KZ 7
Encyclopedia
| KZ 7 New Zealand | |
|---|---|
| Helmsman | Chris Dickson |
| Nation | New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
| Representing | Mercury Bay Boating Club |
New Zealand (KZ 7) "Kiwi Magic" was the America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
challenge boat sailed by Chris Dickson in the Louis Vuitton Cup
1987 Louis Vuitton Cup
The 2nd Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Fremantle, Australia in 1987. The winner, Stars & Stripes, went on to challenge for and win the 1987 America's Cup.-The teams:...
Challenger series held in Gage Roads
Gage Roads
Gage Roads, is the sea channel in the Indian Ocean offshore from Perth, Western Australia. It was the location of the America's Cup defence in 1986/7, and serves as a shipping lane and anchorage for most sea traffic heading towards the seaport of Fremantle....
off Fremantle
Fremantle
Freemantle is a suburb of Southampton in England.Fremantle or Freemantle may also refer to:- Places :* Fremantle, the port city to the capital Perth, Western Australia...
, Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
during the summer months of 1986 through 1987. She was New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
's first America's Cup entry and was the premier boat in the "New Zealand Challenge" syndicate.
Enter: New Zealand
With Alan BondAlan Bond (businessman)
Alan Bond is an Australian businessman noted for his criminal convictions and high-profile business dealings, including what was at the time the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history. Bond was born in the Hammersmith district of London, England, and emigrated to Australia with his...
's Royal Perth Yacht Club
Royal Perth Yacht Club
The Royal Perth Yacht Club is a yacht club in Perth, Western Australia. -Early history:The "Perth Yacht and Boat Club" in 1880 was able to build a jetty at the foot of William Street in Perth Water. Perth Yacht Club received the Royal Charter in 1890. The club shifted to Crawley in 1953 when the...
victory in 1983, and the arrival of the America's Cup in Australia, a sailing event that had been prohibitively far away and expensive suddenly was delivered to the near doorstep of New Zealand. Realizing this presented an opportunity to become involved, a Belgian businessman named Marcel Falcher surprised one and all in 1984 by entering New Zealand as represented by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is one of New Zealand's more prestigious yacht clubs, and the club behind New Zealand's America's Cup campaigns, under the guise of Team New Zealand....
as a challenger for the America's Cup. Soon thereafter Falcher was forced to leave New Zealand while being investigated by the New South Wales government on counts of fraud. The pieces of the challenge effort were picked-up by businessman and financier Michael Fay
Michael Fay (banker)
Sir Michael Fay is a New Zealand merchant banker and partner in the merchant bank Fay Richwhite. He was educated at St Peter's College, Auckland, St Patrick's College, Silverstream and Victoria University of Wellington ....
, merchant banker & co-owner of Fay-Richwhite.
Combining experienced sailors under the leadership of Brad Butterworth
Brad Butterworth
Bradley William Butterworth, OBE is a world-renowned yachtsman known for the role he played as tactician and skipper in the America's Cup for Team New Zealand and the Alinghi team of Switzerland.He was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand in 1959...
with talented young match racer Chris Dickson
Chris Dickson (sailor)
Christopher Stuart Dickson, born 3 November 1961 in Auckland, is an internationally known sailor from New Zealand. He was world youth champion three years in succession and later became world match race champion three times...
, a team was assembled to compete in the 1985 12-Metre
12-metre class
The 12 Metre Class is a rating class for racing boats designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. The first 12 Metres were built in 1907. The 12 Metre Class was...
World Championships. The team made use of former US 12 Meter Enterprise (now registered as KZ 1). The exercise was intended to train up the crew for a future challenge at the Cup. During this time, planning and construction of the world's first fibreglass 12 Meter, New Zealand (KZ 3) was being constructed by Bruce Farr
Bruce Farr
Bruce K. Farr OBE is a designer of racing and cruising yachts.Farr began building boats at 13 in Warkworth near Auckland,New Zealand.His first boats were plywood hard chine Moth class designs.He later designed and built variants of Cherubs and especially Flying 18s.His early designs were built in...
. She would be the first in a series of fiberglass 12 Meter yachts, all named New Zealand and constructed with a view to the 1986 12-Metre World Championships and subsequent America's Cup. KZ 5 was completed shortly after KZ 3 and was shipped straight to Fremantle.
1986 12-Metre World Championships
The 1986 12 Meter Championships were staged off Fremantle as a precursor to the America's Cup event to be held a year later. KZ 7's sister boats KZ 3 and KZ 5 competed, with KZ 5 finishing runner-up behind the Bond Syndicate'sAlan Bond (businessman)
Alan Bond is an Australian businessman noted for his criminal convictions and high-profile business dealings, including what was at the time the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history. Bond was born in the Hammersmith district of London, England, and emigrated to Australia with his...
Australia III, which was the comfortable winner. The boat finished ahead of the New York yacht club entry America II, a considerable achievement that made the sailing community stand-up and take notice that the New Zealand challenge was serious.
Information gained from KZ 3 and KZ 5 went into the planning of KZ 7. All three were designed by Farr Yacht Design
Farr Yacht Design
Farr Yacht Design, headed by Bruce Farr, is a racing yacht design team based in the United States. Its yachts measure from 25 to 125 feet . Farr develops custom and production yachts, including: interiors, sails, and hull design...
, and comprised the first successful efforts of Bruce Farr
Bruce Farr
Bruce K. Farr OBE is a designer of racing and cruising yachts.Farr began building boats at 13 in Warkworth near Auckland,New Zealand.His first boats were plywood hard chine Moth class designs.He later designed and built variants of Cherubs and especially Flying 18s.His early designs were built in...
in America's Cup Racing.
Magic Gathering
While the 12-Metre Championships were going on, KZ 7 was being constructed at the Auckland boatyard of McMullen & Wing. Michael Fay instructed the signwriter to add, "Kiwi Magic" as the final touch to the stern of the boat. She then was shipped to Fremantle for sea testing alongside KZ 5, while KZ 3 was retired from competition. The selection of skipper was down to the two men that helmed KZ 3 and KZ 5 during the 1986 12-Metre World Championships, Graeme Woodroffe and Chris Dickson. Eventually it was Chris Dickson that got the nod to lead New Zealand.Rounds Robin
KZ 7 was surprisingly successful through the rounds robin. The boat was clearly fast, well crewed and capably skippered by the young Chris Dickson. She went through the first round suffering but one loss, to Stars and Stripes 87. The second and third rounds saw her to be a consistently fast sailor, losing not another match race. Through three rounds she had thirty-three wins in thirty-four starts. She had the highest point total and was the clear leader of the challenger series. This caused a great deal of discord and disbelief on the part of her rivals, who now found they were in slower boats. For people that had poured years of their life, untold time and energy, and had made use of what was thought to be the best technical support in the world, it was hard not to think that something was amiss. The simple fact of the matter was that the glass boat was fast, well sailed, and was leading the regatta.Glassgate
Prior to the Louis Vuitton Cup1987 Louis Vuitton Cup
The 2nd Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Fremantle, Australia in 1987. The winner, Stars & Stripes, went on to challenge for and win the 1987 America's Cup.-The teams:...
protests were lodged by the French Kiss team, challenging whether KZ 7 was in compliance with the 12 Meter formula. A Lloyd's Register of Shipping had been present throughout the construction of the boats, and he had checked each part of the laminate and the amount and type of resin used against the building schedule which Lloyd's had approved. As the round robins progressed and the Kiwis continued to be fast, the controversy surrounding the fiberglass hulled boat intensified, brought famously to the fore at a media conference where Tom Blackaller and Dennis Conner answered questions about their concerns of whether or not the fiberglass boat met the 12 Metre standard. At one point Conner stated "There have been seventy-eight 12 Meters built, all in aluminum. Why would you want to build one in glass... unless you wanted to cheat." New Zealand had twice been measured, and twice certified by Lloyds before the first race of the series. Some small holes were drilled into the hull to check thickness, and the hull ultra-sonically checked for pockets of air in the construction of Kiwi Magic. All proved negative. These were provided for inspection by race officials. The boat was found to have a hull thickness consistent with the 12 Meter formula and the matter was put aside.
Louis Vuitton Cup Semifinals and Finals
KZ 7 was the top qualifier of the round robins, followed in the points competition by Stars and Stripes 87, USA and French Kiss. In the Challenger semi-finals KZ 7 easily defeated French Kiss 4-0, with none of the races closely contested. Meanwhile, a far more spirited competition between Stars and Stripes 87 and USA ensued, with USA leading all of the first race till the final mark. In the end the overall result was the same, with Stars and Stripes 87 coming away the winner, taking the series 4-0.Going into the Louis Vuitton Finals, Kiwi Magic was the clear favorite, having won thirty-seven of her previous thirty-eight races. The boats were very closely matched, but by this point in the regatta Stars and Stripes 87 was showing a slight edge in speed going to windward, especially in heavy airs and seas. In the most tightly contested series of the regatta, the gun smoke blue hulled Stars and Stripes 87 took the series, four wins to one.
Aftermath & Changes
Stars and Stripes 87 went on to defeat Kookaburra IIIKookaburra III
Kookaburra III was the Australian 12 Meter yacht sailed by Iain Murray in the 1987 America's Cup held off of Fremantle, Australia. She won the Defender Selection and represented Australia in the America's Cup, where she lost to American challenger Dennis Conner and his Stars and Stripes...
, 4-0 to reclaim the America's Cup.
The Kiwis meanwhile regrouped and returned to race in the 1987 World Championships in Sardinia, Italy. For the regatta Chris Dickson and Brad Butterworth were taken off boat, replaced with David Barnes
David Barnes (sailor)
David Barnes is a sailor from New Zealand. He skippered the KZ1 yacht which lost to the United States in the 1988 America's Cup race.He sailed in the 2005–06 Volvo Ocean Race, and OK s.-References:...
as skipper while future NZL 20 skipper Rod Davis acted as tactician.
The Kiwis sailed competitively, and ended up winning the event in the protest room, achieving victory over the Japanese entry Bengal (previously the Bond syndicate's Australia III).
After the America's Cup
Since competing in the America's Cup KZ 7 has been chartered by a number of sailors, including Bill KochBill Koch (businessman)
William Ingraham "Bill" Koch is an American businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992. His last name is pronounced "coke." Per Forbes William Koch's net worth was $3.4 billion in 2010 on oil and other investments-Early life and business...
(Skipper of America 3 1992 America's Cup winner) and Patrizio Bertelli (Luna Rossa
Luna Rossa Challenge
Luna Rossa Challenge is an Italian sailboat racing syndicate, created to compete for the 2000 America's CupSponsored by Prada, and beginning from 2005 also by Telecom Italia.-2000 Louis Vuitton Cup:...
syndicate head), who went on to win World 12-Metre titles on-board Kiwi Magic. Both men were tempted to change the name of the boat but declined due to their respect for the boat's history in the America's Cup and the affection and pride felt for her by all of New Zealand.
KZ 7 would go down in history as the boat that brought New Zealand to the fore in 12 Meter match racing. For those that sailed her and those that cheered her, she symbolized that New Zealand belonged and could take her place on the world stage. She brought great pride to New Zealanders everywhere.
Kiwi Magic KZ 7 was donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy's Sailing Foundation for the offshore sailing program at the school where it continues to be sailed and raced.