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Lady Blake christens TNZ yacht

TNZ has made design changes since the 2000 winning yachts (above)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Team New Zealand has revealed the first of two new yachts which it hopes will help it retain the America's Cup in February 2003.

Lady Pippa Blake, widow of murdered former syndicate head Sir Peter Blake, christened NZL81 in a public ceremony in Viaduct Harbour, breaking the traditional bottle of Steinlager beer on the bow.

She had also christened the first boat of the successful 2000 Cup defence, NZL57.

Team NZ kept the design of the new yacht closely guarded during the launching ceremony with the hull shrouded from the deck down.

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The America's Cup defender says it will take special measures to protect their design secrets from prying eyes.

Most syndicates hide the underbody of their boats with skirts when they lift them in and out of the water.

Team NZ designer Clay Oliver said they would take the extreme measure with NZL81 of keeping the skirts on during the tow out to the Hauraki Gulf for the first sail on Tuesday, dropping them only when they start sailing.

Oliver said the extra precautions were in response to the growing atmosphere of secrecy and spying surrounding the America's Cup.

"The spying this time I would say is worse than ever. The stakes are higher and because of that people are doing more accurate intelligence gathering. So we look at it as a responsibility to protect the ideas that we have."

Team NZ has already been the target of spying. One of the challenging syndicates, OneWorld from Seattle, was penalised one point two weeks ago for possessing drawings, photographs and construction information on its 2000 winning design NZL60.

Oliver added: "We are running with a lot of secrecy and that is really going to be the theme with Team New Zealand.

"There are two sides to it. We can say there is something specifically to conceal, or there may be nothing to conceal, it is a mystery. We'll just let that mystery float."

Millions of dollars in design time, tank testing and computer modelling has been spent on new 2003 designs by the 10 syndicates contesting the America's Cup.

Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing syndicate alone is believed to have spent more than $25 million on its two new Bruce Farr designs.

All but one of the syndicates, Italian challenger Mascalzone Latino, have built the maximum allowance of two new generation boats for the 2003 series and these will be sailing for the first time in the coming weeks.

The America's Cup has clear rules for spying. Syndicates are not allowed within 250 metres of other teams when they are training, they are not allowed to shadow them and they are not allowed to take aerial photographs.

"We've got a big responsibility to the country and we have got a lot of good ideas," said Oliver. "We are going to try and keep those protected as long as we can."

The Louis Vuitton Cup begins in October 1, with the winner going on to challenge Team New Zealand for the America's Cup in February.