Coutts gets set for Team NZ

By JULIE ASH

Almost three years ago, Russell Coutts stood in the Viaduct with the America's Cup held proudly above his head.

Yesterday he stood on the same harbour with his Swiss syndicate, Alinghi, and received the Louis Vuitton Cup and the right to challenge his old side, Team New Zealand, for the America's Cup.

Coutts' Alinghi beat Oracle BMW Racing by 2m 34s yesterday for their fifth win in the best-of-nine series.

"It is a great feeling," Coutts said. "We were behind in the race and I thought they might have had us at one point, but we managed to turn it around.

"We have worked hard for this, we never expected it to happen, but now that it has happened it is a great thing."

For Larry Ellison's $200 million syndicate, Oracle BMW Racing, skippered by New Zealand's Chris Dickson, the loss marked the end of their cup dream.

Despite their money and staff, Oracle were never going to outclass the Coutts and Butterworth show.

Alinghi now have almost a month to prepare for what will be an emotional showdown with Team New Zealand for the America's Cup.

"I think we are all excited about it," Coutts said. "I think it is going to be a great match - probably one of the better ones in America's Cup history. Well, hopefully it will."

While few campaigns have succeeded in their first America's Cup, Alinghi syndicate head and pharmaceutical billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli did every thing right when he formed the Swiss challenge in September 2000.

With a budget of around $120 million, Bertarelli set about getting the best he could buy.

Among those were former Team New Zealand members Coutts, Brad Butterworth, Dean Phipps, Simon Daubney, Murray Jones and Warwick Fleury.

Initially, their designer, Rolf Vrolijk, was seen as a potential weakness, but SUI64, which strongly resembles NZL60, has shown it can perform in a wide range of conditions.

Alinghi were always going to be one of the favourites when the Louis Vuitton challenger series started, and as soon as they set sail it became clear they would be a force to be reckoned with.

With Coutts and Butterworth running the outfit, it would have required a highly- polished performance from any of the other syndicates to beat them.

Alinghi finished at the top of the table after the double round-robin competition and went on to win their quarter-final clash with Prada 3-0 after Prada forfeited the last match.

They then cleaned up Oracle 4-0 in the semifinals before beating them in the final yesterday 5-1.

Now Coutts will face Team New Zealand in the 31st America's Cup in a best-of-nine series next month.

While SUI64 can be described as an evolution of NZL60, Team New Zealand designers have created two entirely different yachts.

At the unveiling, NZL81 and NZL82 both sported underwater appendages and revolutionary masts.

The question now is whether Alinghi will try to recreate the appendage themselves and whether they have the time.

"We have been testing it, but Team New Zealand have had it for two years and we have a lot of work to do," Coutts said yesterday.

So far the hula (hull appendage) looks impressive, but if the boats do turn out to be of similar speed, it will come down to Dean Barker and his team winning the start and getting the first cross - something at which Alinghi was so successful in the challenger series.

In terms of the crew work, Alinghi are a slick unit, with Coutts, Butterworth, Jones and triple Olympic gold medallist Jochen Schuemann calling the shots.

But many of the Team New Zealand crew, including skipper Dean Barker and tactician Hamish Pepper, trained against Coutts and Butterworth on the B boat last time, which will give them an insight into how the Alinghi camp works.

There is confidence in the Team New Zealand camp, although they are well aware they are not going to storm home 5-0 like last time.

But one thing Team New Zealand do have going for them is the passion to win and their closeness as a team.

There is no team on syndicate row closer than Team New Zealand - something that could make all the difference come February 15.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

Racing schedule, results and standings