The Kiwis and the Cup

In 1995, New Zealand made a spectacular entry into the elite club of holders of the America’s Cup. The Kiwi team took away the title “holder of the Cup” from American Denis Conner, and inflicted a 5-0 loss on him. After 149 years of supremacy (Americans had only lost the Cup one time in 1983 against the Australians), the United States again lost the trophy, one that has not returned since. Now the New Zealanders have entered into the legend. Since the incredible rise of the Kiwi team, news and information about them has circled the world over countless times in books, films, articles, and in images.


A victorious history. New Zealand first entered into the America’s Cup in 1987. In only eight years, the team has shot up into the airy heights of this special sport. Victory is personified by Peter Blake, a famous charismatic sailor with a Celtic moustache who fascinated a generation and impressed them with his style. He had a certain simplicity and at the same time being exigent. He was a mix of being knowledgeable, and also being a big man, with a checkered shirt, someone we could come across with a beer in his hand in an Auckland pub down at the port. He would easily accept interviews, welcomed people with good humor, at the same time being a strict and visionary sailor. He modernized the Cup in managing the communication of the team like it was a company and invented sports sponsoring in the competition, creating discomfort with the privileged millionaires.


The 1987 victory was a hallmark for inspired youth: a talented sailor who won the prestigious trophy, side by side his teacher his name was on everyone’s lips: his name being Russell Coutts. The victory is emblematic, it is the red socks which bring luck to Peter Blake and for which he contributes his victories. In 2000, they become a veritable institution and practically 4 million New Zealanders buy a pair of socks as a souvenir of their team. It is a special victory in a country, New Zealand, a nation of sailors, who live in a forgotten corner of the world. It lies below Australia and the world discovered it with the help of a magnifying glass. One had to ask, who are these Kiwis, who live at the other end of the world, in a country with 4 million inhabitants but also count 40 million sheep into the population? Victory photos are shown around the world with Peter Blake and Russell Coutts in a parade down Queen Street with the Cup, covered in streamers and confetti as a delirious tiny nation cheers on their heroes, their sailors!


Four years later, the Kiwis put the trophy back into competition. The small Cup world installs itself in Auckland, and discovers a fascinating country at the end of the world where the Europeans, their distant cousins, are welcomed with flower necklaces and Maori chants. Russell Coutts takes the reins of the team and Peter Blake steps down. The man with the moustache is pushed out of the core of the team but continues as an advisor. Team New Zealand remains a formidable talented machine, one from which they are reaping the benefits of their work. 2000 is the proof: the New Zealanders remain invincible. Prada, Louis Vuitton finals challenger, will pay the price: “Black wash” as they say there. The Cup remains in Auckland, the challengers return back home empty handed, 5-0.


Two years later, there is a change of décor. A part of the New Zealand team has left for a new Swiss team. The names: Bertarelli and Alinghi make up two and the same! Not only Coutts, the genius helmsman, but also the tactician Butterworth, and many other “original founders”, of Team New Zealand leave for “Heidi country”. In the Kiwis camp, there is consternation! In between time, Peter Blake has died, in a pirate attack in the Amazons, as a consequence, a new challenge has formed: those who remained, the young Dean Barker, a student of Coutts and others, trying to help advance the machine, no longer connected to vibrant forces of the old team and at their last gasp, they were in full identity crisis mode. The verdict is swift.



Team New Zealand won’t be able to fend off against the Swiss armada made up of some of those who had been among them. The boat took to the water, but the team did also! In a proper sense, the world is turned upside down and the young Dean Barker, with tears in his eyes, sees his ex-boss sweep away the Cup to Switzerland. New Zealand with a sullen face retakes its forgotten place, on the right of the world map.


But the country of “long white clouds” is a pioneering nation which knows how to come back from zero. Grant Dalton, an offshore sailing personality, takes the team in hand, persuades the New Zealand government to give them another chance, find the financing, get work started, give them another breath, and bring them confidence.


The result is this; the Kiwis have re-launched their efforts one by one...and have found themselves at the top. Winners of the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia! Hats off! There are many who could not pull off this feat.


Dean Barker has also proved to the world to be a great sailor, capable of retaking the helm after having it slide through his hands in 2002 against his mentor. He has shown capable of facing the Swiss head on. The work at a hand is not a matter of revenge…although it is certainly this revenge that everyone has in mind. A 2002 remake in reverse: Emirates Team New Zealand-Alinghi. The Cup in two houses: a Swiss chalet, perched high in the mountains and the Hauraki bay. Some would like to “bring it back home” as the supporter t-shirts say, and others want to keep it… who will be the winner, this time?
Rendezvous in Valencia June 23rd!


Fdb/Lh-Valencia 11th of June 2007