TNZ Breakdown: Minutes of a national disaster

Thirty-eight minutes after the start, Team New Zealand rounded the leeward mark for the first time, 17 seconds behind Alinghi. It was to be their last mark rounding of race 4. But while their dismasting was a most dramatic and humiliating way to lose the race, their problems appeared to start some time before the final act.

39:24 – Having sailed out from the mark on starboard Team New Zealand tack onto port, Alinghi follow suit to cover.

41:00 – A rain squall sweeps across the course and sees the breeze rise to 25knots. Both boats are having to de-power their sail plans. TNZ’s mainsail is back-winding more than Alinghi’s. TNZ look over-pressed in this strong breeze.

42:38 – On board camera footage shows a huge amount of water down to leeward on NZL-82. During the leeward mark rounding she took on two large scoops of water down the forward hatch. Extra water over the side was adding to their problems.

44:00 – Squall seems to be abating but TNZ still looking pressed.

48:30 – NZL-82 tacks onto starboard, Alinghi crosses 110m ahead.

49:21 – Alinghi tack onto starboard as the pair head out towards the port layline.

51:00 - NZL-82’s mainsail is still back-winding. The camber stripe on the mainsail has come detached and although this is only a cosmetic problem, this will be an unwanted distraction.

53:00 – SUI-64 appears to be sailing consistently higher upwind.

56:40 – Mainsheet trimmer aboard NZL-82 Adam Beashel calls ‘bad waves’ to Barker as he has been all the way up this beat. But this time the two waves are bigger than most that they’ve seen on this leg.

57:00 – NZL-82’s bow plunges into the first of two waves. As the boat pitches, the bow raises around 3m above the water’s surface before descending into a big trough at just the wrong moment, increasing the loads on the rig massively as 25 tonnes of boat decelerates. A split second later and the mast collapses, breaking halfway between the first and second spreader as a tip-cup fitting for the vertical shrouds on the underside of the second spreader gives way. Team New Zealand’s race 4 for the America’s Cup is over.

After the race, Barker’s comments suggest that the team were surprised at the number of failures that they were encountering. “We haven’t broken this much gear in such a short amount of time,” he said. “It’s always hard to put your finger on exactly why something breaks. We’re obviously pretty disappointed with the things we’ve broken up until now but we’ll have to take this on the chin once again.”

To Alinghi grinder Christian Karcher, the problems aboard the home team’s boat were much clearer. “This was all about a lack of training, preparation and time on the water. Their boat spent too much time in the shed being fine tuned ashore,” he said. “Last autumn, nearly a year ago, we wore woolen hats and went out sailing for 12 hours a day, we rarely saw them [TNZ] out there. We were ready for real street fights on the water. We are now leading 4-0 and we can't believe it.”

As New Zealand’s second black day in the America’s Cup 2003 came to a close, Schnackenberg’s passing comment on local TV was food for thought. “I think you should prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

Source: America's Cup