Team NZ running scared- Alinghi

by Helen Tunnah on 25 Feb 2003 An Alinghi poll on the America's Cup weather delays has uncovered sailing fans who claim Team New Zealand is afraid of racing because they might lose yachting's famed trophy.

The survey, posted on their website, quotes critics questioning the impartiality of race officials and suggesting New Zealanders want the cup to stay in Auckland so hotels and restaurants can make more money.

However, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron commodore Bill Endean wonders how the New Zealand sailors and race committee can be held responsible for the weather which has stopped racing since last Tuesday, and may wreck this week's schedule as well.

'It is a great pity that the weather's gone from one extreme to the other. It is a great shame but it's just nature playing games with us.'

Alinghi lead Team New Zealand 3-0 in the America's Cup, but Swiss hopes of a swift whitewash have been crushed by poor sailing conditions.

The fourth race of the regatta was postponed for the fourth time yesterday because of unstable winds. Although there is a slight chance of racing today, gale-force winds and lumpy seas are predicted on the Hauraki Gulf until the weekend.

Race organisers predict winds ranging between 23 and 28 knots today, with gusts up to 40 knots. Similar conditions are forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

Alinghi conducted their Viaduct Harbour poll, which also reports some people supporting the weather delays, after criticisms of the event by billionaire boss Ernesto Bertarelli.

He complained after racing was called off on Sunday that the organisation of the regatta was 'like a zoo'.

He also implied there was collusion between Team New Zealand and the RNZYS who appointed one of their members, Harold Bennett, to be principal race officer.

Team New Zealand defend the cup on behalf of the Squadron.

Endean said yesterday that Alinghi were implying that Bennett's decisions were not fair. He said both teams' skippers and afterguards had attended a briefing with Bennett before racing began and agreed there should be no contest in unstable winds.

Endean said Bennett's team were professional.

'We think the criticism is totally unjustified. He [Bertarelli] is playing to an uneducated audience who didn't have the information that Harold had.

Mr Bennett said on Holmes last night that he, too, was frustrated by the delays.

Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth questioned Bennett's objectivity on the programme and said an independent racing officer would be 'a good idea for the future'.

Butterworth said he agreed with the comments of Bertarelli, who was not 'just being a spoilt billionaire'.

'Well, he's called it what he feels. He's frustrated just like us. We want to to get out there and do some racing. So it's a zoo, it's a zoo.'

When asked if he had doubts that Bennett was being objective and trying to get conditions that suited both the teams, Butterworth said: 'I don't think he's being objective. I think he's doing his job as principal racing director for the [Royal New Zealand Yacht] Squadron and he's got responsibilities to a lot of people.'

Mr Bennett said he was 'not sure' about Butterworth's criticism.

'I'm not sure what he's thinking about there. [The] role that was given to me as a principal race officer was to run good races. Following the discussion that we had with both teams before the event started, we agreed that they would want to sail in reasonable conditions and that's certainly not the sort of thing that we have been looking at out there lately.

'The defender is the one that runs the America's Cup. Now that may well change but at the present time we are running by the way it's written.'

He had received hate mail as well as the criticism from Alinghi for his decision to postpone the racing, and said it had mainly been coming from the United States.

'I think a lot of that is from people offshore who are not understanding the total picture and we read it and bin it, and that's the end of it. I think it's people who are frustrated just the same as we are frustrated.'

If racing is blown out over the next three or four days, organisers will consider racing every day, including on all lay days and reserve days.