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Team
NZ breaks mast
(11/08/01)
(source
: NZoom) |
Team New Zealand suffered some expensive damage on
Thursday when one of its black boats broke a mast while
training on Hauraki Gulf.
NZL 57 had been preparing for a second training race when
a 25-knot squall swept across the Hauraki Gulf and skipper
Bertrand Pacé heard the sound of carbon fibre splitting
and creaking as the mast collapsed.
The mast involved was the much-vaunted Cup-winning millennium
rig which is supported by rigging running through the mast
rather than being fastened to the sides ("X rig")
and why it failed is a worrying mystery.
"It seems a little bit concerning that it's the second millennium
rig with cross-rigging arrangement that's broken in the
last couple of months, so it certainly raised some questions
about this rig concept, and we're going to have to think
pretty long and hard about what was the cause of it," said
Team New Zealand helmsman Dean Barker.
The other similar rig to fail was that on OneWorld, which
collapsed during training last month, and while the masts
can be repaired there is disappointment at the time and
money lost.
Nobody was injured on board and a spare rig is being installed
on Thursday night and, weather permitting, training will
resume on Friday. |
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Team
NZ, a technological syndicate
(10/15/01)
(source
: from
NZ Herald & Sunday Star Times by Cheryl on the 2003AC.com
Forum) |
Last year, Phonak NZ provided exclusive
waterproof earpieces free for the defenders last Cup and
plans to do the same next time around. The system can track
a moving sound and suppress it, vastly improving the quality
of sound for the hearing-impaired, who have trouble with
background noise.
This week-end, the Team annonced a sponsorship with Telecom
NZ who provided the first mobile phone with a built-in handheld
computer. Team NZ members will use the Kyocera smart phones
on the water for CDMA voice communications and will be able
to download weather information and tide charts*.
Today, SGI has reaffirmed its commitment to Team NZ for
a third America's Cup campaign, supplying more than $500,000
of hardware and support for the boat designers. "SGI started
helping us in 1994 when no one else wanted to know, so it's
part of the family," said syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg.
The UNIX workstations are used to design items like rudders,
hinges, sails and mechanical devices and to model how much
load can be put on the structures.
SGI has also installed a system in England, where hull designer
Nick Holroyd is working, and a server to manage Team New
Zealand's entire computer network. Schnackenberg said that
although increased power meant designers could ask more
of the Machines, good design still came down to instinct
and experience. |
| * Because of race rules mobile communicators
are banned during competition and are put into water tight
containers and thrown overboard before the starter gun goes
off. They are picked up by the support boats. |
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Team
NZ wins a panel case against Oracle
(09/20/01)
(source
: NZHerald)
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A cup arbitration panel has
ruled that the Team NZ own their old boats and all the information
about them. Oracle Racing queried the status of the new
Defender - suggesting they were a different corporate entity
from that which won the cup last year - and asked the panel
to clarify if that meant Team NZ could not, therefore, have
both their old boats, NZL60 and NZL57, and their design
information.
Cup rules state a syndicate cannot buy "old" boats and the
rights to "plans, specifications and design information"
for those boats from another entity. The rules were designed
to ensure syndicates have independent designers and do not
share technology.
Oracle also asked for a ruling on whether they could purchase
the design data for four yachts they had bought - the AmericaOne
and Aloha boats from the last cup's challenger series. Neither
AmericaOne nor Aloha are competing in the next cup.
The five-member panel, in an interim written ruling, said
the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron was the defender of
the cup, not Team New Zealand. It said the squadron had
submitted that Team New Zealand Ltd was its agent, and the
same entity which won the cup in 1995 and 2000. The panel
said the yachts and design information remained the property
of Team New Zealand Ltd.
In the same time, Oracle have been told they will be breaching
cup rules if they purchase the design information for AmericaOne
or Aloha boats. The panel did not say whether performance
and testing data was covered by its ruling.
It has asked syndicates to make submissions on that issue
before it releases its final ruling.
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Team
New Zealand
next Campaign Review (08/10/01)
(source
: NZHerald
& NZBussinessReview)
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It is exactly the halfway point between winning the
last America's Cup and the next defence in February 2003.
The team members' return from the America's Cup 150th
jubilee in Cowes will herald the start of the countdown
to the cup.
Lost momentum equated to time - time that should have
been spent fundraising and simply getting on with the
job of defending the cup was spent fighting to keep team
members on board and rebuilding. Since then it has been
all hands on deck to make up for lost time, working into
the night, on weekends and public holidays - even sailing
in the chill of winter - to catch up.
Financially, Team NZ have secured a little over 70
per cent of the money they need to cover the defence and
running the event. Team NZ is expected next week to name
Air New Zealand as the second of its five America’s Cup
2003 event sponsors, joining Fuji Xerox. This Monday,
Air New Zealand is inviting business representatives and
media to the Team New Zealand base for an “official announcement
of this significant partnership.” Air New Zealand and
Fuji Xerox were event sponsors during the last America’s
Cup.
Air New Zealand’s announcement will be another piece in
the funding puzzle for Team New Zealand, with the five
event sponsors crucial to its defence of the cup. The
other three event sponsors, as opposed to the family of
five that sponsor Team New Zealand, are expected to be
named before the end of the year.
Ross Blackman is confident that all the funding will be
there, under the Christmas tree. "It's absolutely brilliant
that we got the Family of Five back. It indicated to the
general market that we fulfilled our promise to our loyal
sponsors. "We couldn't have given a better signal to potential
sponsors - the people who know you the longest, love you
the most." Signing German software giant SAP was "the
icing on the cake".
New skipper Dean Barker says his sailing crew are a lot
further ahead in ability than he expected. Two-thirds
of the sailing crew this time don't know what it's like
to be part of a losing cup campaign.
The sailors meet at the gym before dawn, then have breakfast
at the base. Olympic rowing champion Rob Waddell, the
new grinder , is in charge of making sure there is enough
toast and cereal to go around. They stay out on the black
boats as long as the winds are kind, and that can be until
the sun sets.
It will be about a year before anyone gets to see
Team NZ's first battleship for 2003. The new black boats
are taking shape - at least in the mind's eye of the designers.
"We've reached the critical phase - we're narrowing down
our choices," says Mike Drummond, a principal designer
and navigator.
The design team have made four trips to England in the
past year, testing models at the Wolfson Unit at the University
of Southampton.
Designers are secretive - there's not much they will
reveal at this stage. Drummond admits, though, that they
are quietly happy with what they had learned after a year's
training in the old boats, with a few tweaks.
Sailing on the Hauraki Gulf in the last year's black boats
begins again in October, when many of the challengers
will have set up base in Auckland. Construction of the
first boat will start early next year.
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