The teams
The New York Yacht Club was the challenger of record. [1] By 31 January 1998 16 teams from 10 nations had made the $US 250,000 deposit to officially challenge for the America's Cup. [2] In the end only 11 challenges from seven nations competed for the Louis Vuitton Cup. Hong Kong, British and Russian challenges withdrew while an American team and a French team merged into existing challenges.
AmericaOne (USA)
Skippered by Paul Cayard, AmericaOne was one of two syndicates from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000. AmericaOne purchased OneAustralia as a training boat before developing USA-49 and USA-61. The team included tactician John Kostecki, navigator Terry Hutchinson, Lexi Gahagan, Billy Bates, Curtis Blewett, Josh Belsky, Gavin Brady, Sean Clarkson, Justin Clougher, Kevin Hall, Mike Howard, Pieter van Nieuwenhuyzen, [7] Morgan Larson, David McClintock, Jim Nicholas, Carter Perrin, Greg Prussia, Russ Silvestri, Ralf Steitz, Phil Trinter, Morgan Trubovich, Matt Welling and Ray Davies. Robert Billingham was the chief operations officer. [8]
Aloha Racing (USA)
Funded by Dr Jim Andrews, Aloha Racing built on their ocean racing history to launch an America's Cup challenge from Hawaii. Skippered by veteran John Kolius, the team secured sponsorship from HealthSouth to ensure their participation. The team built USA-50 and USA-54, both called Abracadabra 2000, and opted to train in Hawaii, rather than Auckland, before the Cup. The crew included Chris Larson, [9] Cameron Dunn, [10] Brian MacInnes, [11] Marco Constant, [7] and John Bertrand. [12]
America True (USA)
America True was one of two syndicates from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000. The team was led by CEO Dawn Riley and John Cutler served as helmsman. The team was funded largely with private funding provided by G. Christopher Coffin, which allowed them to purchase Tag Heuer before developing USA-51. The design team, led by Phil Kaiko, also benefited from America3's design information. The crew included Buddy Melges, Kelvin Harrap, David Armitage, Carl Barkow, Liz Baylis, Ben Beer, Jamie Boeckel, Greg Burrell, Merritt Carey, Lisa Charles, Tom Faire, Daniel Fong, Scott Gregory, Stephen Gruver, Peter Heck, Al Palewicz, Katie Pettibone, Hal Sears, John Spence, Latimer Spinney, John Sweeney, Tucker Thompson, Brad Webb, Jon Ziskind, [13] Jeff Madrigali, David Stevenson and Leslie Egnot. [14] [15] David Barnes skippered the testing boat.
Desafio Español (ESP)
Skippered by Pedro Campos, as in 1992 and 1995, the team added Olympic medal winning sailor Luis Doreste to the crew in 2000. Backed by the government, royal family and major sponsor Telefonica. The team built ESP 47 and ESP 56.
Before the regatta a crew member, Martin Wizner, died almost instantly when he was hit in the head by a broken piece of equipment. [16]
FAST 2000 (SUI)
Led by experienced French campaigner Marc Pajot and with German Jochen Schümann as helmsman, the FAST 2000 team was the countries first America's Cup challenge. SUI 59 was an unknown quantity when it arrived in Auckland but the syndicate ended up with a disappointing 2 wins over the course of the Cup.
Other crew members included Enrico Chieffi, Pierre Fehlmann, [17] Yves Detrey, and Hans Bernard. [18] [19]
Nippon Challenge (JPN)
The third challenge from the Japanese syndicate funded by S&B foods chairman Tatsumitsu Yamasaki. The team was led by Australian Peter Gilmour. The team was hit early on by the loss of former syndicate head Makoto Namba, who was lost at sea, and the Asian financial crisis, which severely limited the team's budget. The team launched JPN 44 and JPN 52 for the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup.
Young Australia (AUS)
Young Australia was Syd Fischer's final America's Cup challenge and currently was the most recent America's Cup entry from Australia. The young crew was led by James Spithill, then just 19, and included Wade Morgan, Joey Newton, [11] and Andy Fethers. The syndicate sailed with two old boats, Sydney '95 (AUS-29) and oneAustralia (AUS-31) which were not competitive against some of the newer designs sailed by competitive syndicates. Involved in the campaign were experienced sailors and America's Cup campaigners Sir James Hardy and Iain Murray.
Prada Challenge 
