After starting from scratch, Ashby backing Australia for America's Cup glory

MELBOURNE, Oct 28 - Australia's first America's Cup challenge in 27 years has been a race against time from the outset, but performance and design chief Glenn Ashby is convinced they can get through their rushed preparations and win the coveted trophy in Naples next year.

From not having a "set of screwdrivers" when their challenge launched in May, Ashby now marshals a team of 60 going all out to turn the Te Rehutai yacht into a force capable of winning another America's Cup six years after New Zealand sailed the boat to a triumphant defence of the "Auld Mug".

Australia acquired the boat to fast-track preparations and allow the team to focus on refining performance, rather than undertaking an expensive and time-consuming new build.

With deadlines looming and rival teams well advanced in their preparations, Ashby has little time for reflection but remembers his head spinning at the enormity of Team Australia's task.

"We got the funding signed off in March and it was really just myself walking out of the boardroom, thinking, 'Crikey, how are we going to execute this now?" Ashby told Reuters from a Sydney warehouse where crew members train with a simulator of the AC75 yacht.

"It's been a massive push of infrastructure."

The boat is in New Zealand getting fitted out with structural changes to the hull, with some components being shipped across the Tasman Sea from Australia.

No one in Australian waters will get a glimpse of the vessel carrying the nation's hopes of a first triumph since John Bertrand skippered Australia II to a famous victory in 1983, ending 132 years of American dominance.

It will instead be shipped over to the team's Italian base in January for further work with the goal of being ready to sail by the end of February, about three months before the Louis Vuitton Cup begins in Naples to decide which challenger will face New Zealand in the America's Cup match.

Ashby, who skippered Team New Zealand's 2017 and 2021 triumphs, has good reason to believe Australia can succeed despite giving their rivals a substantial head start.

"In 2015 and 2016, we were watching all the other teams sailing around on their AC 50 catamarans, and we were sitting there with no money and only six people left in the team," said the 49-year-old, who won an Olympic sailing silver medal for Australia at Beijing 2008.

"I was part of that group who rebuilt the team and actually won in Bermuda. So having lived it and breathed it, almost from scratch, it's a very similar feeling."

SECOND FAMILY

Though generous with his time, Ashby answers questions at breakneck speed, enthusing about an elite sailing crew led by Tom Slingsby and other America's Cup winners.

He hopes the nation will get behind the challenge and feel the same kind of excitement as in 1983 when then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke celebrated Australia II's win with the declaration: "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum."

Ashby also speaks highly of the camaraderie with the team they ultimately hope to dethrone.

He says New Zealand have been bending over backwards to help Australia mount a credible challenge, including with the provision of a technical design package, cutting down the development curve.

"The relationship I've had with Team New Zealand is about 16 years now, almost a second family," he said.

"I know that they're working very hard on their own development. They want to defend the America's Cup, so absolutely they'll be keeping a few things for themselves." REUTERS