| AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND-(25-2-2003) After four attempts to conduct Race 4 were thwarted by light and shifty winds, today it was the other end of the spectrum that put paid to the race that seemingly doesn’t want to be sailed.
Principal Race Officer Harold Bennett’s hand was forced today by a gale warning issued by the NZ MetService. A gale warning places liability for damage or injury on the organisers.
“If it’s not one thing it’s another,” said Bennett. “At the end of the day, the Marine Safety Authority would take you to task if you make a decision that would put others at risk.”
Bennett reported that winds on the inner Hauraki Gulf were from the east/southeast and steadily in the mid-20s. He said that gusts were well past 30 knots, and that the sea swell from the east peaked at 1.8 metres at one stage.
It’s the fourth consecutive day that Race 4 has been postponed to “tomorrow” and the fifth time in the last six days of the 31st Cup Match. The constant delay has some joking that Bertrand Pacé is not meant to become the first Frenchman to sail in the America’s Cup.
Skipper Dean Barker selected Pacé to replace Hamish Pepper as tactician aboard NZL-82 after the Race 3 loss.
While it’s frustrating for everyone involved, it’s far from the longest Cup Match ever.
The longest match in America's Cup history was the 18-day endurance contest in 1899 off Sandy Hook, between Sir Thomas Lipton's first Shamrock and the American Columbia, co-owned by J. Pierpont Morgan and with Charlie Barr at the wheel.
It took 11 tries between October 3 and October 20 to get the three-race series completed, with Columbia winning in a sweep, 3-0. (By prior agreement, no races were sailed on weekends.)
Just completing Race 1 took seven tries over 13 days. During that period of nearly two weeks, the 5.5-hour time limit over the 30-mile course expired three times when the lead boat was between 5 and 19 miles from the finish. On another four days, there were no starts on account of dense fog.
The 1899 match was the first ever to be filmed, but Thomas A. Edison's cameras were able to catch only a few moments of real action
The only Cup Match that came close to producing the same level of frustration was the 15-day, three-race marathon in 1903, when Reliance beat Shamrock III. That series, too, was haunted by calms and fog, though on one day, for the first time in Cup history, a race was called because of strong winds.
Throughout these tedious events of 1899, Lipton showed no strain whatsoever, except a little boredom. The marathons didn't discourage him, because he kept on challenging – four times in all.
What do the teams do when America’s Cup racing is postponed? Well, it depends on the day.
Today, for instance, Alinghi spent a few hours two-boat sailing with SUI-64 and SUI-75 on the blustery inner Hauraki Gulf. Team New Zealand practiced match-racing in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s fleet of MRXs, specially designed 34-foot match-race boats.
Dean Barker drove one boat – with Bertrand Pace, Rob Waddell, James Dagg and Jeremy Lomas. He squared off against a crew led by Cameron Appleton, practising starts and tactics.
Two other boats also sailed, working mostly on crew manoeuvres.
Yesterday, Alinghi didn’t agree to race which cancelled the day. Instead, they organised a golf outing for the international media. Earlier in the morning, a game of soccer in Victoria Park saw Alinghi’s physiotherapist and trainer Xavier Jolis break his leg. His left leg is broken in three places, and both the tibia and fibula are fractured.
Jolis’ is the third injury for Team Alinghi in the last month. Previously, grinder Christian Karcher broke his hip and back-up bowman Bernard Labro broke his collar bone.
Team New Zealand crew were seen jogging through Westhaven Marina before doing some maintenance on both boats in the afternoon.
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