Cup 2007

Ernesto Bertarelli and Russell Coutts discuss Moet Cup their roles for 2007

Q: With the organisation split in two - AC Management managed by Michel Bonnefous, and Alinghi managed by Russell Coutts, what is your role?

Ernesto Bertarelli: My role and priority is to manage Serono SA Intl. The only way to manage many ventures is to delegate and to become the defender of the America's Cup we faced two responsibilities - the first to organise the event and the second to successfully defend the Cup. I delegated those responsibilities to Russell and Michel.

Q: What is the short term priority for AC Management?

Ernesto Bertarelli: The priority and deadline that ACM is working towards is 15 December when we decide on the one location out of the four remaining. We have on paper all the commitments and getting those signed will take the time from now until December. The second priority is to set a schedule for some of the venues to prepare for the America's Cup.

Q: What do you plan to do to make the next America's Cup more successful?

Ernesto Bertarelli: Focus on two important things - the conditions of the next venue and how close the race course will be from a city. In San Francisco the tides are not perfect but at least we are close to a big city and the turn out on the water here is fantastic. Making sure we can sail everyday, making sure we are in a place that is populated with people who are enthusiastic about sailing are extremely important for the success of the next Cup.

Q: Why is this your first time helming SUI-64?

Ernesto Bertarelli: Our program for the America's Cup 2003 was quite intense. We wanted to be a professional syndicate which had very clear goals and objectives where everyone wants to contribute in his own fashion and that's why until this week I never had the opportunity to helm an America's Cup boat, to tack the boat, to gybe the boat, do mark roundings, do starts. I'm the happiest person in the world right now because yesterday we did better. I was a bit worried that we would not be able to win a start but I'm getting more comfortable with the boat and the communication on board.

Q: What can you do to attract the general public in a country like the US where sailing is not high on the popularity list?

Ernesto Bertarelli: I think a venue like San Francisco is very good to promote the sport. We'll continue to bring the racing to the United States as it's obviously a very important market for our sponsors and also a very important market in terms of sports. Any successful sport has a very strong foothold in America so we will try to balance our presence between Europe and the US.

Q: What is the budget for 2007?

Russell Coutts: The budget is not final yet because of the changes in the protocol but the big difference in our budget will be that the time that we have our people under contract will be longer - 4 1/2 years versus 2 1/2 years. It's not just about how much money you have, it's about how you use your budget and how you make decisions. This time the interesting thing is how you generate revenue - if you increase the revenue by increasing the appeal of the sport then the expenditure doesn't hurt quite as much. I think we're working on both those areas - reducing expenditure and increasing the possibility to allow earnings.

Q: What changes have you made so far to the team?

Russell Coutts: The team has got to evolve and we have got to keep improving. The standard last time will not be the winning standard next time. I think we've already brought some skilled people into the team. We've changed some of our design team from last time and have nine new sailors of which we've hired four or five at this point. But we're also keeping a healthy amount of experience around but reinforcing that with some new enthusiasm.

Q: Why did Alinghi come to San Francisco to compete in the Moet Cup?

Russell Coutts: We came here because Mr Ellison invited us and it's been a very successful week. As a sailor I think everyone would respect that San Francisco is probably one of the best venues to come and match race in the world. You get consistent breeze, you get a fantastic course area, you can bring racing in close to the shore so that people can see the racing up close. The great thing is that people are beginning to realise that the next event has already begun.

Q: Why Jochen is the skipper of Alinghi?

Russell Coutts: The major difference in philosophy for us this time is that we are now not one of the challengers. We are now automatically seeded into the final of the America's Cup and we need to develop effectively a different in-house structure. We need to develop two teams that are capable of giving each other a fantastic level of competition so that we can build our abilities and practice our racing in house to a similar level that the challengers will be able to achieve by racing each other in the challenger selection series. So it's very important that we mixed the crew around. Not only have we changed the helm but we've changed a number of the other positions as well.

Q: Why did you only arrive in San Francisco yesterday?

Russell Coutts: I've been back in Switzerland working on other things as an America's Cup campaign involves more than just sailing a boat, especially at this stage of the program. Hopefully I'll become a sailor again from next year onwards but this year there are commercial objectives to achieve and for me personally it's been a move back to Switzerland. This is the time to get our campaign organised as well as competing in an event in a great venue and doing our best.