Team New Zealand in deep water as Coutts, other Kiwis lead Alinghi

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Team New Zealand never has been in this kind of trouble in the America's Cup. Then again, the Kiwis never sailed against a boatload of countrymen before.

New Zealand-born skipper Russell Coutts got the best of former protégé Dean Barker in Race 2, bringing Alinghi of Switzerland from behind on the downwind run to the finish for a seven-second victory Saturday night on the Hauraki Gulf.

After sailing for 18.5 nautical miles, and leading most of the way, Team New Zealand was denied by just more than a length at the finish. It was about as exciting a finish as there is in sailing. And it was about as wrenching a loss as there could be for the two-time defending champion Kiwis, who trail 2-0 in the best-of-nine series.

Alinghi needs three more wins to pry the America's Cup out of New Zealand's once iron-fisted grip and take it back to Europe for the first time in 152 years.

And the 40-year-old Coutts continues to strengthen his standing as the world's best sailor and one of the top skippers in America's Cup history. He extended his record to 11 straight America's Cup match victories — for two different countries.

His first nine wins came when he led Team New Zealand to five-race sweeps in 1995 and 2000. He handed the wheel to Barker for the clinching race in 2000, then jumped ship to Alinghi two months later as Team New Zealand splintered in the face of big-money offers from foreign teams.

Coutts never has lost in an America's Cup match, and has dropped only a handful in the challenger trials. Barker is 1-2, with both losses coming to his former mentor.

At the end of Saturday's race, the 29-year-old Barker was slumped over the wheel of his 80-foot black sloop in disappointment, unable to break out of Coutts' shadow.

"The last run, well, we sort of made a couple of mistakes early on and that caused the race to be a lot closer than what it needed to be," a downcast Barker said later. "Alinghi just outsailed us right at the end."

Although Alinghi represents the first landlocked country to reach the America's Cup final, seven Kiwis are on the crew of 16. Six helped Team New Zealand to its landmark win over Dennis Conner in 1995 and its successful defense against Italy's Prada Challenge in 2000.

Only three Swiss were aboard Alinghi for Race 2, including Ernesto Bertarelli, the Italian-born, U.S.-educated biotech billionaire who is funding the campaign and serves as navigator.

Race 3 is scheduled for today. Not only do the Kiwis have a wounded psyche to heal, but they are working furiously to repair their backup boat, NZL-81, which was damaged while tuning up NZL-82 before Race 1 Friday.