Cup champion Alinghi ponders next move
VALENCIA, Spain – Back on land and awash in glory, the Swiss boat Alinghi is starting to look toward its next title defense in the America’s Cup.
Work crews started cleaning up Wednesday after yachting’s showcase event ended a day earlier with a 1-second victory for Alinghi over Emirates Team New Zealand. The Swiss captured the Auld Mug trophy 5-2 in one of the closest series in the event’s 156-year history.
“It was an amazing finish and I think it caps off a perfect America’s Cup,” said Ed Baird, the American helmsman for Alinghi.
The Swiss took the cup from the Kiwis in 2003, bringing it to Europe for the first time in more than 150 years. Without an ocean coastline, the Swiss picked Valencia for racing.
Alinghi said it will wait until today before revealing plans for the next America’s Cup. The Spanish team Desafio Espanol already has signed on as the first challenger for the next cup, making it the “challenger of record.”
“I know we’re not sailing today and that’s all,” Baird said.
At the sprawling waterfront base on Valencia’s waterfront, crews loaded boxes and forklift trucks prepared stacks of shipping pallets.
Baird hopes to be part of Alinghi’s future.
“This is a great team,” he said. “Anyone would want to stay here.”
Alinghi was founded by Swiss biotech billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli in 2000, and now has about 130 members from 20 countries.
This America’s Cup has been a grueling four-year campaign, including a series of warmup and qualifying regattas called the Louis Vuitton Cup, which held races in France, Italy and Sweden as well as Valencia.
Grant Simmer, Alinghi’s design team coordinator, gave a hint that it may not be another four years before the next America’s Cup.
The winner dictates the timing of the next race – usually three to four years. Alinghi has said it’s thinking of every two years.
“We found four years to be difficult,” Simmer said, referring to the difficulty in keeping the team motivated.
Exactly 100 boats have been built under the current America’s Cup Class design rules and are almost identical in performance because of years of development and testing.