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Every morning while Team Dennis Conners crew prepares their 80-foot America's Cup boat, Stars & Stripes for the race course off Auckland, New Zealand, a sophisticated weather model is being processed on a powerful computer thousands of miles away in Massachusetts.  Thanks to Earth Tech, a leading international consulting firm, the Stars & Stripes team is armed daily with highly accurate predictions of the wind speed and direction on the Hauraki Gulf race course.  This information helps the team select the inventory of sails they will carry during the 2 ½ hour race as well as provide invaluable guidance for their tactics to take advantage of changes in the winds.

Our sails are our engine, but the wind is our fuel.  And as we have seen during the first three rounds of racing, the competition is very, very close, even a 5 degree wind shift, or a small puff of wind can make the difference between victory and defeat.  Earth Tech's hour by hour predictions of the local winds has been incredibly accurate and helped us win many races. I've raced in seven America's Cup campaigns and this is the most powerful weather prediction tool I have ever used, notes Conner, a four time America's Cup winner.

Computer simulations with a state-of-the-science prognostic weather model called MM5 are conducted each day by a team of scientists from the Atmospheric Studies Group in Earth Tech's Concord, Massachusetts office.  The latest modeling results are analyzed and discussed with the crew of Team Dennis Conner just before the race by an Earth Tech scientist located in New Zealand.  The Earth Tech modeling team leader, Joe Scire, says a key to our modeling is the treatment of local small-scale wind effects in the Hauraki Gulf are through the very-fine scale grid resolution in the model.

Team Dennis Conner is currently preparing to race Stars & Stripes in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger trials for America's Cup 2000.   The winner of the trials will face the defending champions, Team New Zealand in the America's Cup match beginning late February, 2000.  For more information, visit the team's web site at www.stars-stripes.com.

Earth Tech's Atmospheric Studies Group specializes in the development and application of meteorological and air quality models.  Earth Tech is a global water, environmental, and construction company serving government, commercial, and industrial clients. The firm also provides financing for design/build/operate projects for municipal public works and private industry.  Additional services include remediation, transportation, waste management, and architecture.

The Earth Tech team supporting Dennis Conner's bid for the America's Cup include Joe Scire (Windham, New Hampshire), Al Klausmann (Franklin, Massachusetts), Jenny Godfrey (Wellington, New Zealand), and Benjamin de Foy (Somerville, Massachusetts.)


For more information, please contact:

Veronica Cahill
Media Relations Liaison
Team Dennis Conner
TDC Compound: 64-9-9799-700
Mobile: 029-99-2013

53 Halsey Street
Viaduct Harbour
Auckland, New Zealand