TMZ (Americas Cup) loses more key people

by Greg Ford - Sunday Star Times on 16 Mar 1999 Team New Zealand continues to bleed. The Kiwi America's Cup syndicate has lost two more key members to Oracle, this time its shore crew. Sail designer Robert Hook and the boss of Team New Zealand's sail loft Craig Phillips have defected.

Hook was righthand man to chief sail designer Burn Fallow. Phillips, a member of Australia's foremost sail-making family, took care of the team's day-to-day sail operations and maintenance. Although New Zealand is blessed with hundreds of top notch sail-makers, the pair's departure is a blow. The Larry Ellison-owned, Russell Coutts-skippered syndicate will now be privy to many of Team New Zealand's design ideas.

Oracle hired crew member Jono Macbeth last year and TNZ boss Grant Dalton confirmed about a third of his team are on the market having been laid off while the cup remains in limbo due to court action. The best, such as Phillips and Hook, are being snapped up by Coutts and are effectively taking knowledge with them.

Before last year's America's Cup, Phillips featured in a Sunday Star-Times article explaining how Kiwi know-how was alive and well in the team's design innovations. He also tipped the Sunday Star Times newspaper into a story about his new employer's sail secrets.

Oracle used airbag technology pioneered by German car manufacturer BMW todesign inflatable battens on its headsail in the last cup. Team New Zealand, according to Phillips, used bike inner tubes and pumps as inspiration because the team's budget was comparatively much smaller. And it's now that budget which is coming under the microscope here and overseas, making it one of the most unsettling phases in Team New Zealand's history.

Outwardly nothing would appear amiss. Dalton even took the surprise step last week of joining the legal arguments deciding the fate of the cup. Ellison and Ernesto Bertarelli have been duelling in the New York Supreme Court over when and where the next regatta should be held.

Dalton muddied the waters by issuing a writ against Bertarelli, saying Team New Zealand entered the regatta contingent on an agreement with the Swiss billionaire, which he subsequently broke. Dalton called in the lawyers taking everyone, including Alinghi, by surprise. In an interview with yachting commentator Peter Montgomery, Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth said it was an act of desperation because Team New Zealand were on the brink of going 'bust'.

Whether that was sour grapes or not is unclear. Dalton says times are tough 'but they always are'. However, South African and German syndicates that sailed in the last cup and had entered the 33rd edition, on the provision it went ahead in 2009, went bust during the week. Although court action was pending they could not hold on any longer and there is strong suspicion Britain's highly-touted team, bankrolled by Sir Keith Mills, will be the next to fold.

Like Dalton, Mills has put key staff, including skipper Ben Ainslie, on retainers. But as prominent sailing blogger Magnus Wheatley put it during the week: 'You can only get kicked in the balls so many times until it begins to hurt and poor Keith may as well just give the money to charity or burn it ... it would be quicker and far less painful. With Team New Zealand putting a giant spanner in the works with an additional court case, we could be looking at years and years before another full AC regatta gets underway.'