Battle of the high rollers

THEY MAY have been jousting there for the last two months, jostling, sandbagging and sprinting to see whose latest boat has the edge, and whose despite the millions invested in research and development may yet be ‘off the pace’, but the real 2002/3 America’s Cup story starts to unfold in earnest next Tuesday.

Then, Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf becomes the ultimate playground for a fistful of billionaires, as the Louis Vuitton Challenger starts the arduous selection series which, by January 21 next year, will produce a challenger who will go head to head of the America’s Cup sailing’s ultimate holy grail.

Into a league in which the high rolling backers include Paul Allen, the co founder of Microsoft and the USA’s third richest man, Larry Ellison (ranked ninth richest in the US) founder of software giants Oracle and Seattle mobile phone magnate Craig McCaw (ranked 17 in the USA), steps Britain’s Peter Harrison’s GBR Challenge.