KEY POINTS:
When the latest America's Cup showdown begins next month, the most successful skipper in the event's history will be somewhere else, racing a boat he designed himself.
Russell Coutts has helmed the last three cup-winning yachts, compiling an unmatched 14-0 win-loss record in the process.
His first two
successes were with Team New Zealand, before he jumped ship and joined Swiss entry Alinghi.
But after helping Alinghi to lift the Auld Mug in Auckland in 2003, he fell out with syndicate boss Ernesto Bertarelli.
The parties parted company two years ago under a settlement that prevented Coutts from sailing for another team this year.
Coutts, 45, has stayed clear of Valencia, where the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' series has been in progress, and has also avoided commenting on the racing off the Spanish port city.
His media contact in Switzerland, Bernard Schopfer, said that Coutts had received many requests for interviews.
But Coutts had declined because he wasn't part of the regatta or at the venue, and so was too far removed from the action to give an informed opinion.
Coutts expressed a similar view on his website in January, where he admitted it would be strange for him to be watching the America's Cup on TV.
At the time the article was posted, some syndicates were still in the process of launching or testing their new yachts.
"I have not stayed very close to the developments, but I have heard the odd comment, although most of the talk and rumours are most often not very accurate," he wrote.
"It is usually hard enough to figure out the performance of your own boats, let alone try to predict the performance of another team!"
If Coutts wasn't keeping his thoughts to himself, his reaction to the weather problems that have caused more postponements than races so far in the LV Cup would be interesting.
When he split with Alinghi, he was reported to have been unhappy with the choice of Valencia, on the Mediterranean, over his preferred option of Cascais, on the Portuguese Atlantic coast.
With the America's Cup out of frame, Coutts' focus has been on other projects, including the Russell Coutts 44, a class of boat he designed with Slovene naval architect Andrej Justin and which had its first regattas last year.
In the last RC44 competition, in Croatia last month, he was tactician on Ireland's Team Omega, which finished third in a six-strong fleet.
The circuit's next stop is Switzerland and the Lugano Yacht Club Cup, the dates of which overlap the start of Alinghi's defence of the Auld Mug.
Coutts has also been working on the World Sailing League, which he and another former America's Cup skipper, American Paul Cayard, are helping to launch.
The league, which will be raced in identical 70-foot (21.3m) catamarans, is scheduled to begin in 2009.
- NZPA