Like Clockwork

A largely unseen constant of elite sport is the pain of losing. The public sees the bowed heads and long faces of the vanquished, but not the deflation and self-doubt that can last for months. For sports people, the climb out of the pit happens faster when they can find some positives amid the gloom. In the case of the sailors of Team New Zealand, beaten by the Swiss Alinghi team last week in the America’s Cup, that should be easy.

Raced off the Spanish port of Valencia, the 32nd America’s Cup will be remembered as one of the finest. The Swiss won 5-2, which might not suggest that the best-of-nine series was all that close. In fact, it was exceptionally so, and its twists and tensions occurred at a time when the oldest event in sport was crying out for a ding-dong contest. In victory, the comments of Alinghi president Ernesto Bertarelli were tinged as much with exhaustion as elation. “It has been much harder than I ever thought it would be,” he said after SUI-100 edged out NZL-92 by 1 sec. on July 3 to complete the Swiss defence of the Auld Mug, claimed four years ago off Auckland. “I have learned more about [racing in] the America’s Cup over the last 10 days than I’d learned over the last seven years.”

In a way, the famous 1983 regatta—when Australia ended America’s 132-year domination of the Cup—was closer, with John Bertrand’s crew recovering from 3-1 down to win 4-3. But the races that year were mostly blowouts, whereas in Valencia the average winning margin was 24 sec.—about half-a-dozen boat lengths. After whitewashes at the previous three Cups, here, at last, was a series to savor. The Kiwis stunned their confident rivals by winning two of the first three races. The remaining battles were fierce and peppered with lead changes, but a slightly superior Alinghi crew proved decisive. “Right now, the guys aren’t feeling that sharp,” said Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton. “We didn’t come here to take part. We came here to win it and we haven’t done that.”

But it would be a harsh judge who condemned the crew’s showing. “They made a few mistakes on the racetrack—probably a few more than Alinghi,” says Craig Monk, a member of the Kiwis’ America’s Cup-winning teams of 1995 and 2000. “Alinghi are so experienced and they just pounced. Our guys learned the hard way against the best team in the world.”

In any search for positives, a look at the make-up of the 17-man Swiss crew is a must. It contained five Kiwis, including skipper Brad Butterworth, whom Bertarelli described amid the celebrations as “the best sailor in the world.” When another of their own, Russell Coutts, led Alinghi to victory in Auckland four years ago, New Zealanders weren’t impressed. But they may be starting to accept the realities of international sailing, where huge money tends to override national loyalties. “We’ve got 100 or so sailors on the scene and they’re all in demand for America’s Cup yachting,” says Monk, who is confident New Zealand will mount an even stronger challenge in 2009. The key, he says, will be retaining a core of the current crew—maybe 12 of the 17. “Racing is all about combinations—about how people work together,” Monk explains. “The Alinghi guys are very tight and understand each other when the pressure’s on. That’s probably what Team New Zealand lacked in the end.”

Still, New Zealand has won two of the last four America’s Cups and been runner-up in the other two. That is a better record than the country has in the next event to which it will turn its attention, September’s Rugby World Cup in France. For many Kiwis, defeat on the water is one thing. Defeat on the rugby pitch… now, that’s pain.