Sailing's beautiful marriage all at sea

By DAVID LEGGAT

Think back to last year's America's Cup and the image stands clear: Ernesto Bertarelli and Russell Coutts, big hugs, big smiles at the completion of a job well done.

It seemed to be a relationship which worked well for both men.

The Swiss biotech billionaire and the world's premier big-boat sailor, three times a cup champion, arm in arm on the deck of Alinghi as it wrapped up a 5-0 sweep of Team New Zealand to take yachting's most famous prize back to Europe.

Money had talked and the Auld Mug walked. A cluster of the world's finest sailors had been hired to do a job, did it superbly and it seemed all was set fair for a hugely competitive defence of the first cup regatta to be staged in European waters since 1851.

But this week, it all went pear-shaped for Coutts when he was sacked by the Alinghi board - Bertarelli in everything but name - citing failure to fulfil his contractual obligations. At least in part they were Coutts' refusal to be on board Alinghi at three regattas this year, in Sweden, Italy and at Newport, Rhode Island.

A few days before Coutts received a call from an Alinghi lawyer telling him his fate, Alinghi, with the cup Challenger of Record, the Golden Gate Yacht Club - the club behind Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle syndicate - reworked the cup's protocol.

The new protocol, essentially the rules of the cup regatta, now states any sailor who has spent 180 days with a syndicate since the end of last year's event, cannot join another team for the 2007 event, to be sailed in Valencia.

Alinghi does not want Coutts taking his skills and knowledge to a rival operation. BMW Oracle's confidence at mounting a successful challenge will leap with the absence of Coutts, whose chances of being part of the next regatta are remote.

So how did it get to this? How did two men similar in many respects come unstuck so spectacularly?

Remember Bertarelli's reaction to a phone call from Coutts around the time of the 2000 regatta, in which Coutts was steering Team New Zealand to a 5-0 beating of Prada. "It was like a basketball fan getting a call from Michael Jordan," Bertarelli told the New York Times.

For his part, Bertarelli could provide the financial muscle Coutts needed to fund a strong, successful challenge, but which he believed would not eventuate had he stayed at Team New Zealand.

Both men share a steely determination to be winners. But that strength was also a weakness.

Coutts believes Bertarelli did not follow through on plans the pair had drawn up for the 2007 regatta, where the sailor wanted quicker, lighter, more spectacular sailing, with greater visual appeal. He also wanted to reduce costs, make the event more accessible to the public, and have more say in how the defence should run.

The Swiss, with Bertarelli's right-hand man, Michel Bonnefous, have set raising money and regatta rights as key elements.

To Bertarelli it was simply a case of utilising both men's talents.

"I think you've got to use people where they are best at," Bertarelli told Britain's Daily Telegraph. "And I couldn't see Michel Bonnefous helming the boat and Russell being in the office, drafting contracts.

"I thought the logical approach was to use Russell leading the team and yet contributing to overall construction and Michel drafting the contracts."

The pair had been in mediation for about two months before this week's events. So Coutts is likely to watch the next cup regatta from a beach. What are his options if he is to beat the 180-day clause?

Several lawyers the Herald contacted this week believe he has avenues worth exploring, including studying what relief he could get under the laws of Switzerland, the European Union and the New York Supreme Court.

At some point the America's Cup jury, who are the arbiters of the competition and who interpret the protocol, will come into play. Coutts, as an individual, could not appeal to the jury, but a syndicate could test the waters on behalf of a sailor.

Prominent Auckland Queen's Counsel John Haigh, who has not seen the relevant contracts, believed Coutts would need to tackle his sacking on two fronts.

"'I didn't break the contract, you did, therefore you can't rely on a provision of the contract you have breached - which precludes me from obtaining employment for another organisation'," Haigh said.

"On the 180-day rule, it may be his contract says you comply with the rules of the America's Cup, therefore he'd have to challenge the rule on the basis it is retrospective and grossly unfair."

Haigh added that if any court case was heard in New Zealand, "I think you'd get a very sympathetic hearing from either the High Court or the Employment Court".

And that's a problem for Coutts. Any action won't be heard in New Zealand.

One thing is certain: Coutts, who calls the Alinghi actions "a restraint on me", won't lie down without a decent scrap.

"I am a pretty determined guy," he told the Herald. "I'm not going to just sit back."