New Zealanders watched in disbelief as their team's boat was spectacularly dismasted yesterday their hopes of a second successful America's Cup defense tumbling down with the broken boat's rigging.
Auckland's waterfront was virtually silent as hundreds of fans watched on giant television screens and in bars and restaurants around the Viaduct Basin area.
They watched forlorn as Team New Zealand's mast snapped, while the black NZL-82 boat trailed Swiss challengers Alinghi on the third leg of race four.
The New Zealand team, owners of the Cup for the past eight years, became the first defender to fail to finish twice in a Cup match when its 35m-tall mast, as frail as a spider's leg, crashed to the deck in heavy seas.
Stunned New Zealanders began to ask why a nation proud of and admired for its sailing prowess had devised and engineered a boat which had shown such vulnerability -- twice -- in moderate conditions.
In race one 13 days ago the low-slung Kiwi sloop filled with water and then fractured at the boom and forestay, allowing Alinghi to post an easy victory.
Biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi lead the best-of-nine series 4-0 and need to win just one more race to become the first European team to win sport's oldest trophy.
"For the Kiwis it is a national tragedy ... The America's Cup already has one foot in Europe," French-language Swiss radio commented yesterday.
No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the America's Cup, let alone 4-0. New Zealand must win five straight races, while Alinghi need only to win race five today to claim the 152-year-old Cup.
Many local fans felt sorry for Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker and his crew, largely made up of America's Cup novices.
Membership The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, holder of the America's Cup, will consider revoking the memberships of Kiwi sailors Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth for joining the Swiss syndicate Alinghi. Claim Commodore Bill Endean confirmed a complaint against Coutts and Butterworth had been lodged by a member and would be considered by the Squadron on March 27. Fact Coutts and Butterworth won the America's Cup twice for Team New Zealand, representing the Squadron, before joining Alinghi in May 2000.
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They were left to pick up the pieces after Bertarelli lured former New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts, tactician Brad Butterworth and four other key crew members to his new team within weeks of their successful 2000 Cup defense.
Others found it hard to believe the New Zealand boat could suffer such substantial damage. Team New Zealand also pulled out of the first race with a series of major breakages.
"I feel the boat has let them down. It's let all of New Zealand down," said Auckland resident Ngaire Roebuck.
Others agreed.
"How can you design a boat that can't even cope with our own conditions?" asked disappointed New Zealand supporter Andrew Deerness.
New Zealand fans had lined the waterfront hours earlier to watch the boats leave for race four, which finally got underway after six delays in the last nine days caused by unsuitable weather.
Two middleaged women hung out banners saying "How Much is Butter Worth" and "Give Coutts the Boot" and jeered as Alinghi sailed past, reflecting the widely-held feeling in New Zealand that the Alinghi pair have betrayed their country.
One Australian at Viaduct Basin suggested the New Zealand boat should be fitted with a periscope as it had taken on so much water in races one and four.
New Zealand became the fourth nation to hold the America's Cup when it won in San Diego in 1995.
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