There are two red boats in Auckland. Are they a metaphor or a genuine explanation of what seems to be a lopsided Louis Vuitton Cup final in which Alinghi has Oracle BMW on the ropes?
The boats are NZL 20, the fourth and final boat Bruce Farr designed for Michael Fay's New Zealand Challenge of 1992 and Steinlager 2, Peter Blake's Farr-designed Whitbread winner, known to her crew as Big Red.
Actually, Steinlager 2 is only half the hull plug attached to the side of the Auckland Maritime Museum but NZL 20 is real enough, ashore for work in the Victory Challenge base in the Viaduct Basin. She still has the bowsprit which led directly to her downfall in the '92 challenger final against Il Moro di Venezia but the tandem keel is missing.
Il Moro skipper Paul Cayard, remember, was terrier-like in arguing that the way the Kiwis used the bowsprit was illegal and managed to get the vacillating challengers' jury to change their mind; the distraction of it all derailed the Kiwis. Yet the defining feature of NZL 20 was neither keel nor bowsprit, it was her light displacement/low sail area.
It's a corner of the America's Cup Class rule to which Bruce Farr has remained faithful, to a greater or lesser degree, via TAG Heuer in 1995 and the Young America boats in 2000. And Oracle BMW's USA 76 is generally considered a boat with smaller sail area than the consensus. She has come into the final with another 5m2 of mainsail area, a third hike since the trials began on 1 October.
Like NZL 20, USA 76 exhibits a nice action in the water. Just ambling around the start area before the 10 minute as the crew ping the committee boat and pin GPS co-ordinates, the boat looks light on her feet and fast.
Compare that to the Rolf Vrolijk-designed Alinghi boat SUI 64. She lumbers around and displays a downspeed vulnerability. And yet, in two races now, SUI 64 has shown that up the first beat she has the horsepower and height to dominate. Breakdowns and wind anomalies excepted, you don't really see Alinghi losing a race.
Which takes us back to Steinlager 2. She was the longest and heaviest maxi in the 1989/90 Whitbread, set a cloud of sail and won six legs out of six. Alinghi? Well, she's one of the longest and heaviest boats in the Challenger fleet and sets a cloud of sail.
She has the measure of Oracle BMW and by using old sails and not over-stressing the boat, Russell Coutts and his crew are sailing within themselves. Team New Zealand's 'hula' bolt-on bustles are seen as a game-winning development but come the 31st America's Cup match, wouldn't it be a prospect to savour that Alinghi's pace might permit a really close contest?
Tim Jeffery, 14 January 2003
