We enjoy sailing small boats, two of which I have designed and built myself.
If rightly made, a boat would be a sort of amphibious animal, a creature of two elements, related by one half its structure to some swift and shapely fish, and by the other to some strong-winged and graceful bird.
Boat building is intellectual - everything has a reason. In sculpture, it has a direction.
I'm gonna build me a boat with these two hands, it'll be a fair curve from a noble plan.
The fact is, an America's Cup team is more than a sailing team. It's anywhere from sort of 80 to upward of 100 people; of designers, engineers, boat builders, an incredible group of people, and there are a lot of nationalities in New Zealand's team.
When my brother and I were 11, our father designed a 17-foot boat for sailing around the world. He'd never ventured more than a few miles from the U.S. He'd never sailed - or designed a boat before.
Some people may say my curved panels look like sails. Well, I am a sailor, so I guess I probably do use that metaphor in my work - though not consciously.
It was not easy victory in the America Cup. Our boys spent years experimenting with different designs for their boat before they came up with the innovative idea of having a submerged nuclear submarine tow it.
