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SCUTTLEBUTT 509 - February 20, 2000

SPECIAL WEEKEND 'BUTT!

AMERICA'S CUP: TEAM NEW ZEALAND TAKES FIRST RACE
The 30th America's Cup started in 8-10 knots of Southerly wind. Team New Zealand (NZL-60) and Luna Rossa (ITA-45) finally lined up in a highly anticipated race. The pre-start was fairly active, with Kiwi skipper Russell Coutts forcing a first and then a second dial-up, holding his counterpart Francesco de Angelis, on Luna Rossa, head to wind near the starting line, never giving up the right hand side. But with 30 seconds to go before the start, de Angelis was able to force Coutts to tack away. He soon tacked back, and both boats started on starboard tack, with Luna Rossa having to pinch up to clear the starting pin.

With Team New Zealand in a strong position slightly to windward, the boats raced out towards the left side of the course. But Luna Rossa showed good height, and was able to creep up close to leeward of the black boat, so Coutts tacked away. De Angelis followed him, Luna Rossa now in the windward position. As the wind shifted left, the Italians slowly lifted to a position of advantage. When Coutts tacked and the boats converged, Luna Rossa was able to tack directly in front of the Defender. Team New Zealand was forced back to the right. But Coutts kept tacking back at the Challenger, and the boats would separate and then converge. On each split, Team New Zealand was able to make small gains. After the fourth tack, Coutts held the lead and the Italians couldn't get back to a leebow position, tacking a boatlength to leeward and abeam of the black boat. Team New Zealand leveraged that small advantage by sitting to windward of Luna Rossa, pushing the Italians to the left layline. Twice, de Angelis attempted dummy tacks by luffing into the wind before falling back on his course. But Coutts wasn't fooled. By the time the boats reached the top mark, the black boat was 22 seconds ahead. At the windward mark, Team New Zealand did a bear-away set with its asymmetrical spinnaker. Luna Rossa looked sure to follow as de Angelis set his spinnaker pole on the port side for a bear-away set, but the Italians executed a gybe set, a dummy that is possible with asymmetrical spinnakers. The gybe set allowed Luna Rossa to gain separation early on the downwind leg, but the Italians had to sacrifice some distance to get it. Coutts gybed shortly after Luna Rossa rounded the mark, and held position to leeward of the Italians. When de Angelis gybed, Team New Zealand gybed directly in front of the silver boat to protect its position, six boat lengths ahead. The black boat displayed good pace downwind, and Coutts held a 36-second lead after the first lap of the course.

On the second beat, Team New Zealand used its lead to pick windshifts and stretch even further. Luna Rossa tacked around the leeward mark and Coutts tacked to cover as both boats pushed out to the right. De Angelis and his tactician, Torben Grael made a few attempts to tack out of coverage, but Coutts held firm, and slowly exerted a push to the layline on the Italians. Both boats overstood the starboard tack layline to the mark and Team New Zealand led a long parade into the mark, rounding 1:03 ahead. On the second run, Luna Rossa found an opportunity to close the gap a little bit. Both boats pressed out to the right side of the course, and the Italians gybed first near the layline. Coutts gybed at the same time, but because he was positioned to weather he found himself in less wind pressure. De Angelis was able to sail deeper and halve the lead before Team New Zealand found similar wind again. Grael called for another gybe and Luna Rossa crossed behind the black boat before Coutts gybed to cover. Both boats extended across the layline for the mark and Team New Zealand held a much smaller 25-second lead when the boats eventually rounded the bottom mark.

The final beat was a great leg for Team New Zealand. Coutts' position of coverage gave him the inside on a long, slow left-hand shift as the boats raced out to the right. De Angelis tried a couple of times to escape, but Team New Zealand covered tightly and the Italians were again pushed out to the starboard tack layline early in the leg. The long starboard tack up to the mark also worked in the black boat's favour as Team New Zealand exploited better pressure to again point a little higher. Coutts gained 41-seconds to take a stranglehold on the race.

The last run to the finish saw Team New Zealand stay between Luna Rossa and the finish line. Coutts and his tactician Brad Butterworth never let the Italians split very far before gybing to cover and their big lead was never threatened. Team New Zealand won the first race of the best of nine America's Cup Match. -- America's Cup Press Center

Official America's Cup site at http://www.americascup.org Great articles and commentary there from John Bertrand, Chris Law and others on the Quokka Sports team.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Bob Fisher
It is the first race of the America's Cup on Auckland's beautiful Hauraki Gulf. The sun shine and the sky is dappled with small, white, fleecy clouds. The breeze is out of the south and because of this the sea is flat. The conditions are exactly those which all the pundits have predicted would be perfect for Francesco de Angelis at the helm of the Italian masterpiece, Prada's Luna Rossa.

The challenger has had to wait five years for this magic moment - even an extra day when the wind failed to materialise on the day originally scheduled for the 30th Defence of the America's Cup to commence - and the perimeter of the course is lined with around two and a half thousand vessels of all sizes and shapes from a cruise liner to aluminium dinghies with outboard motors. After all, it is a Sunday in the City of Sails and the locals want to see their heroes in action; even a glimpse would be enough, more would be just perfect.

Enter the "Silver Bullet" from the pin end of the line to tackle the resident gunslinger, Kiwi Skipper, Russell Coutts, in his threateningly black boat with his highly charged crew in their black and grey lycra kit. De Angelis once had the women of New Zealand on his side, they had voted him the second most sexy man to Latin singer, Ricky Martin, but now even they have changed, and with patriotic fervour are all for Coutts.

The former world match racing champion has many things on his side, and with narrowed eyes begins to defend the trophy which he and his crew had won in San Diego without hardly a shot being fired by the other side. Fourteen of the sixteen aboard this Black Magic were on the winning boat five years ago and their addition five years of constant practice will become increasingly evident.

De Angelis stands tall, both physically and metaphorically; he doesn't wilt at the prospect ahead. Instead, he emerges from the pre-start manoeuvres with a half boat length lead. Coutts, however, is biding his time. He has the right hand side and keeps forcing the Italians to the left and eventually produces the perfect strategy when he is half a length up and is approaching his opponent on the opposite tack.

All those years of match racing experience were suddenly to be turned to advantage. Coutts, ever so slightly, put the wheel down and gained a little speed. As de Angelis tacked to leeward, the wheel of Black Magic turned the other way and with the extra speed, Coutts was a length and a half ahead. Game, set and match - de Angelis never came back from that.

The hordes cheered and when Black Magic returned to the dock, the greeting was total cacophony with blaring horns and the crowds lining the docksides cheering the local boys as if they had already retained the Cup.

Ashore there was an expectant hush in the Louis Vuitton Media Centre where the world's press was eager to find out first hand from Coutts just how he had managed to make it all look so easy. Coutts had other ideas and arrogantly refused to turn up to the regular post-race press conference. His representative explained than both he and tactician, Brad Butterworth, were busy at a de-brief.

De Angelis and his tactician, Torben Grael, were there, even in defeat; so too was ISAF President, Paul Henderson, who sagely shook his head and said, 'Russell should have been here. It's bad that he is not.'

Where the Hell was Coutts when the world wanted to ask him questions? Certainly not where he should have been. -- Courtesy boats.com and sailingsource.com

PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES:
Simon Daubney, Genoa Trimmer for Team New Zealand, on winning today: "We're very happy after the long, long wait to finally go racing today, and we're very happy with the result. It was a good race. It was pretty interesting on that first beat as well - pretty interesting in the start too. I think its going to be a good contest. The boats seem pretty even in speed and the teams seem to be in a pretty high state of readiness. It's all on, I think."

Francesco de Angelis, Skipper of Luna Rossa, on the third crossing on the first beat: "Most of the race was theirs. They were able to get a righty puff, with a lot of pressure. They came down with a lot of speed so we weren't able to leebow as we had done with a couple of tacks before. After that, they sailed very well. This was a race where you could make a little gain as well, being in front."

Torben Grael, tactician of Luna Rossa, on whether Luna Rossa could cross on the first beat: "The second cross was the best one for us but still it would have been very scary to cross them, especially against those very experienced guys. It was early in the race and we shouldn't risk a cross like that. We tacked to leeward and we lost after that. But I think we wouldn't have been able to cross anyway."

Warwick Fleury, mainsheet trimmer for Team New Zealand, on whether it was an easy win: "No, it wasn't easy. Races like that in those conditions come down to whoever gets a little jump sometimes. I think, as Francesco said, once a boat got ahead, there were opportunities to extend, especially upwind. I think that's what happened. It goes back to that crossing situation. If Prada had been able to squeak across, then it may have been a different result."

Warwick Fleury, on why Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth were absent from the press conference: "They've got a lot on. This is our first race, of course, and I think they wanted to spend some time together, debriefing amongst themselves."

Warwick Fleury, on whether Coutts and Butterworth will attend future press conferences: "I don't know."

Francesco de Angelis, Skipper of Luna Rossa, on how it feels to lose: "It's a beginning. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. It would be nice if it would have been the opposite (result) but it's just the first day. You know, if we go back to that cross, if we could have put a leebow that would stick, it could have been a different day."

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ST. PETE NOOD
St. Petersburg (Fla.) - The scene this morning at the second day of the St. Petersburg Sailing World NOOD Regatta looked dire. Tampa Bay was flat and glassy. The breeze was virtually nonexistent. And instead of rigging up and getting down to business, this 123-boat fleet from six nations sat on land and waited.

It took several hours for the wind to arrive, but when it did, this fleet and its Race Committee motivated quickly. With RC personnel such as Pat Seidenspinner, Tom Farquhar, and Peter Reggio--veterans of Olympic and Louis Vuitton Cup race courses--this fleet got max value out of the afternoon southwesterlies. The System 3 starting system, where each class has a six-minute sequence, gave the RC the flexibility they needed today to roll each class quickly from one race to the next. All 16 classes completed three races in the afternoon's 7- to 9-knot southwesterlies.

The pace may have been dizzying as the fleet cycled quickly around the windward-leeward courses. But some contenders had no problem maintaining their equilibrium to remain perfectly balanced at the apex of their classes. -- Cynthia Goss

Full story and results at www.sailingworld.com

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (scuttlebutt@boats.com -- note temporary address for guest editor)

Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude personal attacks. But only one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree.

-- From Larry Edwards, on comments from Tom Donlan, Richard Gladwell, et al.

The notion of staging preliminary America's Cup races somewhere other than the site of the Cup match is unrealistic. The AC is fundamentally a design contest, and the boats are designed for the wind and sea conditions anticipated in the Cup match. A fast boat in preliminaries in, say, San Diego, Long Beach, or Newport, could be a dog in Auckland or the Med. So, too, does the notion of limiting the challengers to 12 defy logic. For starters, when would the 12 be selected? At the time the challenges are accepted, when anyone with a fax machine and a small bank account can challenge? Or would the challengers have to "prove" themselves with X millions of dollars in the bank. It is a self-selecting process, and presuming that anyone could predict who the most competitive teams will be in advance is foolish. Witness Young America versus Team DC, America True and Le Defi Francais.

As for crew nationality issues, that came with the 12-metre era. Prior to that, most crews were professional seamen hired to sail the boats. If it weren't for Norwegian fishermen, Sir Thomas Lipton would have been crewless

for at least one AC match. The boat and equipment nationality issue has been so watered down in the interest of "fair" (as opposed to friendly) competition, that it probably ought to be discarded all together, or become

hardline, no exceptions. But if the latter happened, the U.S. would dominate again and it might take a millennium, rather than 132 years to wrest the Cup away again.

-- From Ed Smyth
I believe the traditional Maori war dance meant to intimidate the enemy is called a Haka not a Waka. You may forward my plane tickets to Detroit and I

will be happy to leave this snow behind and join you in sunnier climes.

-- From Chuck Skewes
While I think Ross was correct with his view on the usefulness of a Code 0 headsail. But in what I have seen in the ability of the crews and the size of the spinnakers, they would never be able to pull it off. While the Farr 40 fleet is taking the spinnakers down while the boats are overlapped with the leeward mark the AC take down 4 boat lengths from the mark and are not finished by the time the boat is going upwind. If a AC boat tried to change to a code 0 while engaging another boat it would be nothing short of a disaster and they would be left behind. Not to mention taking down the code 0 and putting up the genoa. It is my opinion that the boats are much to hard to sail to be able to sail well.

-- From Bob Biegler
I'm old! 68 and still racing my twelve foot Butterfly scow on White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas and sometimes winning. But the one thing that really started me racing way back when that I think is missing from the current AC is the gentlemanly attitude and deportment of the people involved, both on and off the water. Lipton, Cunningham, Bavier and other early skippers were my models and heroes. I don't see that in today's crop of top match racing skippers. It has become a blood sport where winning is everything no matter how. Come on guys, it's just a game! Let's return to true seamanship among competitors which used to include being a gentleman.

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THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS
It's not enough to be on the right track -- you have to be moving faster than the train. - Rod Davis, Seahorse magazine

Note: Nelson Weiderman has created a "Curmudgeon Server" at http://noeticharbor.com/curmudgeon/. It randomly pulls Curmudgeonly wit from a database loaded with past 'Butt Observations, Counsels, etc. Check it out!