Coutts report

We speak to the great Russell Coutts about the fingers he has in which pies

Last week Russell Coutts was to be found in the Florida hot spot of Miami, where for a change he was not sailing on board the star attraction - the TP52 class - but aboard a Farr 40 with Mascalzone Latino boss and Italian shipping magnate, Vincenzo Onorato.

Religiously clutching his Omega cap (for they are a sponsor) we catch up with the former Alinghi and Team New Zealand skipper in Acura Miami Race Week's equivalent of a beer tent. Following a long day on the water under the blistering Miami sun, the America's Cup legend is knackered.

thedailysail: Why are racing on a Farr 40 with Vincenzo?

Russell Coutts: I guess he asked me! [Ask a stupid question....] It is my second regatta with him. I am enjoying it. It is great racing out there. The standard in the Farr 40 fleet is probably as high as it has ever been.

tds: But a few owners like John Coumantaros, Peter de Ridder and we understand John Kilroy are graduating up to the 52...

RC: They might not have the same numbers they used to, but the quality is pretty good. It is good fun.

tds: What other sailing this year?

RC: I am doing a TP52 in Europe this time with George Andreadis. Lexus is still a sponsor of ours. I taken over from Paul [Cayard] on that. Gavin Brady is going to helm the boat and I am going to do tactics.

tds: When did you last sail with Gavin?

RC: I have never ever sailed with Gavin! So it will be good, I am looking forward to it. It is a new Bottin & Carkeek boat. It will be ready for the first regatta. Everyone is saying they are going to get 20 boats and if they do it will be spectacular. If they get Twenty 52 footers it will be incredible. I think they got a fleet of 15 or so IOR 50s and that was pretty good racing. Twenty 52 footers – it will be all on.

tds: What happened to the old Lexus?

RC: Doug de Vos sold the boat. The Lexus sponsorship, they transferred it over to George Andreadis.

tds: How's the design business and your new RC44?

RC: We are doing a regatta next week [ie this week], a match race in Dubai. Me against Jes [Gram Hansen] – it should be good. It will be the first race in the boats. It will be just two boats but we are hoping to have the first fleet race for the boats in October. The boats are being built out there. They have just finished laminating boat five a couple of weeks ago, and they are just laminating boat six now.

RC: Dubai is an 'emerging market' in our sport?

RC: It is growing so fast, it is amazing. The sailing conditions look to be great. They are developing a pretty good infra-structure. There is a lot of marina development and water front property development and so forth. There is a lot of foreign investment in the place, so presumably there is going to be a growing need for a boating market. And the other thing is that there is even a local market - the traditional dhow sailing. So it is only a matter of time.

tds: V1 built the first boat too?

RC: The first one was built by the same yard, but it was their first shot at building in carbon infusion and it came out overweight, so it has taken them a couple of gos to get the whole process right. But it is right now. Boats four and five were within a kilo of one another. The good thing about the infusion process is that once you get it right, it is pretty nice and the quality of the build is really good - it is like a grand piano, it is amazing.

tds: Hopefully not as heavy...

RC: It won't sound as good either... The yard building the RC44 is Pauger V1 Advanced Composites Technologies in Dubai, but they have only just built their first mould. They haven’t actually started production. They are due to have their first boat out at the end of April. They are good guys. The quality of the work is great. They have developed all the carbon chain plates and all the carbon fittings. They have done a good job. VI are marketed the boat. They took it to Dusseldorf [boat show] and Amsterdam. They normally have an impact at the boat shows because they are a bit different. And we are launching the class website at the end of March.

tds: Do you expect people to handicap race them?

RC: We didn’t make any compromise for handicap racing. This is just a one design boat. You could race it under handicap, but you probably wouldn’t rate that well. We didn’t put any lifelines on the boat - it is just a straight race boat.

tds: Most excellent! What other boats have you got on the drawing board?

RC: We started a 64 footer but we’ve been so busy with the 44 that we haven’t do much more than create a set of lines and coming up with the concept which is a bit different again. We are thinking of putting that out in 2008.

tds: How about the Decision 35?

RC: I am doing three races this year with the same guys [ Banque Gonet] - not a whole lot, because I’m so pretty busy with other things. I am really interested in keeping my hand in, just to keep involved with multihulls. I had a chat with Mitch Booth at the Amsterdam Boat Show, so I might go and do a race on one of those [Volvo Extreme 40], sit alongside him and see how he does it! I don’t know when. They look good.

tds: So this year the priority is the TP52?

RC: No, all the sailing I do I take seriously. I am having a good time. I am doing a Swan 601 with an owner who is living in Geneva. That is quite intereseting. It is a different style of boat. I did St Tropez with him. I am not doing one of the TP52 events, because I am doing Copa del Rey with him. And then we’re doing the Swan Worlds.

tds: And match racing?

RC: I am not doing much match races. I am doing Elba Cup and a regatta in Brazil at the end of the year. Alan Adler has got another event organised there.

tds: What is the state of affairs with your race with Paul Cayard?

RC: We are still talking about it, but nothing has happened on it. Paul is still doing the Volvo. We’d like to do something. The sport is at an interesting stage now. It almost needs something like that to get going. It is missing a really good fleet racing, full-on Grand Prix type series. Maybe the TP52s are developing that way a little bit, but it is not there yet.

tds: We've seen some proposals for the boat - like a 100ft skiff

RC: The concept – it is a fast boat, it has a canting keel on it and it is a different idea there. It’ll be quick for sure. These new 100 footers are quick [ie Alfa Romeo/Wild Oats], but this thing will be quick because it is designed just for inshore racing, so you don’t have any of the extra weight compromises that you have for offshore racing.

tds: So what is the hold-up? Presumably finance

RC: Paul and I have said right from day one that we’re not going to press the 'go' button until everything is in place. Quite a few elements are in place but there are plenty of projects that have started in sailing that they haven’t finished. We want to make sure that when we do go forward it is a goer.

tds: What's the reason for this event? I know you have strong feelings about taking the sport to the public...

RC: The biggest motivation really is to create an event where the commercial return exceeds the cost. There are not many examples of that in our sport right now. So we are looking to create a concept where the costs are really managed and low and you do away with all the excess costs that people spend money on, but where the people investing the money really don’t see a lot of return out of it.

tds: So the challenge is a business one?

RC: You start off by saying 'who pays?' and 'how do they pay?' and then develop it from there and develop a structure, on which you can sell sponsorship for more than that level of investment. So it is something that is spectacular. But I’m not huge on that aspect of it. The first thing is that it has to be a good race and a well run series and hopefully if the costs are under the commercial return, then it has longevity, hopefully it is even profitable so you can look at it and say it should be existing in 10 or 20 years time.

tds: And it is a fleet race?

RC: The other thing is that when you look at how the sport is - there are a lot of really good fleet racers in the world and if you look at the career path of the sailor, there is no clearly defined career path and that is one of the problems. Someone goes and wins a gold medal at the Olympics - but then what? If they want to go professional sailing, it is pretty tough, they have to go and learn a whole new discipline and if they want to get into the top league of the sport, which is the America’s Cup, they have to really go out and learn match racing. So we thought that 99% of the sailors out there are fleet racers. There are a few bits and pieces out there like the Farr 40s and the TP52s but it is pretty spasmodic, and if you did create a series and could fund it...that was the idea. And then you can get Robert Scheidt and Ben Ainslie, the top sailors in our sport, and rather than them having to go out and learn match racing and so forth, they can use whatever skills they have developed over the years to go out racing professionally.

tds: One of the joys and damnations of our sport is that it is so diverse...

RC: Yes, it is great.

tds: Can you give me a rough time frame?

RC: We are looking at getting things rolling as quick as we can, but the test is can we pay for it?

tds: And are you doing any other sailing?

RC: I am doing a lot this year, which is good. I am very very fortunate to go to all these different events.

tds: How about Star sailing? You were doing some of that last year

RC: I wouldn’t say I was ever in it! I like the boat, it is just to do it properly you have to do a proper project and it is quite expensive for someone like me! If you want go and do a local things, that is something I’d be into. If you want to go and do an Olympic campaign…maybe leave that to the young guys. I’d enjoy doing it, but how much would it cost?

tds: And home is still Switzerland

RC: Yes, I am doing a bit of skiing, D35 sailing. I am doing Bol d’Or, hopefully with a bit more wind than last year. That [last year] was the longest short inshore race I’ve done. It is pretty cool race when they do get breeze. A lot of that lake racing is pretty interesting...