Breitling MedCup - Coutts aims for consistency

by Vicky Low on 24 May 2006 Being free of America’s Cup commitments means that while many of the America’s Cup sailors he will face this week have been slugging it out in Valencia at Acts 10 and 11 of the Louis Vuitton series in Valencia, three times America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts has been able to devote the last few days ensuring that George Andreadis and Jaime Yllera’s brand new Botin & Carkeek designed TP52 is in optimum shape to start tomorrow’s Yacht Club Punta Ala Trophy, the opening regatta of the Breitling MedCup TP52 circuit.

Looking relaxed as he attended tonight’s skippers’ briefing Coutts explained:
'We got here on the 16th so we have managed to do five days of sailing here. Wse have checked through all the sails and checked as much of the equipment as possible as we can and I really think we are in pretty reasonable shape.'
'This will probably be the best racing of this style of competition of the last 15, probably 20 years. The competition is going to be pretty tough. All the boats are pretty well crewed. It’ll be a matter of trying to stay consistent, or as consistent as possible.'

Coutts finished second last year in the Reichel-Pugh designed Lexus while Andreadis and Yllera finished xth in their Farr designed Atalanti.
The co-owners went to Botin & Carkeek for a next generation development of their 2005 Breitling MedCup series winning design Pisco Sour.

'The boat is a little narrower and a little flatter underneath. A lot of the new generation boats seem to have gone that way, looking around.' Explains Coutts who helms Lexus.

'I have not really been very involved with the project until I stepped in a few days ago, but the guys who have done the boat and the sails seem to have done a pretty good job.'

'The sails are a little improved on last year. You can always tinker and change some things to make them better.'

Coutts will not sail on Lexus at the Copa del Rey in Palma, Mallorca in July, handing over the role instead to Paul Cayard, who sailed the majority of the regattas last year on Atalanti.

'It is a shame really because the Copa del Rey was added after I had already committed to another boat. I am about as confident as you can be at this point. We have done all the preparation that we can have done given when the boat was delivered, but we are in reasonable shape. The biggest changes we will be able to do over the course of the season will be in the tuning. There are already a couple of small things we will do for the next regatta. Sail-wise we can change as we go, but the way we sail can improve as we go.'
In contrast to the build up over the best part of a week Emirates Team New Zealand’s Dean Barker who will steer Steve and Fred Howe’s similar Botin & Carkeek designed Warpath only flew from Valencia last night. He and his Emirates Team New Zealand crew only saw for the first time this morning, and sailed for about an hour and a half today.'

'There has been plenty to do to get ready. First of all we have to learn to sail the boat.' Said Barker on the dock after sailing, 'It’s quite different to the boats we sailed on last year. It has moved on a generation so there is a lot to learn. We will need to get out early tomorrow morning and try and line up against a few boats and figure out our moding a little. That’ll be the biggest challenge for the first day.'

'It’s really hard to say we are confident at this stage when we have only sailed the boat for an hour and a half, so we will just have to try and take it easy and see how it shapes up, but we have expectations to do well, but we are realistic as well.'

'I think it is going to be the best keelboat racing that been on show for a long time. To have a fleet of 20 boats lining up and a lot of the boats of a very, very high calibre is great. I think it’ll be great racing.'

Another skipper who just arrived from Valencia is Ian Walker, the British double Olympic silver medallist who masterminded Eamon Conneely’s victory in the TP52 Global Championship:

'I think the main objective will be to stay out of trouble. It is quite difficult coming directly from Valencia after ten days straight of America’s Cup sailing, back to back. But we’ll get a good night’s sleep and we’ll be very positive in the morning.' Said Walker.

Brazil’s five times Olympic medallist Torben Grael has been unable to take up his scheduled role on Caixa Galicia due to ongoing commitments skippering Brasil 1 during the Portsmouth stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. Helm Chuny Bermudez commented, 'It is a real shame that Torben Grael cannot join us to start the season, but he has had a to deal with a number of last minute issues that have precluded him from coming. Despite this however, we are confident that we have a very strong and cohesive team.'