Auckland

During a trip to New Zealand this fall, I came across this great view of Auckland and its Sky Tower. Since it was the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, only a few sailboats were out in this City of Sails. Lonnie Kishiyama Millersville

During a trip to New Zealand this fall, I came across this great view of Auckland and its Sky Tower. Since it was the beginning of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, only a few sailboats were out in this City of Sails. Lonnie Kishiyama Millersville

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Sir Peter Blake now knows exactly how Gen. George Custer felt at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Surrounded by show-no-mercy enemies, all he can do is smooth his straw-colored mustache and get ready for one hell of a fight. Blake is CEO of Team New Zealand, the beleaguered America's Cup defender. Having won sailing's supreme prize in San Diego in 1995, he and his Team New Zealand now face the daunting task of defending the Cup successfully -- something no other nation outside the United States has ever done.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- New Zealanders are generally no more or less rapacious than anyone else, but right now they do seem to be intent on wringing every last dollar out of the America's Cup being contested here. With the regatta's final series, between Italy's Prada and defender Team New Zealand, set to get under way here Feb. 19, prices in top-end hotels have shot up. In some cases they have almost doubled in the past week. At the 272-room Hyatt Regency, the standard room rate has gone up from $118 to $180.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Auckland is known as "The City of Sails," and with good reason. It seems everyone here either has a boat or has access to one, and they are almost always out on the water.When the Whitbread Round the World Race fleet came barreling up the Hauraki Gulf toward the pale green shallows of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, it seemed as if the entire city had become waterborne to meet them.Tens of thousands of people lined the grassy hills around the harbor, and thousands more joined a joyous flotilla of welcome.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- New Zealanders are generally no more or less rapacious than anyone else, but right now they do seem to be intent on wringing every last dollar out of the America's Cup being contested here. With the regatta's final series, between Italy's Prada and defender Team New Zealand, set to get under way here Feb. 19, prices in top-end hotels have shot up. In some cases they have almost doubled in the past week. At the 272-room Hyatt Regency, the standard room rate has gone up from $118 to $180.

SYDNEY, Australia - The Pond is what Australians and New Zealanders call the Tasman Sea, the narrow stretch of water that separates the two countries. But it is a pond in name only.Far from placid, the indigo waters of the Tasman can - and often do - offer some of the world's most turbulent sailing conditions. Right now, however, weather data suggest that Leg 4 of the Whitbread Round the World Race, 1,270 nautical miles from Sydney to Auckland, will be a relatively quiet affair with generally light air and smooth seas, at least for the start in Sydney Harbour on Sunday.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- New Zealand came to a wild and jubilant halt today with the tiny South Pacific nation exulting in the triumph of its sailors after Merit Cup came home a 2-minute, 36-second winner of Leg 4 of the Whitbread Round the World Race.Merit Cup sails under the flag of Monaco, but 10 of its 12-man crew are New Zealanders, and a huge crowd, tens of thousands strong, crammed every vantage point around Auckland's Waitemata Harbour to welcome them home from the 1,270-nautical-mile leg from Sydney, Australia.

Status: Day 1, Leg 4Standings:Boat, Nautical miles to finish1. Toshiba, 712.02. Swedish Match, 712.73. Merit Cup, 718.74. Silk Cut, 722.2hTC 5. Chessie Racing, 722.86. EF Language, 724.77. Innovation Kvaerner, 734.08. BrunelSunergy, 741.49. EF Education, 747.0 (as of 18: 02: 51 GMT)Boat beat: The American entry Toshiba, with Dennis Conner at the helm, took the lead today in the 1,270-nautical-mile fourth leg of the Whitbread Round the World yacht race from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand.

SAO SEBASTIAO, Brazil - The all-female crew of EF Education is expected to arrive here today, 40 days after leaving Auckland, New Zealand, and with just three days to get the boat ready for the Whitbread restart Saturday."

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Around this glittering waterfront, the America's Cup challenger crew from Italy's Prada partied as if there would be no tomorrow. The blaring thud, thud, thud of acid rock, multicolored strobe lights and shrieks of laughter gave the scene a bacchanalian air, as the sailors and their supporters gave vent to the powerful emotional head of steam that has been building these past three months of racing. The Italian crew had just gained the second of two berths for the challenger final series, joining San Francisco's AmericaOne.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Sir Peter Blake now knows exactly how Gen. George Custer felt at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Surrounded by show-no-mercy enemies, all he can do is smooth his straw-colored mustache and get ready for one hell of a fight. Blake is CEO of Team New Zealand, the beleaguered America's Cup defender. Having won sailing's supreme prize in San Diego in 1995, he and his Team New Zealand now face the daunting task of defending the Cup successfully -- something no other nation outside the United States has ever done.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Some of America's most talented sailors are on the beach in Auckland today, but not for long.Having been eliminated from the America's Cup challenger semifinals, Chris Larson, the Annapolis-based helmsman of the Waikiki Yacht Club's Abracadabra syndicate and winner of sailing's prestigious Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award for 1997, is expected to be snapped up by one of the remaining three U.S. syndicates, most likely St. Francis...

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- In a town of 1.2 million, where one in 11 residents is said to own some sort of sailing vessel, the start of the America's Cup yacht racing trials here tomorrow is more than just a darn good excuse for a party.The Cup, sailing's most prestigious trophy, was held by the New York Yacht Club for 132 years, until Australia won it in 1983. The United States won back the Cup and kept it for two defenses, until New Zealand's Sir Peter Blake skippered Black Magic to a 5-0 victory over Dennis Conner in 1995 off Point Loma, near San Diego.

SAO SEBASTIAO, Brazil - The all-female crew of EF Education is expected to arrive here today, 40 days after leaving Auckland, New Zealand, and with just three days to get the boat ready for the Whitbread restart Saturday."

Chessie Racing, the Maryland entry in the Whitbread Round the World Race, jumped into the lead as the nine-boat fleet left Auckland, New Zealand, Sunday on the 6,670-nautical-mile Leg 5 and has been in first or second position since.Chessie, which brought back Leg 4 crew member Gavin Brady of Annapolis for Leg 5 as tactician and added Leg 2, Southern Ocean skipper Dee Smith of San Francisco, built an early lead by deftly escaping the wash of an enormous spectator fleet at Auckland and capitalizing on Brady's extensive knowledge of local sailing conditions.

SYDNEY, Australia - With the start of Leg 4 of the Whitbread Round the World Race just four days away, Chessie Racing's shore crew has been busy reinforcing the mast below the deck.The aluminum mast, identical to those aboard Innovation Kvaerner and Swedish Match, which were badly buckled by excessive compression during Leg 3, has been strengthened by 10 x 6 x 1/4-inch steel straps, fixed to the port and starboard sides just above the step.Although Chessie's mast showed only minimal signs of compression stress during Leg 3 with concave and convex dishing between the deck-head and the heel of the spar, the work was undertaken as a precaution.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Chessie Racing tactician John Kostecki, who has sailed in two America's Cup campaigns, including America3's winning effort in 1992, is sold on the round-the-world race concept.Speaking in Auckland after he guided Maryland entry Chessie to a creditable third place on Leg 4 from Sydney, Australia, Kostecki, one of the world's best-regarded sailboat skippers and tacticians, said the America's Cup no longer had the special allure it once held for sailors."Look around," he said.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- A fading, fickle breeze created havoc at the start of Leg 5 of the Whitbread Round the World Race in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour today, with the nine 60-footers wallowing like half-tide rocks in a seaway.In freakish conditions for this renowned windy city, the weak northerly sea breeze struggled against the gradient wind to produce glassy, millpond conditions that turned the race out of the harbor into a lottery. Chaos is the only word that could describe it.Followed by an armada of more than 500 spectator boats, the fleet got away to a clean but conservative start in a light following southerly breeze, but within 20 minutes the boats slowed to a slatting halt with their masthead gennakers collapsed and limp.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Just before noon here tomorrow, the nine yachts in the Whitbread Round the World Race fleet will leave the tranquillity of their moorings, slip out of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour and assemble under the brooding bulk of Rangitoto, the ancient volcano that squats like a malevolent green gnome, guarding this gateway to the Pacific Ocean.There, in a traditional Auckland ceremony, a priest, the Rev. Richard Beck, will take up a Bible and ask the almighty for a time-honored blessing upon those that go to the sea in ships.