Cup Favourites pt2

In part two of our interview with Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth, the Alinghi afterguard look at their old team

The sailing team including some of the best in the business. In the Alinghi afterguard is Coutts and Butterworth, as helmsman and tactician with Ernesto Bertarelli navigating (Bertarelli was replaced by Andrew Cape when he had to return for some meetings in Switzerland during the second round robins), and Jochen Schumann on strategy (or Schumann steers with Coutts, acting as 'skipper'.)

Further up the boat they have had other ex-Team New Zealanders Simon Daubney, Warwick Fleury and Richard Bouzaid trimming along with Marco Constant (ex Abracadabra) and Murray Jones. On the grinders they have a heavyweight team including Yann Maillet, Will McCarthy and Christian Karcher with Josh Belsky or Yves Detrey in the pit, Jann Neergaard at the mast, former America One bowman Curtis Blewett and another ex Team New Zealander Dean Phipps on the foredeck with Pieter van Nieuwenhuyzen.

Despite the importance of having a good design Coutts strongly refutes that Cup racing is simply a case of delivering a fast boat around the course. "That's not right. A good sailing team will get their boat around the course a good bit faster. What was displayed last time was that one or two of the teams did have pretty fast boats last time, but didn’t get around the course so well. And one of the other teams I can think of didn’t have a fast boat and did get around the course pretty well in the Challenger series. And just the venue of Auckland it is so important to go the right way in some conditions. That puts a huge premium on racing well."

So if there were a OneWorld v Alinghi line up in the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup - what will make the difference? "In the races so far it’s only been a matter of little mistakes that have paid," says Butterworth. "In the first races against them in the round robins we didn’t do such a good start and made a few mistakes around the course tactically, so we lost the race – they led from start to finish.

"The second race we managed to get a good shift in the beginning and we really had to fight to hold on to our lead. So I think the little mistakes and one or the other team will win. They are obviously sailing their boat very very well."

In terms of performance Butterworth doesn't think there is a lot between the two teams at present, at times both boats show better pace upwind and are almost identical downwind. "I think you have your day," he says. "One team makes a little mistake and you punish them because of it and win the race."

Continued on page 2..