Bertarelli's boys a formidable line-up

By JULIE ASH

Alinghi - the name represents joy, dreams, a certain lightness, but also speed, sport and action.

The Alinghi logo is a bright red swirl, splashed across the grey hull and mainsail of their boats - a swirl which has become a familiar sight on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

"We chose passion red to express our thirst to win," said syndicate head Ernesto Bertarelli, who also chose the name.

"The anthracite grey is to symbolise high technology, while Alinghi is an imaginary name which has brought me luck."

Luck or not, Alinghi, who started out with a blank piece of paper, couldn't have planned a better road to the America's Cup match if they had tried.

Blasting through the challenger series, the Swiss team have achieved the ultimate in sailing - the right to challenge for the America's Cup.

Bertarelli, 37, had long dreamed of competing in the cup.

That dream came true in May 2000 when he joined up with former Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts. In September that year the Swiss challenge was born.

Among those who signed up were six former Team New Zealand crew members, triple Olympic gold-medallist Jochen Schuemann and top designers Rolf Vrolijk and Grant Simmers. They were among the best money could buy.

In May 2001, training started in Sete, with the modified Swiss boat Be Happy from the 1999 to 2000 challenger series.

The summer of 2001 proved to be a fruitful one for the Alinghi team, who won the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand along with the IMS 50, 12m IC and Farr 40 world championships.

In November 2001 the Alinghi team relocated to Auckland, where they have been based since.

Their first new generation yacht, SUI64, arrived in October, and their second, SUI75 arrived in July last year.

From the opening day of racing on October 1, the Swiss syndicate put their hands up as warmest favourites to progress through to the Louis Vuitton Cup race.

That day, they beat French hopefuls Le Defi Areva by 4m 48s and since then it has essentially been plain sailing - at least on the water - for the Swiss syndicate, armed with powerful New Zealand sailing nous, who know the Hauraki Gulf like the back of their hands.

Alinghi lived up to the pre-regatta hype and blazed through the Louis Vuitton challenger series in record time.

With 15 races in the round robin competition, three in the quarterfinals, four in the semifinals and six in the final, Alinghi sailed just 28 races in the series.

Theoretically they should have sailed 30 races to get to the final.

But Alinghi forfeited their last match of the round robin against Prada as they were already guaranteed to finish first.

They were then saved another race when Prada forfeited race four of the quarterfinals against Alinghi, to allow themselves more time to prepare their boats for the quarter-final repechage.

Alinghi were beaten just three times in the water in the challenger series, once in round one by OneWorld, once in round two by Oracle BMW Racing, and then again by Oracle in the final.

As a first-time challenger, Alinghi were elated with their success in the challenger series.

But their focus now turns to the match where wresting the cup off Team New Zealand may be their hardest challenge yet, as Team New Zealand has a 10-0 record in the past two America's Cups.

Their rivals are without a doubt a formidable unit, but the Swiss team can take comfort from the fact that six sailors from those teams now form the backbone of Alinghi, setting the scene for an almighty showdown.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

Racing schedule and results