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The America's Cup is still New Zealand's cup! On Thursday March 3, 2000, New Zealand crossed the finish line 48 seconds ahead of Luna Rossa, to win the series 5 - nil. At the helm was Dean Barker, instead of Russell Coutts, the skipper who had steered the boat in all the other races. Dean Barker - the future face of the America's Cup - was paid the ultimate Kiwi compliment by his boss Russell Coutts last night. "He's not bad is he?" grinned the Team New Zealand skipper nodding towards Barker, the young man who drove the black boat to their final victory over Prada yesterday. Barker, at 26 the youngest sailor ever to steer a boat in a Cup match, sailed like an old salt - killing Prada's chances of survival before the silver Luna Rossa crossed the startline. |
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Spectator boats crowd around as the race finishes and the boats return to shore
Thousands of people go down to cheer the team as they come in
Team New Zealand and Prada sailors surround the cup |
Team NZ not only won every race but led around every mark in doing so, as they became the first team outside the US to sucessfully defend the America's Cup in its 150-year history. The Italians were very sad to lose the chance of winning the cup, but impressed everyone with their good sportsmanship. Next time, they will be the Challenger of Record, and will organise the Louis Vuitton races before the America's Cup races. Sir Peter Blake is hanging up his lucky red socks for good. The man who grew up sailing P Class boats from his backyard in Bayswater and then went on to take many other top prizes in world yachting has said yesterday's victorious America's Cup race will be his last. Sir Peter, who guided Black Magic to victory in 1995 and then this year headed the first successful cup defence outside the US, said it is not so much leaving as "moving sideways." "There are some things I want to do on a slightly different tack and hopefully they will become apparent over the next four years." What he is referring to is his new job as captain of the Cousteau Society's flagship boat, the Antarctic Explorer, which will sail the world with an environmental message for people to take care of the edges of lakes, rivers and oceans. The next defence of the cup, which will be raced in the summer of 2002 and 2003, will be run by a team of three - Russell Coutts, Tom Schnackenberg, and Brad Butterworth. In this cup they sailed the boat, but in the next one, they will manage the defence. Dean Barker is expected to be on the helm of the New Zealand boat during the next series. |