Catastrophic Rig Failure Ends Team New Zealands Reign

by Magnus Wheatley 28 Feb 2003 07:13 GMT

Photo © Bob Grieser/Louis Vuitton

Photo © Thierry Martinez/Team Alinghi

"We’ve got two big waves coming Deano," were the last words Dean Barker heard before a tip cup failure on the second spreader crushed the spreader converting the load directly onto the mast and sending the rig crashing over the side. It was leg three of the fourth race for the America’s Cup and Adam Beashel’s words will live to haunt Team New Zealand who are now 4-0 down and all but out.

The rig collapsing was really just the icing on the cake for the Kiwi’s who just couldn’t get NZL-82 in the groove, suffering all day with their mainsail grossly overpowered and inverting brutally in conditions that gusted at times to 27 knots. When the rig failed the wind was down to 17-18 knots but both TNZ and Alinghi had just emerged from a large rain-squall that had produced a vicious sea-state. With two-metre waves battering the hulls, producing enormous shock loadings on all the equipment it was TNZ who once again suffered and for the second time in the series were forced to retire.

The race itself was close but Russell Coutts was in full control, as usual, right from the five-minute gun. Entering the starting box from the unfavoured pin end with speed, SUI-64 was able to cross the black boat before leading deep down into the box for nearly two and a half minutes. Alinghi were the first to gybe around and head back to the line as TNZ tacked around a super-yacht and opted for the windward position. On the lead back in it was all about time-on-distance and once again the afterguard on Alinghi aced it, hitting the line at full speed about a metre back. Beautiful to watch! Barker started about half a boat-length back and the initial advantage was all with Coutts.

As the boats lined up on the initial drag race off the line they were punching into 16 knots of north-easterly and quickly it was Coutts who was closing the gauge to windward, sailing in a higher and faster mode despite pitching more than TNZ in the choppy seas. As the squeeze came on, the Kiwis were forced to tack away right whilst Alinghi stayed in the lift before coming back and covering. As the two boats came together again, Alinghi had seized the lead by two boatlengths and slam-dunked a tack right on TNZ’s bow again forcing them right. Three-quarters of the way to the top mark, having held the left side all leg, Alinghi cashed their chips in and crossed NZL-82 to hold the right and the starboard advantage. The Kiwis sailed over to above the port layline before coming in for their final approach to the windward mark. Alinghi duly tacked on their bow but as the two boats bore away around the mark the distance was down to just 8 seconds.

The first rain-squall of the day filtered down the track just as both boats had set symmetric spinnakers and the resultant right shift turned the run into a procession on port gybe. Alinghi’s crew aggressively worked the waves with the grinders at maximum output pumping both the mainsheet and spinnaker-guy in unison to devastating effect. At the starboard layline, Alinghi gybed first with its lead out to 110 metres but TNZ were right in the game as the wind increased to a solid 22 knots. Rounding the bottom mark, Alinghi made a poor one with the jib not in and the main flapping but they had extended to 17 seconds and quickly calmed themselves and the boat down after Coutts and Jochen Schuemann had barked out their orders to the crew. TNZ rounded with mainsail problems as the leech line wouldn’t tighten causing the back end to flutter virtually uncontrollably.

The flutter was just the start as it delaminated a batten pocket strip half way up the moulded sail. This was probably more of a distraction than anything else but still the trimmers couldn’t stop the main from inverting and didn’t seem able to put enough back-stay tension on to twist out the top of the ‘windsurfer’ main to de-power it. With the boat clearly stiff in the pitching department owing to its enormous low-slung bulb keel, the pressure was always going to be on the rig.

Still, the Kiwis refused to give up and were the first to tack off on to port tack as the rain-squall reduced visibility and the wind whipped up to 25 knots true and 27 knots in the gusts. The dreaded water problems of NZL-82 came back again despite a flimsy looking plastic sheeting just aft of the runner winch which was supposed to deflect the majority of the intake. Quickly the leeward rail was engulfed but enormous Elvstrom bailers seemed to be handling the impending crisis far better than in race one. Alinghi too had their own water problems but the conditions were on the limit to say the least. Both boats powered out towards the starboard layline as a tacking duel would be futile in the conditions and more dangerous than anything else. As the squall passed through, the race came alive again and Barker was first to tack back on to starboard and re-engage Coutts whose lead was back to around 80 metres.

Alinghi responded with a loose cover, sailing further over towards the starboard layline and as they came back both boats settled in for a drag race to mark three. It was a mark that Team New Zealand would never see. A minute later their America’s Cup dream was in tatters as the first racing rig of the 2003 tournament plunged into the water after two big waves transferred nearly 20 tons of shock loadings onto the rig. The hull shape of TNZ just couldn’t deflect the water off the bow as efficiently as Alinghi’s banana profile and their resultant slamming into two almighty waves ultimately transferred the loadings upstairs. Coutts sailed off into the distance, setting spinnakers on the next two downwind legs but eased off considerably upwind.

They’re a class, maybe even a league apart and this Cup is off to Europe without a shadow of a doubt as they recorded their fourth straight victory and are at match-point ahead of tomorrows decider. Interestingly, as the carnage on TNZ was unfolding, the on-board cameras focused in on the Alinghi crew and even with the race in the bag you could see Murray Jones talking to Russell Coutts about the wind and waves as if nothing else mattered. That’s professionalism and that’s what makes them the best in the business.

For Team New Zealand, indeed the whole country, it’s a national tragedy. The evening news was dominated by the most dramatic failure seen in this Cup so far and coming back from virtually dead is now beyond the dreams of all but the most fanatical supporters. The writing has been on the wall from race one and nothing is going to stop the Coutts juggernaut from rumbling on to record a historic victory. Incidentally it’s Russell Coutts’s 41st birthday on Saturday and I don’t think there’s any way Team New Zealand are going to ruin that party! It’s history in the making.

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