SUI75 invincible?

Cup skippers give their views while we look at the America's Cup hit parade

Following on from their victory in Valencia in Act 4 earlier this year, Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi America's Cup defender have proved once again at Act 6 this week in Malmo that despite changing helmsman - from Peter Holmberg to Jochen Schuemann - they are still the dominant force in America's Cup racing. This season so far they have notched up an unbroken winning streak of 22 races.

This afternoon after racing we polled a few key players about why they thought the Swiss defenders were so strong.

Significant this year is that Alinghi have been campaigning SUI75, as opposed to SUI64, the boat in which they won the 2003 America's Cup. SUI75 at the time was fitted with what the team called their Jo-Lo, an answer to Team New Zealand's hula, which was lopped off once the boats were brought up to Version 5 of the America's Cup rule last winter.

"That is the first time I have raced against 75 and she is quick boat and she is very well sailed and very well prepared - well done Alinghi," said BMW Oracle CEO and skipper/helm Chris Dickson. "But the door is open. We saw them behind in a few races, we saw them catch a penalty that they had enough speed to get rid of. In our race against Alinghi, we led them up the first two thirds of the first beat. We had our nose in front of them so we know we can get in front of them. We have a little bit of work to stay in front of them. They are the benchmark still and now they have 11 challengers chomping on them."

+39 skipper Iain Percy believes the Swiss team have ticked all the boxes: "It is pace. Their starts here haven’t been that great, but tactically they are clearly on it. They are very very quick and that comes from all the little things on the design side, the trimming side and on the steering side and I think that’s where they have got the edge at the moment and it is a challenge for everyone to catch that up."

However Percy points out that while they may be the benchmark this year, the situation may change next year when teams start to campaign their new boats. "There is going to be a big roll of the dice when all the new boats come out. But I am not under any illusions of whom is likely to be at the top of that pile."

Ian Walker who is in Malmo as tactician on board +39 following the departure of Thomaso Chieffi, believes that Alinghi's main advantage is their boat speed. "They are about half a knot faster than everyone else! They are so far ahead by the windward mark that downwind doesn’t really matter. I’m not saying they are not brilliant sailors, but the principle thing is that they are just bloody fast. Most sailing it is all about attention to detail. They are probably the most professionally run, they have got the most experienced people, they have probably got a better idea of what they are trying to achieve. The boat is beautiful. You look at the attention to detail on the deck and the windage. They seem to carry bigger sails up the range than other people. Just the whole package is awesome."

Luna Rossa's James Spithill concurs: "I think they are a lot faster than anyone else and I think they are sailing pretty well. For me they have a huge jump on everyone else boat speed-wise. I think they have developed a great package from last time. They had the fastest boat last time and they have been able to improve and they have done a great job under the new rule."

Emirates Team New Zealand's Dean Barker thinks it will be hard for anyone to beat the Swiss this year. "They are clearly fast and they are sailing well. So it is a very tough combination. They set a benchmark, but for us it all starts next year when we get our new boat - the America’s Cup will start again. Right now they are blessed with two very nice assets in two very fast boats and they know how to sail them well. I think they just do everything well. There is no weak areas in their team. They do 100 things really well and maybe we do 70 or 80 things. Their attention to detail - they just don’t have a weakness. The boat always seems competitive, they never seem slow."

Apart from Alinghi's immaculate record, Act 6 has seen a number of upsets in the form table. Part of this is related to gear failure, but it is also down to the conditions off Malmo that different conditions that are decidedly different from what the teams experience Valencia - ie more wind and on days like today, tide.

Among those who sailed better than expected was Iain Percy's +39 team, proving as he did at the Star Europeans that going into a regatta having done little practice is a situation he seems to do well in. Aside beating from their compatriots on Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia team, the Italian newbies scored a welcome victory against the Swedes, but their best scalp was that of Emirates Team New Zealand. They finished Act 6 mid-way up the league table on five wins with the Spanish on Desafio Espanol.

"It was a combination of things," says Percy of their success. "A bit more wind suits us for speed. The boat and crew are pretty competent in the breeze, Ian [Walker] has brought a lot of confidence to the group and we started better - so those three things. We feel today like we can go out and do a workman-like job of winning a race and that is testimony to the fact that we feel we have moved on. Today we felt we should start to the right and slowly extend. That comes not only from being fast in that wind range, and sailing smart, but confidence, it comes from performing well earlier in the week."

Ian Walker was called in to do tactics on +39 shortly before the regatta, having not sailed a match race or a Cup boat since Auckland. "It is a lot more fun not running the show and you can meet people from other teams and can hang out for a beer after racing," said the former GBR Challenge skipper. "It is more like doing a normal regatta. You see your competitors and you can see their boats. I’m sure it will all change. Valencia will be a bit different and it will be a bit different when people get their new boats. It is a much better scene. But I am aware there that what we are seeing is the sugary bit on top of the cake and there is a big cake which is all the hard work over the winter. I have just come in to do the fun bit this week."

As to their performance here in Malmo he adds: "The boat is slow in the light and it is not so slow when the wind is stronger. And then we have kept it pretty simple. I missed the first day when they had a few dramas, but since then we have got cleanly off the line. Other people have made mistakes and we have made fewer. It could all be better. We haven’t dropped a spinnaker in the water. The only gear failure was the jib halyard breaking which cost us the race against the Spanish and fifth place."

One team to have a hideous Act 6 was Victory Challenge, the local heroes here in Sweden, who ended the regatta in a lowly ninth place. For this regatta the Swedes were the only team to be sailing a different boat and SWE 73 has proved herself not to like breezy conditions.

Luna Rossa, admits helmsman James Spithill, also seemed off the pace. "It has been a real battle for us all week. Any race but the Chinese we just had a full on battle whether we didn’t get off the start line well or things didn’t go our way. We felt that the other three teams [ie Alinghi, BMW Oracle and Emirate Team NZ] had taken a step up on us. Speedwise we didn’t feel as comfortable as we have. We know what our boat is and what the other boats are but I think that combined with myself - I made a lot of mistakes out there and we didn’t start as well as we normally do - and if we don’t get that jump off the start it makes it quite difficult to come back from there. Frankly that is the way it is, I am happy to do the learning now and our goal is obviously the future."

Today if you got behind on the beat, then this loss was magnified due to the strong tide that was running against you up the beat. "There's not been a whole lot of tide this week except for today," said Spithill. "Today the upwind was over 20 minutes and downwind was nine minutes. We were punching into a least a knot and a half. The tide could make the fleet racing really interesting."

Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand who won the America's Cup Class championship last year, dropped races to Alinghi, BMW Oracle and, unexpectedly +39 during Act 6. "The race against +39 was just a basic error. Against Oracle yesterday which would have given us second, we sailed a brilliant race, we controlled it right from the start, we had a good lead going into the top mark and the jib sheet broke. That was a costly breakage. We feel like we’re sailing well. It’s just frustrating when you’re not putting points on the board."

Barker was slightly at a loss as to how they had lost to BMW Oracle today. "We won the start we wanted. We felt the right was going to be strong all the way up the beat. Even though the shifts and pressure seemed to going our way, we didn’t seem to be gaining. And then we ran out of runway to the right and they bounced us to the right and they turned a five second lead into a 25 second lead and they sailed away. Then they protected the right on the second beat."

Barker echoed the sentiments many feel - that the waters off Malmo, cordoned off between Sweden, Denmark and the new Oresund bridge linking the two countries - has provided exceptional conditions - with the wind regularly blowing at more than 15 knots and on two lively days 20-25 knots. "It has been great with breeze. It makes it a hell of a lot more fun. You put a spinnaker on which makes it different. Normally all you are sailing there is with A sails, so it is a bit different. It reminds me of sailing in Auckland."

Hopefully these conditions will continue through to the fleet racing starting on Friday.