Alinghi, America's Cup & Louis Vuitton Cup

A Sailing team update from Brad Butterworth…

Photo credit: Ivo Rovira / Alinghi

While the Louis Vuitton Cup rages on, Alinghi remains self-contained, the focus is intense, the goal simple. Winning the America’s Cup again requires a lot of race training and the Defender is doing just that. Brad Butterworth gives a sailing team update and some of his views of the competition:

What have Alinghi been up to while racing is going on?

“We do the same as the challengers really. We race every day. Sometimes we have two races a day. We do a bunch of pre-starts, but really we’re on our own so we’re sailing as a hard as we can to try to duplicate the challenger series.”

How is the preparation going?

“We’re pretty happy with the way things are going but you never know until the end. We’ve just tried to get to a level that’s as good as or better than the challengers and hopefully we’re there.”

How different is it being the Defender?

“It always feels a bit different. We‘ve tried to make it a bit different this time so we’re with the challengers a lot; that’s been fun. Now we’re on our own and nobody takes much notice of us so that’s quite nice too. So we try to have a bit of fun and wait until our time.”

How hard is it to maintain focus?

“It hasn’t been that hard. This group is a pretty strong, motivated group. They all want to win and everybody is doing their best and a bit more than that so you can’t ask for more.”

Does being the Defender make the pressure greater?

“I don’t think so. I think no matter who is racing this event there is a lot of pressure on them. When we get down to the America’s Cup itself, there is a lot at risk, a lot at stake. I think in the end the best team will win, that will be us I hope.”

Who would you prefer to race?

“If I had the choice I would probably take Luna Rossa. The Cup has been fantastic in Europe and if we raced them it would stand a 100 per cent chance of staying in Europe. Luna Rossa would be a great team to face in the Cup.”

What are Alinghi’s strengths and weaknesses?

“Well, we’re not exposed to racing different teams and different styles of people who sail the boats so that’s a weakness I’m sure. Our strength comes from within our group. They are a great bunch of people. Anybody who looked from outside within this team would pick any of these guys or any of the shore or design team. We’re a strong team.”

Photo credit: Ivo Rovira / Alinghi

What’s the key to a successful defence?

“The key factors are designing, building and racing a good boat. We’ve got a great design team but the designers can only do so much. The sails, the mast have to be right and it has to be sailed well. The key factors are just like any other team where you have to win five races first and have a good fast boat.”

What are the key strengths of this team?

“It’s experience. We’ve got a great pool of experience. We have great sailors, great designers and great boatbuilders. This game revolves around how strong the team is.”

What have you been doing this week?

“This week we have just been racing the boat and doing some drills. We have started to fine tune how we sail the boat around the race course and fine tune communications between the crew members and how we actually sail the boat. We are doing a lot of racing, starting at different positions and trying to win races. We’re learning a lot so it’s been good for us.”