One World Diary

Mark Chisnell on the launch of their new boat and the campaigns environmental side

Another diary, another boat launch. It was three weeks ago that I was telling you about USA 65 hitting the water for the first time, and now here I am to tell you about USA 67's first sail on the Hauraki Gulf.

The launch was a low-key affair - we paused with the boat in the travel-lift for long enough to do the traditional thing and break some champagne on the bow. But if you blinked you missed it - and I did (off fixing a computer problem...) We celebrated with a traditional OneWorld sausage sizzle after work, orchestrated by our entertainments and logistics maestro, Mark Donaldson.

We had made a bit more fuss of ’65, waiting until the evening to launch her, when the team's families were invited along with some of the journalists that were in town for the CORM non-regatta. But there will be so many of these boats launched over the next few months it must be hard for outsiders to see it as anything special - they only become different when they start winning races!

So it all went according to plan, and ‘67 got a couple of days on the water and a shake-down before we stopped for Easter. It's definitely a bank holiday now, as I write this the wind is whistling around the apartment and the rain falling. The signs of autumn are all around us, including sunset just after 6pm. But while the birds and the Brits may be flying north, with two new boats sailing on the Hauraki Gulf we're not going anywhere just yet.

We took the opportunity of the press release for the launch of USA 67 to also bring a little attention to our environmental programme. I've talked in the diaries before about some of the things we've been up to - beach clean-ups, the rain-water tank for boat and sail washing, the four stroke engines and recycling (aluminium, steel, titanium, plastic, office paper, shredded paper, cardboard boxes and glass), and Sean Brealey's schools programme.

The latter is really taking on a life of its own, mainly because Sean has done such a fabulous job at all the schools that he's been to visit. The multi-media presentation covers the history of the America's Cup, some of the physics involved in the boats - and majors on the environmental issues that face the planet.

Word of mouth is the best marketing tool that money can't buy, and he's in high demand to come and visit schools all over New Zealand - and back in Seattle. The programme was such a success back home that Sean's just returned to the USA for a month to continue with the presentations there, and it gives him a further opportunity to build links between the schools in the two countries.

A new string to our environmental bow is a plan worked out with New Zealand's Landcare Research and their Emissions and Biodiversity Exchange to calculate the CO2 emissions from the fuel that we'll all burn in the cars, scooters and support vessels during the campaign. To counter-balance the damage done we need to plant 10,000 trees in the Hauraki Gulf area. And a plan has been set up for the team to go over to Motutapu Island, where the Restoration Trust will find us a spot to plant our trees.

Elsewhere on syndicate row, rumour control is now out of control over Team New Zealand’s recent propensity for parking their boat bow-in to the garage, and then leaving the dock with a chase boat planted firmly beside the foredeck as they motor past the other team bases.

Bow-rudder, canard or hoax? I suspect the discussions are going on up and down Halsey Street. But the sudden change in plans for the Prada team rather indicate that someone at least could be taking the Kiwis seriously. After announcing to the world that they had packed up in Auckland and headed back to Italy for the northern summer, a new press release appeared saying that they would be keeping Luna Rossa in Auckland after all, and coincided with the silver boat reappearing from the shed and getting a rig stepped. I’ll leave you all to speculate on what that one boat is doing on the Hauraki Gulf this week...