America's Cup- NZ Rigging drops the Big Boat's mast into cafe alley

by Richard Gladwell on 2 Jul 2013
KZ-1, The Big Boat of the 1988 America's Cup fame is now on permanent display outside the Maritime Museum, and forms the predominant landmark on the Auckland waterfront.

After 18 years had lapsed, since the 1988 America's Cup Challenger had her rig checked fully, and the Maritime Museum turned to NZ Rigging to undertake the tricky task. (Maybe they had read of the great deal NZ Rigging are offering of a complete rig assessment for $150!)

Lifting the skyscraper sized spar from the 130ft yacht is no easy task in normal circumstances, let alone when the area is surrounded by a coterie of fine restaurants and cafes which remain open during the exercise.

Then the rig and massive spreaders had to be lowered into a narrow road (yes, it just fitted), before being stripped and taken by road to Hobsonville, west of Auckland for a thorough check. The task started at 8.30pm and the spar had to be off the road by 6.00am.

Sail-World was on site for the first few hours of the operation and filed these images of the night's work for Richard 'Bart' Bearda and the team from NZ Rigging.