Monday, January 13, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
E-mail article
Print viewSailing
America's Cup: Bodyguards assigned to Alinghi team
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The Alinghi team has been assigned bodyguards at the America's Cup because of threatening letters to crewmen and their families.
Dogs trained to sniff explosives swept a news conference room Saturday before the team arrived to discuss its win over Oracle in the first race of the challenger finals.
The team received letters last month, targeting New Zealand sailors who joined the Swiss syndicate after New Zealand's successful Cup defense two years ago. A group calling itself Teach The Traitors a Lesson said it had tracked the families of the New Zealanders and threatened to harm them and their homes.
Security has been tightened at Alinghi's Auckland base, particularly for skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth. The bodyguards are unarmed under New Zealand law.
"If there was to be an incident, it would be a tragedy for New Zealand," Swiss syndicate head Ernesto Bertarelli said. Bertarelli also has full-time protection.
Many Team New Zealand sailors left the Cup defenders in 2000, but the Swiss team and Coutts remain the focus of protests. A group known as BlackHeart has paid for billboards denouncing New Zealanders who joined other teams.
Craig McCaw, the head of Seattle's OneWorld Challenge, which employed a number of New Zealanders, said he would not compete in another Cup in New Zealand because of the BlackHeart campaign.
Alinghi wins second straight
Alinghi made it two wins in a row in the America's Cup challenger final in Auckland, taking advantage of a crew error by San Francisco's Oracle for a 40-second win yesterday.
Alinghi needs three more victories in the best-of-nine series to advance to the America's Cup final in February against defenders Team New Zealand.
With the wind at 12 knots at the start, the two boats began a tacking duel that saw Alinghi push Oracle farther down the course. That reduced the American boat's options to overcome Alinghi's control of the opening windward leg.
Oracle, the faster downwind boat, made up some time on the second leg, but in a crew error broke its spinnaker pole as it rounded the second mark and trailed by 19 seconds.
The American boat lost at least 15 seconds while it retrieved the broken pole dangling off the bow and at least another 30 seconds while it lost boatspeed as it tried frantically to cut away the spinnaker dragging in the water. Alinghi never looked back.
The teams are off today ahead of races tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.
Note
• Fifteen-year-old Sebastian Clover became the youngest sailor to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic. The British schoolboy completed the 2,700-mile voyage yesterday after 24 days at sea.
Clover surpassed the mark set by David Sandeman, a 17-year-old Briton, in 1975.
nwjobs
Post a comment
Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos
Choosing a new car? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
Open Houses | Find this weekend's open house listings.  Or search by location: |
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Tugboat sinks at Seattle waterfront pier
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Snow piles up on Cascade slopes
- Woman stabbed by stranger in North Seattle
- Husky Men's Basketball Blog | Saturday's Pac-10 games in review
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
136 - Child-support error costs nearly $21,000 129
- Palin excitement builds in Tri-Cities 124
- Tight Senate vote launches health care over hurdle 122
- Cutting through breast-cancer confusion 90
- Prosecutor requests life in prison for Amanda Knox 90
- Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle 88
- Game thread 70
- New York terror trials will restore faith in rule of law 65
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors 54
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Banff: powder, peaks & purity
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Protect yourself from baggage loss
- Rediscovering Moab, 'the most beautiful place on Earth'
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Northwest Living | On Whidbey, a unified home from multiple recycled parts
