Youthful Crew for Team New Zealand

by Americas Cup website on 15 Feb 2003 There are just six members of NZL-82 that have previous Cup experience.

It’s the morning of the 31st America’s Cup and Auckland is abuzz. A crowd estimated at 5,000 people milled about ViaductBasin this morning, trying to catch a glimpse of the yachts and crews as they’re towed out the harbour.



A southerly wind around 20 knots is blowing this morning, raising the possibility of an on-time start at 13:15 hours.



Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has selected a rendezvous point near the north/northeast corner of the blue race circle, in the middle of the inner Hauraki Gulf.



The much-anticipated Team New Zealand crew list has been issued and it is very youthful, featuring many crew making their Cup debut.



Skipper Dean Barker has selected Adam Beashel, Peter Evans and Hamish Pepper as his afterguard. Design team member Mike Drummond will be the navigator.

Evans is easily the most experienced of the three afterguard members. The 42-year-old has three previous Cup campaigns under his belt, Team New Zealand in 2000, and Nippon Challenge in 1992 and 1995.

He represented New Zealand in the 470 class at two Olympic Regattas (Los Angeles, 1984 and Seoul, 1988). He also won the Match Race Worlds in 1992, sailing with Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts.

Pepper, 34, is Barker’s oldest friend. The two were schoolmates on Auckland’s NorthShore and later sailed Sunbursts together on the WestlakeBoysHigh School team.

Since 1997, Pepper has been Barker’s tactician for their match-race team. During the 2000 Team New Zealand defence, he was tactician for Barker on the trial horse. Because he and Barker go back such a long way, communication comes easily to them.

“We think very much the same way,” says Pepper. “Sometimes, you don’t really have to say anything to know exactly what the other guy is thinking. We can both be pretty aggressive at times and I guess when that happens we calm each other down a bit.”

Beashel is in his second Cup campaign, but in the limelight of the Cup Match for the first time.

Beashel, 34, was aboard oneAustralia when it sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean during Louis Vuitton Cup 1995 off San Diego.

His family is loaded with sailing experience. Father Ken Beashel is a two-time world 18-foot skiff champion and brother Colin is an Olympic Star Class Bronze medallist and world champion.

Of Team New Zealand’s 16 crewmembers, five have sailed in previous Cup Matches. Skipper Barker, 29, sailed NZL-60 to its Race 5 win in 2000, ensuring New Zealand as the first country other than the U.S. to successfully defend the Auld Mug.

The most experienced member of the crew is mainsail trimmer Tony Rae, 41. He competed in all 10 of Team New Zealand’s Cup races in 1995 and 2000. He’s credited with the idea of bringing the top mast backstay forward behind the rig while sailing upwind to reduce windage.

Runner/pitman Barry McKay (35) sailed in all five Cup Match races during the 2000 defence. Grinder Chris Ward (33) was aboard for Races 4 and 5 in 2000. Trimmer Grant Loretz (38) sailed Race 4 in 2000, while Drummond (40) sailed Race 5.

A new line-up graces the pointy end of the boat. Jeremy Lomas (31) makes his Cup Match debut as bowman. Mid-bowman Matt Mitchell (31), mastman Nick Heron (30) and pitman Jared Henderson (30) also are green to the Cup Match.

Legendary bowman Joey Allen, 45, is still a member of Team New Zealand but is sailing on the tune-up yacht. He was bowman in 1995 and mid-bowman in 2000.

The rest of the crew – grinders Jono McBeth (29) and Rob Waddell (28), and trimmer James Dagg (32) – all are competing in their first match.

Alinghi’s crew contains many of the individuals who helped it win the Louis Vuitton Cup last month against Oracle BMW Racing.

Skipper Russell Coutts, 40, is looking to break a 100-year-old record for most consecutive victories by a helsman.

If he can win today, it’ll be his 10th win without a loss and will break the record of nine straight set by Charlie Barr between 1899 and 1903.

He’s backed up by tactician Brad Butterworth (43), strategist Jochen Schuemann (48) and navigator/syndicate founder Ernesto Bertarelli (37).

Dean Phipps (38) and Curtis Blewett (30) man the foredeck. Francesco Rapetti (37) is the mastman and Josh Belsky (36) the pitman.

Enrico de Maria (26), John Barnitt (41), Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyzen (31) and Dominik Neidhart (34) are the grinders. Neidhart is the only new addition to the list, replacing the injured Christian Karcher.

Simon Daubney (43) is the upwind trimmer and Richard Bouzaid (37) the downwind trimmer. Warwick Fleury (41) is the mainsail trimmer and “Captain” Murray Jones (45) the mainsail traveller operator and wind spotter.