Coutts gets afloat

Alinghi helm has been busy recruiting

Russell Coutts was in Capri - briefly - last week for the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship and in an unusual turn of affairs found himself racing on board Cuordileone, Nautor boss Leonardo Ferragamo's new Swan 45 - with his former adversary from the 2000 America's Cup Francesco de Angelis.

"It was good," Coutts told The Daily Sail about how he had got on on board during a lively day of racing two windward-leewards between Capri and the Sorrento peninsula. "We spent a long time chatting about past days." Of the two old adversaries it was Coutts who ended up behind the wheel. "He [Francesco] said 'you drive'!"

The outing on the new Swan 45 come about, Coutts says, when he was asked by Leonardo Ferragamo to sail the regatta last year, but couldn't because of his commitments to Alinghi. "Then on the night we were celebrating in Geneva he said 'why don’t you come sailing with me?' So this is the first couple of days I’ve done since the Cup."

Coutts was also considering sailing a Dragon again in the Grand Prix Petit Navire held in Douarnanez earlier this month, as he did last year. "I was keen to, but the baby came up. I had a girl. Natasha. So that’s what came up!"

Currently Coutts is back in Geneva where he says he has moved to properly this time, furniture out of storage, etc.

The burning question at the moment in the America's Cup world is of course where the next event will take place. Coutts has been in the press today saying that he hopes Naples will be the next venue for the America's Cup, but this may well be political rhetoric - Coutts is likely to have been asked the question while he was in Naples/Capri.
Coutts told The Daily Sail that he has had little to no involvement with the decision over where the next Cup venue will be. "I don't have much involvement with next venue. I get some reports."

From his perspective he says that wind conditions will be the biggest criteria. Surely this then discounts most of the ports inside the Mediterranean? At present on the short list are: Barcelona, Lisbon, Marseilles, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Sardinia - Porto Cervo, Tuscany - Elba, and Valencia.

"There’s some good spots for sailing in the Med," says Coutts. "It’s a matter of finding them. Once you’ve found those spot, then you look at all the other infrastructure. I have seen the project plan for this whole thing and it is massive. It is a big undertaking, but they are pretty well organised and from what I hear there are some good opportunities. In terms of a Cup regatta it is looking really good."

It will be massive he says because it is in Europe. "You can get access to that many more people. Then there are the pre-regattas, the seeding regattas - the idea is to take the America’s Cup to different venues so that the awareness of the Cup grows."

Michel Bonnefous and his team are currently contemplating the offers from the list of eight and are working up a shortlist of four or possible three, which is to be published imminently. Meanwhile Coutts says he has been focussing on the sailing team.

"I’ve been busy trying to sign sponsors. So I’ve been working on that and signing up personnel." He says that this is both in the design and sailing teams. "I think we’ve hired 55% of our total staff. We’ve pretty much got all of our design team and we’ve got 23 sailors."

Currently both Alinghi's race boats are in Cherbourg having been shipped back from Auckland. 64 is soon to be sent across to San Francisco for their match with Oracle later this year. This will be followed by the first of 'seed' events to be held on the east coast of the US in May next year.

"The Cup is a long way way and I think the sponsors need continuity," says Coutts. "They need some extra events. You can’t have one event and these other events will be good racing. We’ve got these boats, so we may as well use them."

While Alinghi's sailing team will not be back in action until summer 2004, Coutts personally will be back on the water in June/July this year. He'll be sailing the Farr 40 Worlds with his patron Ernesto Bertarelli and says he may well take part in the Match Racing Worlds on Lake Garda. He is also doing Hamilton Island in August, the Bermuda Gold Cup and the Etchells Worlds in Connecticut. "I'm not doing a hell of a lot this year. I could do with a break..." he grins that grin.