By Sean McNeil
March 3, 2003
Source: excerpt from "Alinghi: No Frills" www.americascup.com

[This time]Team New Zealand was a shell of its former dominating self. When Team New Zealand won back-to-back Cups (1995, 2000) by the combined score of 10-0, there were no chinks in their armor. The crew gave the designers a mantra of designing a boat that could be developed to 100 percent potential. They didn’t want any gimmicks that might spoil their run.

For its second defence, Team New Zealand strayed away from that thinking. They placed their hopes on the hula, a stern hull appendage.

The hula allowed Team New Zealand’s designers to draw a low transom, which was desirable to add waterline length when sailing. But that length was unrated because of the way the boat was measured, which also gave them more sail area because the boat appeared shorter.

With a low transom buoyancy had to be added to trim the boat fore-and-aft, which is what the hula did.

In reality, the hula may have caused more trouble than it was worth. Certainly, its weight meant that there was less weight in the ballast bulb, lowering the boat’s stability. To compensate, Team New Zealand created a low and long bulb, trying to lower the centre of gravity. But that didn’t seem to help. NZL-82 appeared more tender than SUI-64 in the windy conditions.

Team New Zealand also spent many hours in the boatshed assuring the measurers that the hula wouldn’t touch the hull, which would contravene the rules. The extra time in the shed meant less time on the water.

Team New Zealand also had breakdowns, which was uncharacteristic of its five-year domination. NZL-82 dropped out of two races due to a variety of reasons, including a broken boom and damaged genoa head foil (Race 1), and a broken mast (Race 4).

When asked what he learned from this campaign and what he would do differently, syndicate head Tom Schnackenberg said they “could afford to be more conservative in the design.”

He mentioned that they didn’t manage the risk-to-reward benefits properly. “We don’t have to be the lightest here or there,” Schnackenberg said. “The lesson is to be more conservative. We don’t have to be the lightest.”