Amid all the drama Coutts still the best

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Any doubts about Russell Coutts' standing as the best match-racing helmsmen in the world have been shown to be just that.

While his America's Cup world has seemingly been crumbling around him, Coutts has continued to come up trumps. Now he aims to prove yet again that he still has what it takes when he

joins a virtually untried Danish crew in the Portugal Match Cup - a regatta which started overnight in the latest Swedish Match boats or, as Coutts tagged them, "mini America's Cup yachts".

Speaking to the Herald from Portugal a couple of hours before he was to join his Danish crew on the water for the first race, Coutts said he had been surprised with the second and first placings he had scored in the regattas in Sweden and Italy.

"I wasn't really expecting to do so well in those," said Coutts. "This is the one I have really been aiming for."

Coutts, despite his dumping by Alinghi, is still regarded as the best of the best by the sailor who first beat the Americans at their own game and won the Auld Mug for Australia.John Bertrand, who was at the helm of Australia II when the Alan Bond-led syndicate beat Dennis Conner at Newport, Rhode Island in 1983 to take the America's Cup from US waters for the first time, said he could understand the reasons behind yesterday's bust-up between Coutts and Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli.

"After I won the cup I felt I had outgrown the role of skipper," said Bertrand from Australia yesterday. "My visions were much higher."

Bertrand did not, however, get to defend the coveted cup four years later when he was beaten in a defenders sail-off by Kevin Parry's Kookaburra syndicate who, in turn, lost 4-0 to Conner off Fremantle.

Commenting on yesterday's decision by Bertarelli to sack Coutts for refusing to sail in three regattas, "repeated violations of his duties" according to the media release, Bertrand said he was surprised at the haste with which it had been made.

"I can see where Russell was headed. He preferred to keep his options open but when they changed the rules last week that was taken from him. The decision was obviously taken following discussions between Bertarelli and Larry Ellison.

"While he [Coutts] is out of it - and I'm sure he will miss the America's Cup - there are other options, including the Volvo ocean races.

"From the very start when the New York Yacht Club was in charge everything has been stacked one way.

"I'm sure the rule [the 180-day rule which precludes Coutts from linking with any other syndicate] was changed and made retrospective with Russell Coutts in mind.

"That's sad. He has so much to offer the sport.

"He is Mr America's Cup. Other syndicates could have used his experience once Alinghi didn't want him.

"He showed as recently as the last match-racing regatta where he virtually turned up and won, he is the best of the best."

The rule change

Alinghi released a revised version of the America's Cup protocol last week that included a rule to try to stop Russell Coutts and other New Zealand members of Alinghi from joining another team.

After the 2003 Cup, Alinghi ruled sailors could not change teams within 18 months of the next cup.

Changes in January bound a sailor from 2006 on to any team they had sailed with since the last Cup. Now the rules forbid "a person who has been contracted, engaged, paid or otherwise engaged [paid or unpaid]" by a team for 180 days since the last Cup, to change teams.

The numbers

Ernesto Bertarelli is thought to have lured Russell Coutts to Alinghi with a cheque of between $US5 million and $US7 million ($7.8 million and $10.9 million) and a US$2 million winning bonus. In July last year the National Business Review put Coutts' worth at $14 million.