Bad day gets worse for Cup holders 'Team New Zealand'<\/p>\n
Paul Tait, Reuters, Auckland, New Zealand<\/p>\n
The first day of holder Team New Zealand's America's Cup defense
\nagainst Swiss challenger Alinghi began badly and got steadily
\nworse as their hi-tech boat suffered a series of breakages on
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n
Team New Zealand handed Alinghi a 1-0 lead when they pulled
\nout on the opening leg of the first race of the best-of-nine
\nseries on the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland with a broken boom, torn
\nsails and calf-deep water washing around the aft deck.<\/p>\n
Syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg estimated up to six tones of
\nwater washed into the boat, forcing it lower in the water and
\ncausing a chain reaction of gear breakages.<\/p>\n
\"We've got engineers working on it right now,\" Schnackenberg
\ntold reporters. \"We think we'll be fine but we're not taking it
\nlightly.\"<\/p>\n
The mishaps robbed thousands of eager New Zealand fans of the
\nchance to see whether the Cup holder's radical new hull design,
\nwhich features an appendage designed to increase overall
\nwaterline length and reduce drag, had a significant speed
\nadvantage over Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi.<\/p>\n
Skipper Dean Barker said his black NZL-82 boat suffered a
\nproblem with its foresail before the start of the race and it
\nquickly began taking on water in steep seas whipped up by winds
\nof up to 25 knots and thousands of spectator craft.<\/p>\n
\"It was a bit of a shock to us to have the leeward side of the
\nboat pretty much full of water after only about eight or nine
\nminutes of sailing,\" Barker told a news conference.<\/p>\n
\"It just went from bad to worse. It wasn't ideal, it was
\ndefinitely hurting us at the end,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Team New Zealand's boat was towed ignominiously back to the
\nsyndicate's base, the crew sitting in silence with heads bowed.<\/p>\n
The crew earlier bailed out calf-deep water using a blue
\nbucket normally used as a toilet but the extra weight led to a
\nseries of gear breakages, including a broken boom.<\/p>\n
\"It certainly felt like it was a losing battle there for a
\nwhile,\" Team New Zealand mid-bowman Matthew Mitchell said.
\n\"We were quite fortunate the bucket was there at all.\"<\/p>\n
The boat's mainsail also tore and the headsail blew out
\nspectacularly, forcing the Cup holders to pull out of the race
\nafter 25 minutes as Alinghi safely sailed around the course to
\ntake a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\"Typically when something does go wrong...it does load up
\nother parts of the boat,\" said Barker. \"It's pretty disappointing
\nwhen that happens.\"<\/p>\n
Barker said his crew had never seen so much water come into
\ntheir boat during their long months of training.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/bad-day-gets-worse-for-cup-holders-team-new-zealand-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}