Butterworth's tactic, golf not gulf

By JULIE ASH

Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth arrived here this week and headed for the harbour - Gulf Harbour that is, for a round of golf.

Butterworth and his skipper Russell Coutts are in New Zealand for Christmas.

"Of course you miss home, where you were brought up," Butterworth said.

"So it is nice to come back and have a summer break in the middle of the northern winter."

After Alinghi's thrashing of Team New Zealand Butterworth, his wife and two young daughters moved to Switzerland in July and have settled about halfway between Geneva and Lausanne.

"My kids are in school there now. They love it, it is certainly a great opportunity for them to learn another language or two maybe," Butterworth said

Since winning the cup his efforts have been directed at finding sponsors for Alinghi's defence.

"Russell has been leading the charge and I have really just been trying to support him in any way I can. It has been a different job description but it has been good. I have enjoyed it."

He had also been involved in recruiting team members, which he said had "gone pretty well".

"We will be lucky to have two full crews. The squad will be made up of designers who are very good yachtsmen.

"We are lucky that some of the designers we have got are really good sailors which helps bridge that gap."

He said the sailing team would regroup next year for a regatta in Newport Island in June.

Earlier this week event organisers announced the America's Cup Class Rule which sets stringent design criteria.

Like Coutts, Butterworth would have liked greater changes.

"It would have been nice to have tandem keel boats and opened it up a little bit more.

"But it was really a tough decision to make because it would have outdated the existing fleet completely so it would have been tough to encourage teams to go.

"There is argument for and against but by the time four years roll around the boats I think will be a little bit outdated."

Gearing up for his sixth cup campaign, Butterworth is not sure how many challengers there will be and dismisses suggestions that the strength of Alinghi and Oracle has deterred some potential challengers.

"Yeah well, that is an argument I have heard before and there is two good teams there for sure.

"But I think if you get a good bunch of people together I think you could have a pretty good team with the amount of people that are in the world and with the designers that are out there. Nobody is really showing their hand at the moment."

As for Team New Zealand, Butterworth has plenty of confidence in his long-time friend Grant Dalton.

"I think he is probably the only guy that can get it going," he said.

"I think he is a pretty impressive guy in terms of putting together a budget for something like this and it is not easy.

"I just wish him all the best. I know it is a pretty tough job."

Having won the cup, defended it and won it again, Butterworth is reluctant to look too far ahead.

"I think 2007 is a long way away really. So it is hard to even think about what is going to happen.

"I'll be involved in other projects next year then in 2005 we'll probably be in Valencia and back doing what we usually do."

As for rumours of problems between Coutts and Butterworth and the event organisers which appeared on a sailing website ... "Anybody who takes that website seriously needs their head read," he said.

"We are just chugging along. I didn't hear anything about it until someone in New Zealand rung me up and told me that I'd quit, which is good to know."

Further reading: nzherald.co.nz/americascup