girls. Initial race conditions have not been
nearly so exciting - for the most part winds have been either non-existent or
too powerful to sail in. But at last the weather is looking up and competition
is getting tougher. Says Yachting World: "the race for bottom [...]
is becoming as keenly contested as the race for top." Larry Ellison fires
it up in the New York Times.
(October 2002)
Counting down and counting up
The 31st America's Cup is 13 months away, but the Hauraki Gulf is already a
hive of activity as 10 syndicates prepare to battle for the Auld Mug. And
Government puffs up Team NZ's sails with a cash
injection. Says Helen Clark, "Team New Zealand has not only been a
wonderful ambassador for NZ but their success also had a positive impact on the
country".
(5 January 2002)
The Viking
People from around the world pay tribute to sailing great,
Sir Peter Blake, a man who inspired a generation of New Zealanders, through his
deep love of the sea, his constant willingness to take up the challenges it
offered, his courageous personality, and his dynamic leadership skills. "He had the well being of all humanity and the planet in his heart.
He will be long loved and remembered".
Tributes to Sir Peter can be found at The
Independent, The
Washington Post, The
Los Angeles Times, The
Times, Reuters.com,
The
New York Times, The
Guardian, and The
Financial Times.
(6 December 2001)
Magic lives on
Six years ago the Black Magic team completed their historic 5-0 sweep of the America's Cup.
(13 May 2001)
Coutts coming
The Swiss syndicate headed by
Russell Coutts has been cleared to challenge in 2003, after doubts about the
legality of the entry.
(6 December 2000)
Barker on Pace
Team NZ skipper Dean Barker tops the November World Match Race Rankings,
beating his lieutenant Bernard Pace into second place.
(21 November 2000)
Dean's decision
Dean Barker, Team New Zealand skipper, had ten minutes to make up his mind
to take the hottest seat in sailing.
(September 2000)
US venture capitalists eye Kiwis
New Zealand's win of the
America's Cup confirmed its yachting prowess. Now the country wants to be
known for its high-tech wares.
(7 March 2000)
America’s Cup: New Zealand style
"Is this Monte Carlo, Rio de Janeiro, Cannes
or Santa Catalina, the playground of California’s rich and famous?"
Auckland, New Zealand’s "City of Sails", must have been tourism’s
best-kept secret destination – the Pacific’s own Riviera – up until
now.
(12 March 2000)
That auld mug? Why should anyone care?
"No wonder the Kiwis hate us. This week, Team New Zealand became
the first syndicate to successfully defend the America's Cup in its 149-year
history, and the Australian media barely bothered to acknowledge it." The
trans-Tasman perspective.
(8 March 2000)
Week of glory for New Zealand
"Little New Zealand" has done it again. A country
of less than 3.8 million people has once again proved how talented it is
at sports.
(5 March 2000)
Special reserve drinks from the cup of victory
Week in the Life: Dean Barker, Yachtsman.
(4 March 2000)
The Little Nation that Could
Enough said (really!)
(3 March 2000)
|
|
LV victory sees America's Cup rematch
Emirates Team
NZ has demolished Luna Rossa 5-0 to win the Louis Vuitton Cup. Team NZ will
now meet Swiss defender Alinghi in the America's Cup best-of-nine series,
beginning June 23. In stark contrast to their usual reserved appearance, the
Team NZ crew jumped up and down and cheered as they finished 22 seconds ahead of
the Italian challenger. "This is our ticket to the America's Cup which is
why we're here, so it was a huge relief once we crossed the line," said NZ
trimmer Tony Rae. The stage is now set for a rematch of the 2003 series, when NZ
lost the America's Cup to Alinghi. In other Team NZ news, the team's mystery
backer was recently revealed to be Swiss-Italian millionaire businessman Matteo
de Nora. De Nora has been involved with Team NZ since 2003. After that year's
disastrous campaign, de Nora persuaded a syndicate of wealthy America's Cup fans
to help finance the struggling NZ challenge. In addition, his family-owned
fuel-cell company, Gruppo
de Nora, has secretly spent two years developing lightweight batteries to
power the electronics on Team NZ boats, giving them a noticeable weight/speed
advantage.
(7 June 2007)
Power steering for Coutts
The victorious Alligni campaign was
described by Larry Ellison, head of Oracle as, "a fine Swiss watch with a
few Kiwi parts", none more influential than helmsman
Russell Coutts. The win establishing him as one of the greatest sailors in the
long history of the event, becoming the first skipper to win the America's Cup
for two countries and setting the record for overall wins with 14, breaking a
tie with Dennis Conner. "I am a New Zealander. Make no bones about
that," Coutts said during the champagne-splashed tow back to port.
"But I am immensely proud of what we've achieved at Alinghi. It's been a
lot of hard work for me, and as a professional sailor, frankly, I'm proud of
what I've done." Bertarelli heaped praise on his Aotearoa advantage: “I
think New Zealand should be proud of these sailors,” he said. “Think about
it . . . you guys produced sailors who have won 15 America’s Cup races in a
row and are still undefeated.”
(02 March 2003)
"Billionaires behaving
badly"
Uncooperative wind and
weather has made for a rather patchy America's Cup series so far. Luckily,
viewer-distraction has been provided in the form of feuding billionaires.
Sports Illustrated: "Yachting has never been a sport for the masses,
but now it's become the last refuge for our techno-royals." Oracle's Larry
Ellison neatly sums up the "tycoons-in-Topsiders" approach:
"Whatever I want, I get. That's the beauty of being worth $26 billion. I
thoroughly recommend it."
(5 December 2002)
America's Cup: Billionaires and espionage
"Yacht racing has been compared to tearing up $10 bills while standing
in the shower. In the case of America's Cup racing, make that $1,000
bills." Time Magazine delves into the high rolling depths of international
yachting with a feature on America's Cup excess. Auckland is painted as a city awash with old and new money, the competition having snared such
high-profile investors as Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, and shipping
magnate, Vincenzo Onorato. The 2002 challenge opened with accusations that OneWorld
stole three of the other
teams' design secrets. As the piece concludes, "dueling on the high
seas would be nothing without an element of skullduggery."
(28 October 2002)
America's Cup build-up
Team NZ captain Dean Barker beat ex-boss Russell Coutts 3-0 in the Swedish Match
Cup finals. Coutts is heading Alinghi, Switzerland’s America’s Cup
challenger. In other Cup news, Team New Zealand launch
the first of their new generation of racing yachts (NZL81) and Dennis Connor’s
newest yacht – Stars & Stripes – sank
a mile offshore from Long Beach, California.
(8 July 2002)
America's Cup lead-up
Update on the preparations of the American and British Challengers for the
Louis Vuitton cup in October next year.
(16 May 2001)
America's Cup 2003
See the ranking of the announced and unannounced contenders for the next
America's Cup as judged by ESPN celeb Gary
Jobson. Team New Zealand is the favourite and is ranked number one
based on management, funding, design, talent and expectation amongst other
things.
(2001)
Oracle speaks
Flippin heck, the Chris Dickson-skippered boat for Larry Ellison's Oracle
America's Cup challenge does an unchartered turn during a training run on the
Waitemata. The boat's 21- ton keel "inexplicably sheared off".
(23 November 2000)
Team NZ pickup Pace
Having carried off
the wine prizes, we’re now taking skippers. Bertrand Pace, who
skippered the French boat in the last America’s Cup, has signed on with Team
NZ. "I am very pleased and excited to join the defending team," Pace
said after a meeting with New Zealand skipper Dean Barker to finalise the deal.
(7 September 2000 )
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em: It's the American way
"Let's face it American's hate to lose at anything, from tiddlewinks on
up, and we had come to view the America's Cup as our personal possession. But
then New Zealand hung us by the mizzenmast ... our pride has been
seriously stung". But Bill Gates .."Have we no shame?"
(9 May 2000)
New Zealand sweeps up
Dean Barker, a fresh-faced 26-year-old backup
skipper and Russell Coutts's protege, helmed Team New Zealand to its second
America's Cup win yesterday, beating Italy's Prada by 48 seconds to sweep the
series, 5-0
(2 March 2000)
Black Magic shatters
the spell
New Zealand goes wild as the oldest trophy in sport stays down under.
(3 March 2000)
Break up the Kiwis: rout of Prada complete
"Will it be another 130 years before anyone can wrest the cup from the
Kiwis?" The extensive New York Times coverage of the America’s Cup.
(Feb-Mar 2000)
|
|
NZer heads Italian challenge
Anthony Romano is one of many New Zealanders with divided loyalties in this
year's America's Cup. Born in Nelson to second-generation Italian immigrants,
Romano has spent most of his working life in Italy and is now general manager of
the country's America's Cup challenger, Luna Rossa. "Growing up [in
Nelson], we had a big family ... We ate a lot of pasta and listened to a lot of
Italian music. I feel very much Italian but also very much Kiwi," he said
in a recent NZ interview. Prior to his role at Luna Rossa, Romano held senior
positions with Deloitte and Touche (NZ) and Timberland Europe before moving up
from CFO to managing director at Calvin Klein's European head office. Romano is
one of a large group of NZ-born sailors, technicians and officials working for
international America's Cup challengers.
(12 May 2007)
"The America's Cup is ..."
... off to Switerland. Team
New Zealand, led by Dean Barker and defending the Cup for the second time, were
eventually beaten 5-0 by the Swiss syndicate Alligni, led by Kiwis, skipper
Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth. Losing
hurts for Team New Zealand who experienced gear failure in 2 out of the 5
races, but the team, marshalled by a dignified Barker and a defiant Tom Schnackenberg
promises to be back to challenge
for the Cup wherever the Swiss syndicate, headed by Ernesto Bertarelli, decides
to host it outside of landlocked Switzerland (returning it to Europe for the
first time since 1851). The loss of the Cup also means new
challenges for Auckland, without the boost that the Cup provided to the city in
the financial and attention economy
stakes.
(02 March 2003)
Kiwi vs Kiwi
Team New Zealand will face the Swiss challenge Alinghi in the America's Cup
finals in February, setting up a match up between Alinghi skipper Russell
Coutts and his understudy when he was at the helm of Team New zealand, Dean
Barker. Alinghi defeated Larry Ellison's Oracle 5-1 to win the Loius Vuitton Cup
and earn the right to challenge Team NZ. Oracle was skippered by Kiwi Chris
Dickson and the boat designed by Bruce Farr.
(21 January 2003)
ABC: Auckland Billionaire's Club
Warren St. John backgrounds the moguls and money questing for the America's
Cup, pondering at the 'pet projects' of sporting tycoons like Larry Ellison:
"they have hired the best sailors money can buy, sometimes moving them at
the last minute to comply with the Cup's requirement that crew members reside in
the country they represent. The result is an America's Cup that is more
personality than nationality. [...] New Zealanders have reacted to the onslaught
of billionaires with a kind of befuddled glee. "We have suffered for years
for our isolation," said Paul Holmes, a popular television host here,
"so when people like this come here, we're pleased. Katana [Ellison's
luxury yacht, above] is the stuff of fairy tales to us. It's madness, but we love
it."
(06 October 2002)
Sir Peter Blake honoured at World Sport Awards
Sir Peter has been posthumously given both the Laureus Lifetime Achievement
Award and the Laureus Sport for Good Award at the 2002 World Sports Awards in
Monte-Carlo. Sir Peter, was a founding member of the Academy of 44 international
sporting greats along with former AB captain Sean
Fitzpatrick.
(May 2002)
Olympic Honours
The International Olympic Committee will award the Olympic
Order to Sir Peter Blake, one of its highest honours. IOC President Jacques
Rogge declares Blake "one of the most gifted and successful yachtsmen in
the world".
(12 December 2001)
Precision boat
Details of the construction Louis Vuitton challenger Young America, designed
by Aucklander Bruce Farr.
(3 January 2001)
Again?
Talk of a pre-America's cup Team New
Zealand-Prada
rematch.
(2 January 2001)
Cup challenge
Seattle
telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw is sending a team to
challenge for the cup - American sailors well leavened with ex-Team NZites.
(14 January 2001)
Conner on
Dennis Conner will skipper the New York Boat Club's
2003 challenge, hoping to end the Cup's twenty-year residence away from the
NYYC.
(30 November 2000)
Conner cautious
Dennis Conner will be in Auckland contesting the Cup in 2003, but he sure
isn't feeling complacent: "There's so much depth of talent in New
Zealand...They'll still be difficult to beat, " he told the NY Times.
(22 October 2000)
Black Magic casts its spell; all New Zealand celebrates
Skipper Russell Couts always put the emphasis on 'team' in Team New Zealand,
and today, he gave an understudy the glorious job of winning the America's Cup
...
(2 March 2000)
Ciao for now New Zealand
Beaten by Black Magic, Prada promises they'll be back for America's Cup
rerun. Minutes after New Zealand's Black Magic sailed past the finishing
line to clinch the America's Cup with a 5-0 whitewash ...
(3 March 2000)
They're playing monopoly
There's always been a strong connection between sailing and skiing, but
listen to what FIS officials have to say about their situation: "The
domination of the sport by the Austrians has become an increasing
concern." At this point it is idle speculation, but might we be
looking at a similar situation in the America's Cup?
(27 March 2000)
Cool hand on Deck
"Sir Peter Blake, head of Team New Zealand, is that rare thing: an
international celebrity who has remained popular in a homeland where cutting
"tall poppies" down to size is a national pastime ..."
(26 Feb 2000)
|
