Team Site

Managing Director:
Grant Dalton

Skipper:
Dean Barker

Training Bases:
Auckland, NZ
Valencia, Spain

Designers:
Marcelino Botin
Clay Oliver
Andy Claughton

Giovanni Belgrano Vincent Geake Masanobu Katori

Sailing Team:
Skipper:
Dean Barker

Tactician:
Terry Hutchinson

Strategist:
Ben Ainslee

Navigator:
Kevin Hall

Runner:
Grant Dalton

Runner / Pit:
Tony Rae

Traveller:
Adam Beashel

Main Trimmer:
Don Cowie

Trimmer:
Grant Loretz

Trimmer:
James Dagg

Grinder:
Jono McBeth
Rob Waddell
Chris Ward

Pit:
Jared Henderson

Mast:
Mathew Mason

Mid Bow/Sewer:
Richard Meacham

Bow:
Jero Lomas

Additional Crew:
Rod Davis
Andy Hemmings
Nick Heron
Kelvin Harrap

Management:

Sailing Manager: Kevin Shoebridge

Official Sponsors:
Emirates
Toyota

Affiliates and Supporters:
Ernesto Bertarelli
Fisher & Paykel
Line 7
P&O Nedlloyd
Ernst & Young

	©2004 ACM/Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Kiwis Rising
Despite a disheartening defense by Team New Zealand in 2003, which left victor Alinghi looking superior in almost every regard, the two-time cup winners have rallied back.

Their performance in the Louis Vuitton Acts to date has established ETNZ as solid first-tier competitor.  They won Act 2 (match racing), losing only once.  They were a close second to Alinghi in Act 3 taking first in half of the fleet races, though the placing also brought ETNZ enough points to earn the 2004 ACC World Championship. 

2005 finds the New Zealanders right near the top again, ending up narrowly second, third, and fourth in various Acts, trading blows with the other two members of the "Big Three" challengers group: BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa. In Act 4, ETNZ lost only one match race, to Act 4 overall winner Alinghi.

Glory Days
When Team New Zealand crossed the finish line in 2000, defending the America's Cup in a resounding 5-0 "blackwash" over challenger Prada, it looked like the start of another dynasty.  No country other than the US had ever successfully defended the Cup and TNZ had smothered an Italian Challenger that had just bested Paul Cayard's AmericaOne in a 5-4 dogfight, after easily winning most of the Louis Vuitton races for 4 months.

The New Zealand boat in 2000 looked so innovative, with so much untapped potential, that she was clearly far superior to the boats produced by larger teams with bigger budgets.  Similarly, another of TNZ's expected weaknesses , namely being deprived of the head-to-head competition and boatspeed feedback that was fueling the challengers efforts over several months of Louis Vuitton racing, was overcome by intense in-house 2-boat scrimmages.  The small team from the small island nation had turned disadvantages into major advantages and once again won against the rest of the world.  Dean Barker emerged as tough competition for skipper Russell Coutts and the ensuing training showed TNZ to be an America's Cup powerhouse.  TNZ hadn't lost a race since 1995 and winning the coming defense in 2003 seemed a pretty good bet, too.

Black Days
The Kiwi's situation unraveled in short order.  Citing various frustrations between sailors and management, approximately half of the winning crew departed for Seattle upstart OneWorld Challenge along with designer Laurie Davidson and other key contributors, while Russell Coutts, Brad Butterworth, and most of the others who hadn't gone to OneWorld instead left for Alinghi.  The fact that financial rewards came with the new team uniforms wasn't lost on many people, either.

Many Kiwi's felt betrayed by the people they had come to revere, but even in the wake of these disillusionments, TNZ rallied, with Dean Barker, design guru Tom Schnackenberg, and many other team members stepping up for the 2003 campaign, which adopted a pointed "Loyal" theme as its public image.

Despite an earnest attempt at duplicating the training and technology development programs that were so successful in the 2000 defense, the 2003 America's Cup match quickly turned into a debacle for the NZ'ers.  On the very first leg of Race 1, the boat was swamped by heavy seas, halted by multiple failures of sails and rigging, and ultimately forced to withdraw.  Race 1 set the tone for the series.  Alinghi managed to best TNZ in tactics and speed as needed, and TNZ's dismasting in Race 4 only added to the frustration.  When the challenger beat the defender 5-0 to take the America's Cup off to Europe, the change in fortunes from 3 years previous was complete.

Boats:

NZL-81
Designer: Clay Oliver
Builder: Cookson
"HULA" hull appendage boat.
Reportedly damaged in training 2003.
Substantial internal reconstruction and reinforcement added since the 32nd defense.

NZL-82
31st Defender of the America's Cup (2003)
Builder: Cookson
"HULA" hull appendage boat.
Substantial internal reconstruction and reinforcement added since the 32nd defense.

Racing Record:
America's Cup Match: 0-5 (d. by Alinghi)

Louis Vuitton Act One:
Severely damaged onshore in storm following Act One

NZL-68
Originally GER-68 (illbruck)
Designer: Michel Richelson
Builder: illbruck team/Killian Bushe
Construction begun December 2001, halted April 2002;
Loaned to ETNZ, 2004, Modified to ACC Rule Version 5;
First Launched December 10, 2004