The Cup according to Coutts

We speak to the America's Cup legend about what's been going on in Valencia and what should happen next time

A notable absentee from Valencia at present is of course Russell Coutts. The falling out between the three time winning America's Cup skipper and Alinghi's proprietor Ernesto Bertarelli is well documented even if the reasons have been decidedly elusive. However it is something of a travesty for our sport that two of the Cup's top skippers should either not be involved or be involved periferally (Paul Cayard provided some assistance to Desafio Espanol after their new boats were launched earlier this year).

In Coutts' case this is set to change in a minor way when he visits Valencia for races two and three of the America's Cup next week to assist his old Kiwi chum Peter Montgomery with some commentary. This will be Coutts' first visit to Valencia since he raced his first TP 52 here two years ago. "It is going to be good to see. Everyone says the village is fantastic," he says.

Despite not being involved this time, he has been following the Louis Vuitton Cup and like all of us has been surprised not necessarily by the ultimate outcome, of his old team Emirates Team New Zealand winning the LV final to face his other old team Alinghi, but by what took place for the Kiwis to get there. The supposedly strong BMW Oracle Racing being beaten 5-1 by Luna Rossa who in turn were demolished 5-0 by Emirates Team NZ was not an outcome most would have predicted.

Coutts says he was particularly surprised about the outcome of the Luna Rossa v BMW Oracle Racing semi-final match. "To be honest I have never really liked the Prada boat. I was surprised they went as well they did. I still thought Team New Zealand would win pretty comfortably and they did." Of the BMW Oracle matches he adds: "They might have just had a bad series and not really put it together and maybe Prada did improve a bit with their sails and so forth. I would still imagine that BMW was a faster boat than Prada."

As to a favourite boat among the challengers, Coutts says "the Spanish boats weren't bad. Team New Zealand have got their boat going pretty good. I even quite liked the Mascalzone Latino boat." He is surprised by how narrow many of the boats were this time.

In terms of what makes a winning Cup team, Coutts still holds the belief that ultimately it comes down to boat speed, but adds that this isn't solely about raw design. "Some of it comes from sailing technique and developing the tuning of the boat. I thought Prada had a really good sailing team but in all honesty didn’t have the hardware to convert it. Whether it was a result of the interaction between the sailing and their technical team I don’t know."

When it comes to getting their boat to go quick Coutts pays tribute to his former colleagues at Alinghi: "A lot of those guys are great at developing speed which is what it is all about. I think Alinghi is going to be very very fast in this America’s Cup. A lot of people look at it and say it is some magic feature of the design but I think it is a whole lot of things that combine to produce the overall result and a whole lot of people that contribute to it."



Of Team New Zealand? "They are going well. I think they have a very good sailing team and a good technical team. And for the amount of budget they have used, they have shown once again that it is not just about money. And yet they have used it well and they have ended up with a pretty good product."

He sticks by the old adage that the Cup is usually won or lost some months, possibly years, before the boats actually line up of race one.

So is he missing the Cup? "I'd love to be out there racing for sure, but I’m not, but I am doing other things. I’m not sitting around twiddling my thumbs."

Will he be back next time? "Maybe, I’m thinking about it. It depends upon where it is, who wins, what boats they have next time..."

If Emirates Team New Zealand win and the bastard nationality rules are re-introduced then this could affect his participation next time. Despite living in Switzerland, Coutts still holds a New Zealand passport.

There is of course the rumour that following the disastrous semi-final result for BMW Oracle Racing and Dickson's departure Coutts has had the phone call from Larry Ellison. Naturally this being the discreet world of the America's Cup he can't comment.
"I don’t talk about what or might not have happened. I’ve read plenty of the rumours and smile about most of them."

Of course the fairy tale scenario is where Coutts 'gets the band back together' and is re-united with his old Team New Zealand mates at Alinghi - Brad Butterworth, Daubney, Fleury, Murray Jones, etc. Come the 33rd America's Cup all will be into their late 40s and this could be the swan song of this historic and phenomenally successful Cup crew.

So how old can you be still to skipper an America's Cup boat? "I think I’d still be competitive now," Coutts says with a smirk. "I guess it is how long you stay motivated and maybe, you see it in other sports, as you get older you do slow down a little bit in your reaction times. It could be a factor in a pre-start. I hope I’m not there yet!"

While the details of why Bertarelli and Coutts fell out have never been confirmed there are some aspects of the latter's character that one can see may have grated with Bertarelli's perhaps more conservative approach. Coutts loves the America's Cup but is an innovator in an ancient event that is not renowned for being ground breaking, unless one takes an abheration like the 1988 big boat v catamaran mismatch.

So if he could change the Cup boat - what would it be? A 70ft catamaran as he is developing for his and Paul Cayard's World Sailing League? Coutts thinks not. "America’s Cup - you have a lot of traditional things to think about. I think it is a great event. I would probably have a lighter displacement boat. It would be a lot faster downwind. I think it is a misconception to think that by speeding the boats up you will make it less of a good match race. I think the opposite. The match racing I have done over the years, the more high performance boats produce more lead changes, more options downwind - it is a better race."

But surely a different type of race? "As we saw in the semi-finals when Team NZ was racing the Spanish and Team NZ got in a nice position and the Spanish just put their bow down and got air from behind and sailed at the same VMG and maybe lost a little bit of VMG but not enough for a lead change... I don’t agree with that whole philosophy that you have to have slow boats to have a good match race."

He says he wouldn't go completely radical - the boat would probably be a fixed keel monohull. And size? 100ft? "You could do it, depending upon what sort of rule you came up with. I don’t think it’d be a lot more expensive than the current Cup boats."

While bigger sounds more expensive, it wouldn't be exponentially so. Remember the present generation of Cup boats are un-naturally heavy - 24 tonnes of which somewhere between 19 and 20 is in the bulb...and as a result all their gear and structure must be equally heavy to take the loadings generated from the monstrous bulbs. A Volvo 70 for example weighs 14.5 tonnes and carries a canting keel and structure to get it around the world. So it wouldn't be that hard to get a light displacement Cup boat of the present size to weigh around the 10-12 tonne mark. Given that the recent crop of 100ft offshore boats weigh in at the 26-29 tonne mark, complete with canting keels, one should be able to make a 100ft long light displacement fixed keel Cup boat to weigh in at around 20-25 tonnes.

"I have to say that is not rocket science, that both the current teams I would imagine are thinking that way," says Coutts hopefully. If they win Team New Zealand are expected to hold the next Cup in the present generation of boats but will get a group together to start developing a new boat for the 34th Cup. Alinghi at present haven't said what they would do. "Like the 12 metres had their day, I think the current boats have had theirs. You need to make it more exciting for the sailors and the designers and the media, particularly if you are going to hold it in a place like Valencia - you need a boat that can race in 6 knots and still be moving along pretty well."

The America's Cup is supposedly the pinnacle of sailing and should be raced in a state of the art boat. It does seem like utter madness that millions of dollars are being spent eeking out the last thousandth of a knot from an overweight lead mine (our view).

Obviously a lot depends upon the venue and the wind. Coutts cites the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle as being one of the most spectacular events and despite the 12 metres being beyond their sell-by date at that stage, they put on a great show, largely thanks to the conditions.

"I still look at the sailing I do a lot of and as a sport at a Grand Prix level we do a lot of sailing in the Med and light air venues - even if you go to Asia - and boats have got to be able to sail in relatively light winds and you still have to be able to sail in a breeze. And that is one of the good things about light displacement - it is the other way to what a lot of people think. The boats are easier to sail downwind and faster and perhaps you struggle away upwind, but if you stuck a bunch more lead on you might go 2/10th of a knot faster, but you are going 4 knots slower downwind. If you look at the way the sport is going people are wanting faster boats, even cruising boats. Lighter masts and lighter rigging has made a difference even for cruising boats. There is no doubt about it."

So the Cup according to Coutts. We profoundly hope that he returns for 2009-11 or whenever the 33rd America's Cup takes place, as it is plain wrong that someone with his track record is excluded.

It's not over... tomorrow Coutts gives his views on the TP52s and brings us up to date with the World Sailing League and his RC 44s.