Backing black

By JULIE ASH

Former America's Cup skipper John Bertrand says that although Russell Coutts' Swiss syndicate are a force to be reckoned with, Team New Zealand have a good chance of holding on to the Auld Mug.

Bertrand skippered the yacht with the revolutionary winged keel, Australia II, to victory against Dennis Conner's Liberty in 1983, breaking the New York Yacht Club's 132-year stranglehold.

"Alinghi have done a very good job. Technically, they are sailing their boat well and they are very tough competitors," says Bertrand, who has represented Australia in five America's Cups and two Olympic Games.

He says the $120 million Swiss syndicate, which includes some of the best names in world sailing, had prepared for the event extremely well.

"They have always looked very good on paper with the team that Russell Coutts assembled both on and off the water.

"They have got some good technical people involved, such as Grant Simmer, who was with Australia II, strategist Jochen Schuemann, who is probably the most successful modern-day Olympic racer, with three Olympic gold medals, and Russell and Brad [Butterworth]. They have performed accordingly."

But Bertrand is impressed by what he has seen of the defenders.

"I think Dean Barker and Co have put together a very strong team - world-class.

"I think their boat is very innovative. The design team have thought outside the box. The hula [hull appendage] is a creative solution to the rule.

"It has created a lot of controversy from various challengers primarily because, one would assume, they didn't think about that themselves. But that is the America's Cup."

He sidesteps the question of who will win.

"Nobody knows - which is a wonderful aspect of the America's Cup. The challenger and the defender have never gone head-to-head. That will only be the case on February 15.

"It gets down to: is there a difference in speed in the two boats? If there is, then the crew with the faster boat will have a strong advantage.

"If the boats are similar it is going to be one great contest.

"But in sailing on the Hauraki Gulf the wind conditions are extremely unstable and that makes many opportunities for a slower boat to win the regatta - unlike most other places in the world."

Bertrand visited Auckland twice during the challenger series and will return for the America's Cup match.

"The cup is like the Olympic Games: every event, the bar gets raised.

"I have enjoyed the higher level of racing and the equipment that I have seen, particularly in the sails and the rigs.

"It was a big lift forward from 2000 and a huge lift from 20 years ago with Australia II, as you would expect."

But from a spectator's point of view, Bertrand feels the wind limits are too restricting and the cause of too many delays and postponements.

He also believes it a shame there were not more teams around, which reduced racing this month when the Viaduct was full of people on their summer holidays.

Bertrand, who still competes in the Etchells class, was a member of the 2000 Australian Olympic team, acting as a mentor to the athletes during the Sydney Games.

He was chairman of One Australia in 1995 but has no plans for further involvement in the event.

"I have a lot of friends in all the various syndicates here. I enjoy meeting up with them and it is a chapter of my life I am very proud of.

"But as for going back, I don't have any ambitions to climb another Everest.

"I have done that."

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