Bertarelli Pitches Changes to America’s Cup

Ernesto Bertarelli, the man behind Alinghi‘s successful defense of the America’s Cup, called on both the New York YC and St. Francis YCs last week to defend his vision of the next America’s Cup. In short, his plan calls for new 90-ft boats designed to a box rule, one-boat campaigns, and for the defender to race with all the challengers. The youthful Bertarelli’s vision has come under attack from many of the America’s Cup syndicates, and has resulted in a lawsuit by Larry Ellision and the BMW Oracle Challenge of the Golden Gate YC. Bertarelli says the lawsuit may delay the next running of the Cup past ’09.

Having brought the auld mug along with him to the packed house at Friday’s St. Francis luncheon, Bertarelli said the idea of 90-footers is a result of many America’s Cup sailors using their off hours to sail on boats – even very large cruising yachts – that are faster than the current boats used in the world’s most prestigious yacht race. He finds this embarassing. The new designs should sail off the wind "like sportboats." The idea behind one-boat challenges is to keep the costs down. Even so, he estimates that it will take 50 to 100 million euros – about $70 to $140 million U.S. – to mount a serious challenge. Having the defender match race with the challengers prior to the Finals would break with precedent, but Bertarelli argued that it would be impossibly unfair for the defender to not have another boat to test with.

In our view, Bertarelli’s arguments were all strong. Unfortunately, those of us in the audience somehow neglected to ask the key question: how Bertarelli could possibly feel that Alinghi would not have too great an advantage by being able to create the box rule, with the challengers all having to wait for the parameters. It’s like a footrace in which the Defender gets a running headstart. It seems to us it would be much more fair if an America’s Cup design committee were convened, so all parties had a hand – or at least were up to date – on the development of the box rule.