'Multi-tasking’

Alinghi managing director Grant Simmer has seen the America's Cup from most angles, winning onboard Australia II in 1983 and again as technical director with Alinghi in 2003 and 2007. He also experienced the other side of the coin when AustraliaOne sank beneath the crew's feet off San Diego in 1995. Now tasked with preparing a multihull defender for a possible Deed of Gift Match with BMW Oracle, Simmer is also keeping in mind the prospect of a multiple-challenger event in monohulls...

Seahorse: Were you surprised that GGYC appealed in view of the fact that they were claiming 'white knight' status?

Grant Simmer: No, not really as they had been consistently pushing the legal strategy. As they had started the process and had the right to appeal due to the split decision by the panel, I don't think it surprised anyone that they went ahead with it.

SH: Given the current situation and the latest courtroom win for Société Nautique de Genève, are Alinghi still continuing to prepare for a Deed of Gift match?

GS: Well, the sailing team have been doing a lot of multihull racing, both with the D35 and the Extreme 40 and they have been very successful; Ed [Baird] has won the last three X40 regattas in a mix of conditions. The final event is in Amsterdam and that is going to be a tricky regatta in a very narrow course area! A fair bit of luck will be involved in the results there, but Rodney Ardern, Lorenzo [Mazza] and Piet [van Nieuwenhuijzen] together with Ed have done a fantastic job. Then there is the team's performance on Lake Geneva with the D35: Murray Jones helmed last weekend and going into the next regatta of the series they are leading that series overall. I think Murray steered two regat- tas and Ernesto [Bertarelli] steered three; they are doing really well.

We are also using the Alinghi 41 Le Blackfor our test programme; we've done a lot of work on the 41 throughout the summer. Generally we've all been doing a great deal of multihull sailing; I must say that many of us started off as multihull novices – not to say that we are experts now – but we have all learnt a lot and we've had some fun. We've done a lot of monohull sailing through our careers and getting into multihulls has been a breath of fresh air for many of us.

SH: And preparations ashore?

GS: We are continuing to build the DoG boat which has been an interesting project. We have an excellent team here in Switzerland led by Tim Gurr and Silvio Arrivabene, who was with Mascalzone Latino in 2007; he's our project manager and Tim is leading the team of boatbuilders. We have to continue to build it because if GGYC are successful with their appeal – despite our preference for a multi-challenger event – we're going to have to race in this DoG match.

SH: But will you delay the launch now that you are waiting again for the court to decide?

GS: It's not a decision we have taken yet. At the moment we are continuing the project plan, although we did back off on our schedule when the appeal decision came through just to let people have a life for a bit rather than working six-day weeks!

SH: You've obviously studied the BMW Oracle boat, which looks pretty clearly optimised for light air...

GS: Well, we have been looking at the boat – there have been a heck of a lot of pictures on the internet and we've had a few of our boys over there taking a closer look. It's pretty impressive from a design/construction point of view. To get that boat up to speed so quickly and to be flying a hull within a few days of launching and looking at a range of sails clearly demonstrates that the systems onboard all work well. We're impressed with what they've achieved and the boat looks slippery. Any big boat, any big multihull like that is going to look fast, but I think conceptually they've done a good job. It's clearly a boat designed for lighter airs and smooth water and they're probably betting on racing in the Mediterranean...

SH: Do you suspect that by going ahead and launching now BMW are trying to gain some inertia, whether through public pressure or otherwise, towards a DoG match – or are they just going for maximum tune-up time?

GS: We know they started designing the boat in July 2007 and originally specified a match date of 4 July 2008 in their challenge documents; so it's logical that they would have their challenge vessel ready and would have been anxious to sail it.

A huge number of people on the BOR team have put a massive amount of work into getting that boat ready, so I don't see much point in not taking it sailing to show it off and get some publicity for their sponsors. Having said that, every day they go sailing they'll be learning something, for sure, and if we end up racing in a DoG match they will have an advantage by being launched and sailing early.

SH: Given the fact that BOR are so openly showing their boat, do you read into this that they intend to build a second one or do you think this one really is their DoG 'keel yacht'?

GS: For sure this is the boat they challenged with. The team have declared that several times to the media and they know very well that when you issue a Deed of Gift challenge you describe the vessel you are going to challenge with. It doesn't mean that you can build a series loosely fitting some vague dimensions provided in the challenge document and then pick one of the boats at a later date.

In your challenge you identify your boat by naming it and then registering it as soon as possible. We believe that the boat specified in their Deed of Gift challenge is the boat they have to race and since they argued that they were going to be ready to race this year, it is clear that the boat that we are watching sailing in Anacortes at the moment is their raceboat.

SH: And have you yet received the Customs House Registry expected 'as soon as possible' as per the Deed of Gift...

GS: No, we haven't and there is a public exchange of letters up there on the internet for everyone to have a good look at! At the moment they haven't issued it and they haven't given us an indication of when they intend to, although I think they have said a few times that they would do it 'as soon as possible'... which is long since expired, months ago in fact.

SH:But are BOR actually under any obligation now to give Alinghi the Customs House Registry given that currently they are not the Challenger of Record...

GS: As long as they hope to be the Challenger of Record, which they clearly do in pursuing the matter in the Court of Appeals, they would want to satisfy all the requirements of the Deed, including providing the Custom House Certificate 'as soon as possible'.

Winning their next legal action would not suddenly then give them the right to submit a new Challenge, ahead of the other challengers; a new boat would mean a new Challenge...

SH:Given that the New York court most recently upheld CNEV as Challenger of Record, are you now preparing an AC90 in parallel to your DoG boat as BMW Oracle is doing?

GS: No, we have focused on the DoG match since November last year when we stopped work on the AC90 and switched to the multihull. We don't have the resources to run two design processes at the same time; believe me, we are fully stretched trying to design the multihull at the moment.

SH:Should you win again in court would the fact that you are focusing on the DoG boat put you at a disadvantage vis-a-vis any challenger who is still pushing forward with the original AC90 rule?

GS:We are certainly concerned about that from a design point of view; some teams have been focusing on an AC90-type boat and will have a head start on us. BOR are likely to be the most advanced of all given their relatively unlimited resources and their statements of continued development of the AC90-type boat in parallel to the DoG multihull. This is something that we are going to have to overcome in due course.

SH:And in the immediate future...

GS: Brad [Butterworth] will be co-ordinating plans for the next America's Cup. He has been talking to the challengers including Club Nautico Espanol de Vela, the legitimate Challenger of Record, and there are plans for challenger meetings this autumn to agree upon and prepare for a multi-challenger event.

Below:

As well as winning the last three rounds of the iShares Cup in Extreme 40s, Alinghi have been monohull sailing on the borrowed Judel-Vrolijk IRC66 Numbersowned by Brad Butterworth's friend and sometime employer Dan Meyers. The Alinghi/Numbers combo took top spot in the mini maxi class at the 'Maxi Worlds' in Porto Cervo (above) with Ernesto Bertarelli himself on the helm, and will be competing this month at the Voiles de St Tropez. Clearly it's not doom and gloom for every 'Not-the-Cup' sailor...

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