Brad Butterworth named skipper of Alinghi

by Alinghi Media + Richard Gladwell on 18 Oct 2005 Ernesto Bertarelli, head of the Alinghi syndicate, nominated his vice-president and tactician, Brad Butterworth, to be the skipper of Alinghi at the base opening on Saturday. Brad was modest in his acceptance: ‘It is a great honour to be put in a position where he [Ernesto Bertarelli] gives me this sort of trust.’

The New Zealander is on his sixth America’s Cup campaign and has won three, the last with Alinghi. He races as tactician and forms the core of the Swiss America’s Cup Defence. For Alinghi, ‘skipper’ is a title rather than an active role, as Brad explains: ‘It won’t make any difference to the way we sail the boat, everyone has their area and their responsibilities, but I guess it will be a little bit different for me as it makes me responsible for the boat as a whole. I will be thinking about doing my job well onboard and continuing on as we have in the past.’

This, on and off the ACC Yacht: ‘Off the boat, it doesn’t really change much either. As you get older, you wind up with the most experience and so I guess that is where I am at. Really, once Russell [Coutts] left I took over some leadership of the team and I am happy in that position and comfortable to carry it on, especially with the strong group we have.’

Brad Butterworth joins fellow Kiwis, Chris Dickson (BMW Oracle Racing) and Dean Barker (Emirates Team NZ) as skippers of competitors in the 32nd America's Cup. The three Kiwi skippered campaigns occupy the top three places on the points table at the end of Act 9.

A sailmaker by trade, Butterworth trained with Tom Schnackenberg at North Sails before starting and running his own loft at Sobstadt Sails.

Starting out as a successful dinghy sailor, Butterworth switched into match racing in the Stewart 34 class at a very early age, under the tutelage of class stalwart, Bill Miller, and quickly made his mark.

He sailed with Peter Blake in Lady Be as the ‘big-boat’ of the 1983 Admirals Cup. Next, came a role as tactician for Chris Dickson aboard KZ-7 in the 1986-87 America’s Cup in Perth. Butterworth hooked up with Blake again for the for the 1989/90 Whitbread Race aboard Steinlager 2.

In the following Whitbread he sailed with Dennis Conner aboard Winston, including the mid-Southern Ocean stand-by of the Italian Whitbread 60 Brookfields – which had suffered a leaking rudder stock and was disabled.

Butterworth remained a key component of every NZ America’s Cup campaign, including the 1995 effort which bought the Cup to Auckland and was successfully defended in 2000. In May of that year Butterworth along with the other members of the ‘Team Magic’ – Russell Coutts, Murray Jones, Warwick Fleury and Dean Phipps broke the heart of the Kiwi nation, when they announced they were moving to join the fledging Alinghi campaign after difficulties in the transition from the old Team New Zealand to the new entity.

While the loss of sailors of this caliber was dramatic, the real loss was the communication, understanding and chemistry that this group had built up over many years, many campaigns and many tens of thousands of sea miles. To the general public this was the loss of some star players. To the sailing community it represented the loss of the communication backbone of the New Zealand effort which was irreplaceable.

The unique character of Butterworth is perhaps typified in this profile which appeared in ‘Big Red’ the story of the Steinlager 2 campaign in the 1989/90 Whitbread:

‘Like all top tacticians, Brad is incredibly devious, always in the thick of any rumours on the boat, and he had an uncanny knack of turning the heat away from himself. A connoisseur of snack food, Brad was never without a supply of biscuits, chocolate or contraband blues on board. Occasionally had difficulty giving his watch orders when his mouth was stuffed with one of these commodities. He was never more than a couple of hours away from a TV and video in port. The low point in the Whitbread for Brad was the poor quality of Uruguayan TV. ‘

‘As one of the top tacticians in the world, Brad’s experience was invaluable on board and on numerous occasions, particularly finishing in Auckland, his abilities paid big dividends. Sometimes when course selection seemed complicated, Brad could simplify the issue with his clear, logical thinking.’

Over the years, and particularly with the advent of on-board audio, astute sailing audiences have been able to overhear Butterworth’s very unruffled communication style, always positive but realistic, and always working to keep the thinking level up in the boat. His unique and very straight brand of laconic humour is injected at critical moments and Butterworth will prove to be an excellent leader for Alinghi.