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Factbox: Cup challenger Alinghi Posted: Thursday January 09, 2003 7:05 PMAUCKLAND (Reuters) -- Factbox on Swiss syndicate Alinghi, who will sail against United States team Oracle BMW Racing in the final of the America's Cup challengers' series starting on Saturday: BACKGROUND: With a large budget and Olympic champion Jochen Schuemann running the sailing team, this syndicate from land-locked Switzerland began the America's Cup challengers' series as one of the early favorites. The team are backed by Swiss biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, who rocked the America's Cup world in 2000 when he lured victorious Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth to his new challenge. PROGRESS: The Swiss lived up to their role as favorites, finishing two qualifying round robins as the leading team among the nine challengers after winning 13 of their 16 races. Alinghi then beat defending Louis Vuitton Cup challengers champions Prada 4-0 in the quarterfinals and Oracle 4-0 in the semi-finals to become the first team to reach the challengers' final. TEAM: Coutts and Butterworth are the nucleus of the team, who rely heavily on local knowledge and experience. Coutts and Butterworth led Team New Zealand to their 1995 America's Cup win and then their successful defense in 2000. Coutts is an Olympic champion and won the world match-racing title in 1992, 1993 and 1996. Schuemann, winner of three Olympic gold medals, is Coutts's back-up helmsman. Tactician Butterworth has been involved in the past four America's Cups and won the 1989-90 Whitbread round-the-world race with the late Peter Blake. Bertarelli is Alinghi's navigator and won the 12-meter class and Farr-40 class world championships in 2001. Alinghi represent Societe Nautique de Geneve and have two boats -- SUI-64 and SUI-75. They will use SUI-64, the yacht they have used throughout the regatta, in the challengers' final. Their budget is estimated at $55 million and their principal boat designer is Grant Simmer. The team's two main sponsors are UBS and Infonet. FINALS: The best-of-nine Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' final against U.S. syndicate Oracle BMW Racing will begin on January 11. The winners of the challengers' series will sail against holders Team New Zealand in the America's Cup in February 2003.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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