Coutts speaks out on America's Cup

by Golden Gate YC on 10 Oct 2008
The following are excerpts from the comments made by BMW ORACLE Racing’s Russell Coutts at an October 7 press conference at Friuli Venezia Giulia RC44 Cup. A video of the complete interview can be http://www.zerogradinord.net/vela/americas-cup/esclusivo-russell-coutts-in-acqua-con-le-regole-della-32ma-edizione!found_here.

There is a Simple Solution: 'We’ve proposed that we adopt rules like those of AC32, which is, I think, simple for everyone to understand and would probably be one of the fastest ways to agree and get the [America’s Cup] back on track.'
The Sooner, the Better: '[I]f the other teams believe they can be ready for a Cup in 2010, then we would believe that we could be ready, and that’s fantastic. The sooner, the better – and if the other teams want to race in 2011, if that’s the decision of the consensus of people, we’ll support that too.'

We Agree with Ernesto: Cutting Costs is a Good Idea: 'Ernesto … pointed out that they would like to have a one boat America’s Cup, each team in one boat, we would agree with that. In fact, we would agree with some of the other cost cutting measures for sure.'

The AC32 Rules are Fair: 'Nobody has given a really good reason as to why we can’t simply go back to the fair rules of last time which produced such a great event ….'

Any New Rule Making Should Be Democratic: '[T]he fastest way forward if there’s a new rule is to create it in a democratic way and then there can be no arguments and we can all get on and sail.'

Judge or Participant – Not Both: 'From day one, our complaint has been that for somebody to try and be a competitor and officiate on the rules, for example, hire all the jury and race officials and that sort of thing, that’s been our complaint. So if we can solve all those sort of issues and return to rules like those of AC32, it’s solved and we go racing again. And there’s really no reason why we can’t do that, I don’t believe.'

We’re in Favor of a Multi-challenger America’s Cup: '[E]ven if you look back at when the original challenge document was put in, even that document said that our intention was to negotiate a mutual consent, multi-challenger event like AC32. And if that happens, we’d drop the court case.'

The Louis Vuitton Pacific Series is Fantastic: 'I think it’s a fantastic initiative by Louis Vuitton. Obviously, they have an enormous amount of history in the America’s Cup game and the fact that there’s … 12 teams that have come into this event already, it just shows that everyone is eager to get out on the water and race. And certainly, I’m really looking forward to racing.'

'[I]t’s great that Louis Vuitton still wants to be involved….The moment you mention Louis Vuitton, you know you’re going to get a high-quality event.'

The One-on-One Match is a Last Resort: '[I]t’s not settled yet and if it does not get settled, then we have to be ready for a Deed of Gift.

What Russell Coutts Wants: 'For me, it’s been a long time between drinks in the America’s Cup.'