I'm not here for public relations, I’m here to race yachts."

The immortal words of Mr. Personality himself, Dennis Conner? Good guess, but no cigar. This gem dripped from the lips of DC's counterpart on Team New Zealand: Russell Coutts, skipper of the America's Cup defender Black Magic.

His comment was in response to being asked why he had refused for months to give interviews, even to New Zealand journalists. It came on a Team NZ media day when we were supposed to have access to key people on the team.

But we were warned beforehand that Coutts would only make an appearance if he "was in the mood." The good news, we were hastily assured, was that "he was in a good mood when he left the dock this morning."

Gee, how fortunate for us. The titled Mr. Coutts, Commander of the British Empire (CBE), may grant us an audience, if he feels up to the tiresome task.

Earlier, borrowing another page from the bad-boy, bad-press handbook, Coutts was not only AWOL from the first New Zealand press conference for the international news media, he was a no-show at his team's open house and autograph signing session.

Never mind that tens of millions of dollars of public money went into redeveloping a dilapidated, decaying section of Auckland so Team NZ could properly host the America's Cup regatta.

Never mind that Team NZ has received millions of dollars in support from the state-owned Television New Zealand and the state-owned New Zealand Lotteries Commission.

Never mind that Team NZ has received millions of dollars from corporate sponsors, corporate sponsors that are profitable businesses because the New Zealand public buys their products and services.

And never mind that without the international media exposure that sponsors climb aboard for, the 37-year-old spoiled brat might actually have to work for a living, rather than having his yacht-racing habit supported by people to whom he feels no obligation to even give the time of day.

Tony Gwynn, please give Coutts a dope slap — like Ryan Leaf, he just doesn’t get it.

Give Conner credit. While once notorious for refusing to sign autographs, you now have to make an effort to buy Stars & Stripes merchandise that doesn’t have his signature on it. The merchandising maven's scrawl is on everything from books to caps to T-shirts to ... well, he drew the line at the boxer shorts.

In contrast to Coutts and the historical Conner persona, Paul Cayard knows how his bread gets buttered.

"We’re in the entertainment business. Or we’re not, and we should just forget it and go back to two or three people challenging, if they're wealthy enough to afford it," says Cayard, the CEO and skipper of the penultimate America's Cup challenger, San Francisco's AmericaOne.

His point being that if wealthy individuals, such as Italy's Patrizio Bertelli, want to put up their millions to back an America's Cup team, they can shutter themselves and their crews away if they choose, although the Italians have not. Then they can have their little yacht race off in some obscure corner of the planet where it’s ignored by all but the most die-hard yachties.

But if these professional sailors expect support from public money and corporate donors, they have to give something in return, which includes making oneself available to the press and the public, not just their mates down at the yacht club.

Ironically, the talk in New Zealand is that, win or lose, sponsor money is drying up. Mounting another campaign will be difficult. The sponsors are not getting enough bank for their buck.

Hmmmm. Maybe Mr. Coutts, tagged to fill the retiring Sir Peter Blake's shoes, will connect those dots and finally see the real picture.

'Da Woody' In Auckland

San Diego’s Dennis Conner did not make it to the America's Cup final match this go-round. But America's finest City is being represented at the Cup regatta.

You all remember "Da Woody," right? That's the yellow car/boat — fashioned as a surfer dude's Ford "Woody." The car-shaped watercraft stood out prominently in the spectator fleet during the 1992 and 1995 America's Cup races in San Diego and was pictured in publications worldwide.

The small boat was originally constructed by Sea World in 1965 as a prop for its aquatic shows. After it was retired, businessman Dennis St. Onge, a Bay Park resident, rescued the boat from the bone yard. Originally green, and later red, St. Onge painted it the easy-to-spot lemon-yellow color it sports today.

The renowned vessel has now added America's Cup 2000 to its appearance list. St. Onge shipped his curious craft to Auckland to participate in the on-the-water circus surrounding the Cup regatta on the Hauraki Gulf.

Why? "I love the America's Cup," the demure St. Onge says with a shrug of his shoulders.

He wanted to be on the scene, but he wasn’t content to just hang out shoreside, watching the races on the telly. He wanted to mingle with his old friends, and make new friends, on the water. And what better way than being at the wheel of his famous, eye-catching Woody?

Larry M. Edwards is a San Diego journalist in New Zealand working on the official America's Cup Web site, www.americascup.org. While there, he has promised to regularly send New Zealand Notes.