With a thorough 4-0 defeat of Oracle BMW Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals, Ernesto Bertarelli’s team confirmed its status as the challenger to beat to reach the America’s Cup Match.

When Coutts is in a good mood, he can be down right chatty and today he held court at the vast Alinghi compound on Syndicate Row. His team is in the spotlight for more than just its 4-0 semi final win.

They’re also in the centre of two storms brewing: A team’s right to choose the boat it wants to sail and appendage attachments that amount to a circumvention of the America’s Cup Class Rule outlawing hollows.

Both have resulted from Team New Zealand, Coutts’s former employer. Team New Zealand has developed the non-moveable appendage and also believes that challenging teams must sail the boats they raced in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals in the Cup Match next February.

“I’m intrigued that somebody else wants to choose what boat we race,” Coutts said. “It seems strange that somebody would try to prevent us from using a boat at this stage with off the water antics.”

Although he said that he doesn’t like to get involved in rules issues, privately Coutts relishes the game of manipulating public opinion. And he took the opportunity to lob a few scuds into his neighbour’s compound on Syndicate Row.

“The Team New Zealand I was involved in tried to steer clear of these rules challenges. We tried to win by sailing better and designing better boats,” said Coutts, who led Team New Zealand to back-to-back Cup victories. “The new Team New Zealand seems to have adopted a different approach, and we’ll just have to see if that approach is successful.”

The non-moveable appendage Team New Zealand has developed amounts to a bustle for its new America’s Cup Class sloops. The bustle fits on the bottom of the hull aft of the keel strut, and has the effect of adding sailing length by redistributing volume.

According to Coutts, the appendage is an attempt to circumvent the class rule prohibiting hollows. He said that Alinghi first discussed adapting it to their designs in September 2000, but shied away from it.

“When dreaming up this idea, we unwisely thought the measurers wouldn’t allow it. So we decided not to proceed,” Coutts said. “In October, a confidential interpretation was issued saying the appendage would be allowed. We’re testing it now.”

Lost in the swirl of the shoreside shenanigans was the pasting Alinghi laid on Oracle BMW Racing. The Chris Dickson-skippered Oracle BMW team entered the series on an 11 race winning streak, one to which Coutts, Bertarelli and team paid no heed.

Alinghi won the four matches by an average of 48.5 seconds. The Swiss team gained more than four and a half minutes on 14 of the 22 legs raced and lost only 90 seconds throughout the series. They led at 14 of 18 mark roundings. They won three of the four starts, and all four first crosses.

For those hoping Alinghi’s domination was an aberration, think again.

When they were behind they kept the game close and waited for their opportunity, which they knew would come. Trailing by 14 seconds around the second leeward mark in Flight 3, Alinghi probed the left side of the ensuing beat.

There had been no left shifts all day, but that didn’t stop them. Suddenly, the wind backed 10 degrees. And there was Alinghi, lifted on port tack and crossing Oracle BMW Racing to retake the lead and put the dagger in Dickson’s crew.

“I’ve been very encouraged this last week as to the way the team has started to come together, particularly the afterguard,” Coutts said. “It’s the first time that Murray Jones, Jochen Schuemann and Brad Butterworth have started to work together as a team.”

Jones and Butterworth have raced with Coutts for many years. All three were integral cogs in Team New Zealand’s run of 10 straight wins in the Cup Match, and they’ve raced with Coutts on the match-race circuit for a number of years.

Schuemann, new to the mix, is no less gifted a sailor. He’s won four Olympic medals (three gold), three world championships and countless European championships.

Boasting such credentials, it’s amazing to see Schuemann on the cockpit floor aboard Alinghi while Jones and Butterworth flank Coutts. But the German Olympian is far from a discarded piece of the puzzle.

“Bear in mind that a lot of times during our in-house racing Jochen was on the other boat to myself and often split up with Murray or Brad. We haven’t had many opportunities to sail together as a group. And with Murray getting injured (broken foot), he wasn’t able to sail until the end of October.

“That was a set back. It took us a while to get that combination going and get the communication side of things working properly,” Coutts continued. “This week we’ve made a step-up in terms of communication and the way that team’s working together and the partnership that they’ve got. Hopefully we can improve that.”

As the top seed in the challenger selection series, Alinghi has taken a shorter path than expected to the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals. A minimum of 24 races were needed to advance to the finals, but Alinghi has sailed just 22 races.

The Swiss team withdrew from its final race of the round robins. Then it didn’t have to sail its final race of the quarter finals when Prada withdrew after the third race. Alinghi’s overall record stands at 21-3.

With a bit more than three weeks until the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals begin on January 11, 2003, Coutts says Alinghi will use the abundance of time to continue its development programme. Not the least of which includes the bustle.

“I regard us as fortunate,” Coutts said about their early research of the non-moving appendage. “It’s been a rush for us to design and get it through our testing processes. But certainly the design we’ve got we think has potential.”

If that potential is realised, it could mean trouble for Alinghi’s opponent in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals.

Source: Sean McNeill