Notebook : New Zealand Looks Unstoppable

Challengers are worried about the New Zealanders as trials to select an America’s Cup challenger resume next week.

New Zealand, which has lost once in 29 races, appears strong in any condition with its innovative fiberglass hull. Crew work has been superb, tactics flawless and the organization runs like a French railroad.

Whereas the 11 other challenge syndicates have fiddled with their boats or taken time off to work on organizational or financial problems during the break between racing, the New Zealanders have been leaving the dock promptly at 9:30 a.m.

A small crowd gathers along the seawall near the New Zealand dock most days. At 9, the crew is doing stretching exercises. At 9:15, the support crew begins loading lunches and equipment on the two tenders and the inflatable “rubber ducks” that trail the boats while they train.

At 9:25 a whistle blows, and the tenders back up to the two New Zealand boats. The crews scramble aboard, docking lines are cast off and KZ-7, the No. 1 boat, and its 1-year-old sparring partner, KZ-5, are towed past the breakwater to the ocean. It’s clockwork--no music, no gimmickry and never a delay.

“No one else is out there every day at 10 o’clock,” skipper Chris Dickson said. “No one else is out daily with two boats, testing and practicing like we do. No one has an operation like ours.”

It’s been a bad week for skippers. Aldo Migliaccio, who steers seventh-place Italia, was knocked out of the crucial third round of trials when he broke seven ribs Monday in a car accident. Migliaccio said he was trying to help his wife follow a road map when things went awry.

Heart of America skipper Buddy Melges suffered cuts and bruises when a car driver opened a door as Melges was riding past on a bicycle. Melges, 57, doesn’t need any more bad luck. He has had enough with his boat, which is painfully slow. But he dusted himself off and said he would be ready for racing Tuesday.

Heart of America has been modified by the addition of the longest wing tips allowable on its winged keel. The wings are more than 11-feet wide, and crewman Andreas Josenhaus said that in practice the boat has heeled over so far that on three occasions the windward wing surfaced next to the boat, poking out like a shark’s fin.

Cupholder Alan Bond had his latest toy, the 150-foot motor yacht Southern Cross, delivered here last week from Japan, where it was built--for $20 million. Both the Aga Khan, who backs Azzurra, and Richard DeVos, the Amway chief who runs America II, have 150-footers on order.

The international jury governing the defense series rejected Kookaburra II’s bid for reconsideration of its second-round disqualification, leaving Australia IV in second place and Kookaburra II third. The panel of five judges decided Thursday to stand by its ruling and refused to reopen the protest hearing, despite Kookaburra’s claims of new evidence.