Cup hope’s keel kept hidden

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 1

Cup hope’s keel kept hidden

PA Auckland New Zealand has stepped up its bid for the rich America’s Cup yachting trophy with the launching of the yacht it hopes will race in the final in January against the cup holder, Australia. In a week-end extravaganza, the New Zealand challenge syndicate put KZ7 — named New Zealand — in the water for the first time and raised $1 million at a special dinner.

The yacht, its keel kept hidden, was launched by Dame Naomi James, the first woman to sail solo round the world.

The new 12-metre yacht is the third launched in less than a year by the syndicate in New Zealand’s first venture into exacting and expensive America’s Cup competition.

Australia won the cup in 1983 off Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year grip on the trophy. The new craft, like its predecessors KZ3 and KZS, is built of fibreglass, continuing the radical departure from previous practice which had seen all 12-metres built from aluminium.

The “plastic fantastics” as they have been dubbed, have made New Zealand one of the favourites, with the United States, to win the right to challenge Australia for the cup off Fremantle.

The Minister of Sport, Mr Moore, said at the launching, “The America’s Cup is like peaceful war. I hope noone gets hurt, and I hope the good guys win.”

An Auckland merchant banker, Mr Michael Fay, who heads the challenge syndicate, said, “We have the best 12-metre in the

world. Now we have to take it to Fremantle and make it the fastest.’’

The new yacht was loaded on board the container ship Jebsen Southland yesterday, with the challenge’s new 18m tender launch and a helicopter on loan, for the voyage to Fremantle, where it will have its first sail in about two weeks.

The launching followed a parade through the streets of yachting-mad Auckland as bands and a carved Maori war canoe accompanied the new yacht to the water. The canoe will be shipped to Perth with the yacht to help launch it there.

The elimination series to choose which of 12 challenging syndicates will meet the Australians will begin on October 5. The Cup series will start on January 31.

Guests at the $5OO a head Auckland dinner paid an average $105,000 for each of seven solid silver replicas of the America’s Cup. An impromptu auction by a leading racehorse stud owner, Mr Patrick Hogan, saw $107,000 raised for a mare to be served by the champion stallion, Sir Tristram. Dennis Conner, the American skipper who lost to the Australian, John Bertrand, in 1983, told the dinner the world had sat up and taken notice when New Zealand, in its first 12-metre competition, had finished second in the world championship off Fremantle in February. “It seems you no longer have to serve a long apprenticeship in the America’s Cup to succeed,” Mr Conner said.