Print

Mail

wiki links

Alinghi retains America's Cup in one-second finish

Alinghi, right, leads Team New Zealand on the seventh day of racing in the 32nd America's Cup in Valencia, Spain, on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP

As New Zealanders replay this America's Cup in their minds over the years and regattas to come, they may find it easy to think that one small plot twist here or there could have made all the difference.

It was particularly tempting on Tuesday, when Alinghi successfully defended the Cup with a thrilling one-second victory over Emirates Team New Zealand.

That was the closest finish in the 156-year history of an event that has more history than any other major modern sports competition. By crossing the line just barely in front, the Swiss-based Alinghi clinched the best-of-nine series, 5-2, to retain control of the Cup.

Kiwi fans will wince and maintain that the regatta could still be going if their team had not chosen to round the left-hand gate with the lead at the bottom of the first downwind leg. They will wonder what might have happened if the umpires had not given them a penalty for forcing Alinghi to avoid them on the next leg or what could have been if Dean Barker, the skipper, and his crew had completed their desperate penalty turn at the finish line a second or two faster.

But the nagging truth for those who stayed up deep into the night to watch in New Zealand, and for those who cheered and then cried here, is that too many little things went right for Alinghi and its skipper, Brad Butterworth, in this Cup for it to be a coincidence.

"It's a sign," said Terry Hutchinson, Team New Zealand's tactician. "We can't say enough about the caliber of that team."

For an event marked by a chronic absence of suspense, this edition provided a radical shift. This was the closest Cup since 1983, but the final score did not do justice to the degree of uncertainty that these two syndicates and their well-matched yachts generated the past 10 days. Lead changes, so rare in the critical phases of the challenger series here, became routine. There were five more Tuesday, and the most lopsided margin of victory in the seven races of the final was a mere 35 seconds.

"This is definitely bigger and better than last time," said Ernesto Bertarelli, the Swiss billionaire businessman who is Alinghi's president and onboard strategist. "It's been much, much harder than I ever thought it would be. I think I was a bit naive in 2003 when I won. I learned more about the America's Cup over the last 10 days than I've learned over the last seven years."

In Auckland in 2003, Bertarelli won the cup on his first attempt. To do so, he hired New Zealand's top sailing talent, including Butterworth and the helmsman Russell Coutts, and proceeded to storm through the challenger series, then sweep the remnants of Team New Zealand in the Cup match.

That brought the Auld Mug back to Europe for the first time since the competition began in 1851, when the yacht America won a race around the Isle of Wight in England. Coutts left the syndicate in 2004, but Alinghi was able to defend with a 17-man crew that included sailors from eight countries, including six New Zealanders, three US sailors and only one Swiss: Bertarelli.

The cup will probably remain in Europe, perhaps in Valencia, for at least another cycle. Although Bertarelli has yet to announce where Alinghi will stage the next edition and has not ruled out Dubai, Alinghi has agreed to terms with a challenger of record, which will be the Spanish syndicate Desafio Espanol. That team reached the semifinals of the challenger series here and represented the Royal Spanish Yachting Federation.

Bertarelli declined to comment on the agreement, but the Spaniards signed the new protocol shortly after the finish Tuesday. This warm day, meanwhile, started out with a stiff, classic sea breeze that faded into something much less predictable on the final leg of the race. In the final meters, the Spanish syndicate members had to begin wondering if they would get the chance to sign anything at all. Heading into the final quarter of the leg, Alinghi led by more than four boat lengths, with Team New Zealand still obliged to do its penalty turn.

"In a normal regatta, we would have it all but won," said Juan Vila, Alinghi's Spanish navigator. "But this is no normal regatta."
This story has been viewed 1042 times.