Dalton says America's Cup won with damaged boat

Kiwis on Tuesday greeted Team New Zealand's America's Cup victory with jubilation and a huge sigh of relief as it was revealed the triumph was secured with a damaged boat that could have failed at any time. New Zealand syndicate boss Grant Dalton said after the win that Team NZ had to nurse their boat through the entire regatta after suffering major damage to daggerboards on the first day of racing in the challenger series. "We found some pretty serious structural issues with the daggerboards, because they had been taken so far out of range that they were basically letting go," he said. The components could have failed at any time, added Dalton. "Every time we do a tack or a gybe or whatever, I've just been going 'hold on, hold on' and they have." The race that delivered the 7-1 win in Bermuda started before dawn on a chilly Wellington morning for sailing enthusiasts packed into the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club. Even though the New Zealanders were on match point and close to a crushing win, there was an undercurrent of anxiety as bleary-eyed patrons sipped coffee and tucked into cooked breakfasts. "It's never a done deal," Will Eastman told AFP just before the race was screened on a giant TV. After all, patrons had gathered at the same club four years previously full of confidence with New Zealand up 8-1 and needing just one more win to claim the Auld Mug. Instead, they saw Oracle Team USA relentlessly hack away at the lead over more than week and claim a stunning 9-8 in San Francisco. - No choke - "The last Cup hurt a lot for me and for a lot of people here," the club's commodore Pedro Morgan told AFP about a result that had been described as the greatest choke in sporting history. The atmosphere had been tense as the New Zealanders fell behind early to Oracle, skippered by the never-say-die Australian Jimmy Spithill, nemesis of the 2013 campaign. It gave way to muted cheering as New Zealand edged ahead, then the crowd erupted as the hi-tech catamaran swooped toward the finish and TV commentators declared: "There will be no fairytale comeback this time." Newspapers were quick to react. "Redemption! Team NZ claims the Cup: 'We're on top of the world', the NZ Herald's website trumpeted. Daniel Forsythe said that after the disappointment of San Francisco he only allowed himself to celebrate once New Zealand had crossed the line. "It's fantastic. We've been four years of not breathing and now we can breathe again," he said. "It's been a great reversal to come back after losing from 8-1." - Hero Burling - He credited a large part of the win to New Zealand's Peter Burling, who at 26 became the youngest helmsman to lift the Cup. "He hasn't put a foot wrong," Forsythe said of Burling, who is already an Olympic yachting gold medallist and sealed his status as New Zealand's newest sporting hero. Sports Minister Jonathan Coleman said "the whole of New Zealand is ecstatic with this stunning win" while Prime Minister Bill English hailed "an amazing job". "The crewmanship aboard Team NZ has been outstanding and the innovative use of pedal power to drive the hydraulics on the New Zealand boat has showcased Kiwi ingenuity to the world," English said. Coleman said it was too early to discuss the format of the next edition of the Cup but patrons at the Wellington club were unanimous in calling for it to be contested in New Zealand. The city of Auckland, which hosted in 2000 and 2003, will be favourite to stage the next edition and has promised a heroes' welcome and ticker-tape parade for the victorious crew when they return. The Kiwi syndicate was the only challenger that refused to sign a pre-regatta agreement with Oracle that would have dictated terms for the next two editions of the Cup. It means they are not obliged to continue to race the futuristic catamarans seen in Bermuda and they can maintain the tradition of holding the event once every four years, not every two years as Oracle was demanding. Dalton said that some details for the next series, including plans to include a nationality requirement for the crews, would be released within the next few weeks. There was no love lost between Oracle and Team NZ after San Francisco and Morgan said the fact that the Kiwis could now snub Oracle's plans made victory even sweeter. "It definitely does," he said. "It's the America's Cup, the rules are the defender's to mould and take advantage of," he said. "Oracle did that and I think it's to our credit that we overcame all of that and beat them."