ALINGHI WINS THE LOUIS VUITTON CUP 5-1

New Zealand was bracing itself for a kind of civil war last night as the man they used to love but now love to hate, Russell Coutts, lifted aloft the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Now he is the biggest threat to his home country's proud possession of what is one of the oldest trophies in sport, the sailing prize that has, for over 120 years, lured the biggest egos on to the rocks of despair and now needs a bevy of billionaires to support the world's finest sailors, designers and engineers.

Coutts held the same trophy before going on to a smash-and- grab win of the America's Cup from a much weaker American defender in San Diego in 1995. He repeated the 5-0 thrashing with New Zealand's successful defence against Prada, of Italy in 2000. With the unstinted backing of the Swiss pharmaceuticals billionaire, Ernesto Bertarelli, he brushed aside the equally well-funded San Francisco challenge, Oracle BMW, with the software house head, Larry Ellison, signing the cheques, and Coutts' fellow-Aucklander, Chris Dickson, as skipper.

For Dickson this is the second time in four America's Cup campaigns that he has made it to the Louis Vuitton Cup finals and been beaten. For Ellison's chief designer, the Annapolis-based Kiwi Bruce Farr, the search continues for the major trophy in his sport that has stubbornly eluded him. But for Ellison himself there was no equivocation.

Asked if he would be back, the one word: "Absolutely" inspired a huge round of applause. There was applause, too, for Alinghi as they came home in triumph to the Viaduct Basin that has been their home for the last 18 months. There was no evidence of the primitive hate campaign that has been whipped up over the last six months against Coutts and former Team NZ members now sailing on Alinghi.

With the win, the Swiss Alinghi Team, assembled by Ernesto Bertarelli, earns the right to Challenge Team New Zealand for the America's Cup beginning on February 15th. For the second time in a row, there will be no American boat in the America's Cup.

THE HULA DANCE - AsianYachting NEWS and VIEWS Jan 2003

Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing, representing San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club will meet Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi Challenge from Switzerland's Société Nautique de Genève in the best-of-nine Louis Vuitton Cup finals. On Jan 6th the teams declared which boat they will use during the finals and on Jan 7th on unveiling day, there was the TNZ secret weapon and rule-buster appendages for all to see which Team New Zealand have invested so much time and money. The 20-foot long second skin, which attaches to the main hull between the keel and the rudder, has been named the Hula by the Kiwis.

Alinghi showed the boat in which they have won so many races so far, SUI64, which looked the more powerful upwind of the two. Oracle, slimmer and flatter, seem to be pinning their hopes on settling the affair on the downwind legs. Race One has been postponed till Jan 13th. Um'm unlucky for some?

There was also much talk about the fat sausage keel bulb on Oracle, the longer sausage on Alinghi, and the torpedo-like stretched version on NZL82 and NZL81

Millions of dollars, sleek yachts and skulduggery come together in the race for the America's Cup

Combination of edited articles from Tom Dusevic and Chris Bouzaid

Nine syndicates or racing teams from Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain, Sweden, France and the United States have spent tens of millions of dollars apiece just to enter the competition — and only one will get the chance to challenge the current Cup holder, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. It's a good thing, then, that the hope of beating the Kiwis, who have held the Cup since 1995, enticed the fabulously rich to open their wallets. The competition includes teams funded by Oracle's Larry Ellison, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and telco investor Craig McCaw; biotech mogul Ernesto Bertarelli; shipping magnate Vincenzo Onorato; British tech millionaire Peter Harrison; and, of course, all the old and new money associated with the New York Yacht Club.

After the first round robin in the famously capricious winds of Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, two of the highest-spending syndicates, OneWorld Challenge (budget: $75 million) and Alinghi Challenge ($55 million) could be pleased that their investment had won them a share of the lead. But with six rounds to go before the February showdown with the Kiwis, nobody will be uncorking any champagne just yet. "The second round robin will be a lot tougher," said Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts. "We feel we are near the top of our group, but to stay there we have to work very hard."

The race schedule for the Louis Vuitton Cup built in five reserve days for Round Robin One, a series that should have taken just nine race days. But with four flights of racing completely wiped out due to too much or too little wind, and three other days when only some of the flights were sailed, Round Robin One will now not be completed until the first day of Round Robin Two as Monday was the last possible day for racing before the end of the 'no change' period.

Oracle and Prada have different looking boats. Oracle has gone for long lighter boats for which they have paid in sail area. They seem to be optimized for winds over 20 knots. The problem is they don't race in over 19. She seems slow downwind probably because of the smaller mainsail.

GBR and Victory pretty even. They have both improved during the series. They are off the pace slightly. The general consensus is that these two are as fast as NZL in 2000. How anyone can figure that out is beyond me especially when you consider that NZ was never pushed so nobody really knows!

S&S are another issue. They have proved that if you play with yourself for long enough you may go blind. With their new sponsor Viagara they can play alone even longer, they really need to share it around a bit, somebody needs to talk to Dennis. Now the big test is can they make the necessary changes to get the boat going. They certainly have the experience but can they do it in time?? They can only improve and we all know they will continue to get better.

The French and the Rascals have a problem, the Nuclear boats look really good, what is the problem, needs more neutrons, the Rascals will not improve anything except their pasta which is pretty good already.

The Italian Prada syndicate, meanwhile, were left to wonder where all its money had gone. Having beaten off all comers in 1999 to challenge the Kiwis — only to lose 5-0 — they expected the experience to give them the edge in the elimination rounds, which are collectively known as the Louis Vuitton Cup. But all was not well on dockside. Frustrated by initial losses, syndicate head Patrizio Bertelli, husband of Italian fashion designer Miuccia Prada, fired the yacht's design director, Doug Peterson, and took overall charge of design himself. But to little avail: Prada are lying sixth, making a comeback now very unlikely. Skipper Francesco de Angelis reflected: "Everything will be difficult here. We knew it would be difficult to get points."

While Prada suffered, Alinghi Challenge benefited from some shrewd recruiting. Bertarelli's millions allowed the team to poach Coutts, who had skippered the winning New Zealand boat in 1995 and 2000, as well as his tactician, Brad Butterworth. The investment has made Alinghi a favorite to win the elimination rounds and challenge New Zealand for the Auld Mug, as the America's Cup is known.

The scramble to sign up the best crew and sailing technocrats has given each team a multinational cast, which should hardly be surprising in a world where sport, commerce and culture know few borders. Oracle, representing the U.S., draws 28% of its team from New Zealand and 17% from Europe. OneWorld Challenge, representing the Seattle Yacht Club, is flying seven national flags at its team base. Swiss Alinghi and Italian Prada include sailors from Australasia and all over Europe. "The challenge within the challenge," says Prada's general manager, Giacomo Ovidi, "is that people of different nationalities can work as a team and achieve great results."

If Alinghi wins the Cup, it could stage the next event in Italy, France or Spain — anywhere with the right winds and the proper facilities, says team executive director Michel Bonnefous. The real prize at stake is the right to host the next regatta in home waters (or wherever the successful team chooses to call home). And that means money. For New Zealand, pop. 3.9 million, the staging of the 2000 Cup delivered a $700 million economic boost and the revitalization of Auckland's harbor precinct. The Italian, Swiss, French, Swedish and British teams share the belief that the Cup would benefit by a move to a European port. "It would be a great opportunity for the region," says Prada's Ovidi. "As well, you would be creating something new for Europe and building public awareness of this competition." It would also potentially give other European syndicates, sponsors and broadcasters a better tilt at the spoils of victory.

Some teams, mind you, may already have tilted a tad too far to grab those spoils. Even before racing started, Seattle's OneWorld syndicate was found in possession of three other teams' design secrets. In August OneWorld told the America's Cup Arbitration Panel the designs were stolen by a former employee. Unconvinced, the panel docked OneWorld a competition point. Still, dueling on the high seas would be nothing without an element of skullduggery. So nervous are the teams about others pinching their keel and rudder designs that whenever the boats are lifted out of the water they shroud the hulls in huge curtains.

Those curtains were very much in evidence dockside in Auckland last week, as the competing syndicates worked on design modifications to extract extra speed from wind and water. The next round robin begins this week, but there is a lot more action to look forward to — and many more $1,000 bills to be spent — before the Louis Vuitton Cup ends in January 2003.

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11th November, 2002 - Quarterfinal Round

Louis Vuitton Cup 2003 resumes on the 12 November, with the Quarterfinal Round, weather permitting. All four pairs, seeded based on their round robin results, are slated to race best-of-seven matches.

In the top half of the ladder, Switzerland's No. 1 seed Alinghi Team chose to race Italy's No. 4 seed Prada Challenge. That forced a match between the two U.S. West Coast rivals, No. 2 seed Oracle BMW Racing and No. 3 seed OneWorld Challenge.

In the bottom half of the ladder, Sweden's No. 5 seed Victory Challenge chose to race France's No. 8 seed le Défi AREVA, forcing a match-up between No. 6 seed GBR Challenge and No. 7 seed Team Dennis Conner.

Alinghi and Victory won the right to choose their opponent based on their performance in the two round robins. At the end of the quarterfinals, the two winners from the top half of the ladder advance to the semifinals and the two losers from the bottom half are eliminated. The remaining four teams advance to the Quarterfinal Repechage Round, where the other two semifinalists will be determined.

At a pre-round press conference attended by representatives of every team some announced boat changes while others announced crew changes. OneWorld Challenge and Team Dennis Conner both entered alternate boats in the quarterfinals. OneWorld entered USA-65 in place of USA-67, and Team Dennis Conner entered USA-77 in place of USA-66. The remaining teams entered the boats they raced in Round Robin 2.

France's le Défi underwent changes to its afterguard. Philippe Presti returns to the crew as helmsman in place of Luc Pillot because the team feels he's a better match-up against Victory helmsman Jesper Bank. Le Défi has also changed its tactician, inserting Luc Gellusseau in place of Sébastien Destrémau. Fabrice Levet rejoins the afterguard after sitting out most of Round 1 and all of Round 2. Philippe Mourniac remains the navigator.

The first warning gun in the Quarterfinal Round is scheduled for 1:05 pm daily, one hour later than during the round robins. Two racecourses will be used until one of the four matches is decided. Then, the remaining matches will be sailed on one racecourse until completed.