KIWIS CAN'T BE BEATEN IN KENWOOD CUP

by SusanMcKeag, Champagne Mumm Media Center on 9 Aug 2000 Jury verdict on Smile cannot dislodge Kiwi score
Big Apple given equal first place by Jury

Although the International Jury of the 2000 Kenwood Cup is still
deliberating on the claim of the Australian team yacht Smile for a time
credit in compensation for the time she lost searching for a dismasted
yacht on the final 148-mile race of the series, it now seems that nothing
they can award the Australians can lift that team over New Zealand in the
final points tally. The Jury has already decided the credit to be given
to Big Apple III (Farr 45, Hideo Matsuda, NZL), the third member of the
Kiwi team and another which went to the aid of the stricken Cha-Ching
(Sydney 41, Scooter Simmons, USA). The 2hr 38min 59sec credit given to Big
Apple has lifted her into equal first place, alongside the USA Red team's
Esmeralda (Farr 50, Makoto Uematsu and Ken Read).

An important rider to the Jury's decision was that the scores of other
yachts are not affected. This means that the Kiwis add 54 points to their
already accumulated score of 491 - giving a total of 545, but that no team
shall lose points. Even if Smile is given a similar amount of credit,
taking her also to an equal first place, the maximum points she can earn is
also 54 - which maintains the 24 point differential in New Zealand's
favour.

So, ALTHOUGH ALL RESULTS ARE STILL UNOFFICAL UNTIL AFTER THE JURY
ANNOUNCEMENT, UNOFFICIALY it can be said that the Kiwis have won the Cup.
Mathematically, there is no way now that Australia can amass a higher
points score.

This is New Zealand's first sucessful defence of the Kenwood Cup, which
they last won in 1998 and before that in 1986 - the first time the Kenwood
Cup was competed for.