State of the nation: Brad Butterworth

Alinghi, the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and 12 potential challengers received good news on Tuesday 29 July when the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court reinstated the Spanish Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV) as Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup. But it was short-lived – four days later BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) brought the 33rd America's Cup to a grinding halt again, dragging the competition back off the water and into the Court of Appeals. Alinghi team skipper, tactician and four-time America's Cup winner

Brad Butterworth discusses the current situation...

Seahorse: What was your reaction to the court decision on Tuesday?
Brad Butterworth: It was great that SNG won that round. Obviously it's a legal battle far from the sailors' remit, but it was nice for a moment there to think that we could get back to a normal Cup cycle which would have kicked off again almost immediately...

SH: Up until now it has been easy for the media to target Ernesto over the choices the team have made – what do you say to this?
BB: The fact is Ernesto is a sailor and he has won the America's Cup through competing onboard; he loves the competition and wants the same standard or an even better event than last time. It will be interesting to see how the media react to this latest development.

SH: And your reaction to Oracle's appeal?
BB: It is a tragedy for the America's Cup community, particularly the challengers. There was a brief glimmer of hope to return to some normality and to get the America's Cup back on the water with the teams that were already entered under the 33rd Protocol.

SH: But BMW Oracle is clearly convinced that the 33rd Protocol is biased towards the Defender...
BB: They bark on about a one-sided Protocol and unfair rules favouring the Defender. I tell them and the community once and for all that this is not the case. And 12 challengers support this fact. All the America's Cup race officials and umpires are ISAF race officials and umpires, the three member AC Jury consists of Prof Henry Peter, from Switzerland, Graham McKenzie, from New Zealand and Luis María Cazorla Prieto, from Spain. McKenzie and Peter both served on the Jury of the 32nd America's Cup, agreed back then with Oracle when it was the Challenger of Record. Peter was also a member of the 31st America's Cup Arbitration Panel in Auckland and Luis María Cazorla Prieto was nominated by the CNEV for the 33rd.

The race officials are picked from a list given to the challengers and the Defender. The fact is the Defender is the last to use the officials and so only very rarely gets involved in picking them, as the challengers choose the best people through their elimination series.

We have acknowledged that we are not without fault regarding the Protocol; we made some communication mistakes in launching it – we have put our hands up to that. But, unlike our adversary, we have corrected these mistakes and have done that by working through the document with the challengers that are signed up.

All the developments in the Protocol have a simple, logical explanation, something we erroneously didn't explain in the early days. The Defender racing in the challenger selection series: this is due to wanting to curb costs. A schedule of sailing: to curb costs. We wanted to have a one-boat campaign, again to aid entries. All these points were discussed and agreed with the challengers. Throughout my career the fairness of the regatta has increased, peaking in Valencia where we saw the closest modern event ever, with the two best teams going at it on a level playing field. It would be the same if we had a multi-challenger event now.

As for Oracle continuously banging the 'CNEV is not a real yacht club' drum: it has been ruled such by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, how much more certainty do they want? The club was formed because BOR caused such a fuss over the Spanish team representing a sailing federation last time round. It is a legitimate yacht club as deemed by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court just like the Mercury Bay Club, which was based out of a Ford Zephyr parked on the beach, and the Dennis Conner Yacht Club which had its roots in the Fiddler Green Bar in San Diego.

I ask them once more to stop this legal manoeuvring and let us and the challengers get on with the multi-challenger America's Cup that we had in place under the 33rd Protocol, and which the 12 entered teams agreed to and signed up for.

SH: What are the team's plans now?
BB: Alinghi are going to sit down with CNEV and invite all other teams to discuss how to put the America's Cup back on track. And we are going to do this in the next few weeks, when we look forward to productive discussions to establish a common plan to get the competition back on the water for AC33.

SH: It does seem that the pendulum of advantage has swung away from Oracle and back towards Alinghi?
BB: Well, certainly their advantage of having their multihull in the water ahead of us has disappeared now. In fact there are a lot of advantages that they have had that have melted away.

Of course, we know BMW Oracle are a great team with a lot of resources and some great sailors, but at this stage Larry has never been further from the Cup, which is crazy.

SH: Will there ever be a time when the two parties will sit down and talk...
BB: That time could not come soon enough; for sure when CNEV was reinstated I thought we could get BMW to enter and move on, now who knows...

Ernesto has called Larry several times to find a solution. When Justice Cahn first invalidated CNEV in November he offered through his open letter to try to set new benchmarks, together with the New York YC, to build the future of the Cup. Then when the court subsequently validated BOR as Challenger of Record in May and the one-on-one DoG match seemed a clear possibility we sat down with them to try to agree a date for a fair regatta, giving us time to build our multihull, but they refused. However, we are still open to discussion and very much welcome a resolution to this dispute.

SH: So how will this pan out?
BB: I see this going the distance in court now. The situation is that we are building a DoG match multihull, as is BOR, to compete if the appeal goes BOR's way. If it doesn't then we are looking at a multi-challenger event in the distant future as this court process could take years.

SH: And the implication of the appeal for the Cup community?
BB: The teams have a hint of certainty in so far as SNG won the appeal and the club looks in a strong position for the future. But the reality is that until BOR drops the appeal process that hint will never be firmed up into anything solid. The same applies for Dalton and TNZ – until they drop their lawsuit there will be no certainty.

To move things on we need to have a Challenger of Record firmly installed so that we can organise an event with the challengers and have a Cup similar to the one we had last time or even better.

SH: Could we ever see a 12-team multi-challenger event again or has the damage gone too far?
BB: Everyone can see what has happened in the world since last July and I really wonder how many teams are still financially viable. Obviously a lot of teams have spent a lot of money for nothing this year. When push comes to shove, it will be interesting to see who actually fronts up on the startline.

SH: Do you welcome having CNEV back as COR?
BB: I'm pleased to have the CNEV in there again and would be even more pleased if we could actually get everything going and have a regatta as we planned in the beginning!

SH: What about a new class of boat if BOR's appeal fails, is that still a possibility?
BB: Well, that's another thing that we'll have to look at closely, to see what's gone on since the last class rule was designed. We'd have to talk to the other challengers to see if that one [the AC90] is the class rule that we all want to take into the next Cup cycle.

SH: And if BOR win the appeal and if there is a DoG match, could multihulls be the future of the Cup?
BB: Yes, it's possible. Of course the multihulls have become the big topic because if you want to build a boat 90ft on the waterline, the fastest boat you can get is a multihull whether it's a trimaran, a catamaran or whatever, and maybe they will be pulled into a class rule of some sort. It's going to be difficult, though, because they are really expensive boats, there's a lot of boat there for 90ft...

What we had planned in the beginning was a 90ft monohull which was a step up from the previous boats. They would have been modern looking and pretty fast, and able to sail in all conditions, now the ball is bouncing again so it's another thing we'll have to sort out. We'll have to sort out the class rule and establish it and then the next Cup can only be 18 months after that as per the Protocol.

SH: So if BOR fail in New York, it'll be back to a multi-challenger mutual-consent event with 18 months to the next Cup and if the American team succeed in their appeal then it'll be 10 months to the next Cup?
BB: Well not quite, because you're not counting the time it'll take for the appeal to be heard! And then there is another 10 months after that. So before you know it, it'll be a couple of years.

SH: And have you been enjoying the multihull curve meanwhile?
BB: The sailing has been fun, though I haven't really been doing much of it, Ed Baird has been doing most of it, and Murray Jones. It's different and it's challenging, and we've had some very positive results, such as the victory at Cowes in the iShares Cup. I guess if this situation drags on, it'll give me a chance to sail in some other classes as well.

SH: And with Alinghi now on the multihull path, is a turnaround going to be feasible?
BB: Feasible yes, easy no. There are a lot of guys who have been on the team since we started in 2000 who are multihull experts. Those guys are in their element now and we pride ourselves in being a team that tries to get everyone onboard a project. For sure they'll be voting to keep the multihull! We'll have to wait and see.

SH: What about the strength of BOR as a competitor and Russell's involvement?
BB: There's no doubt Russell is very talented and his presence has meant huge progress for Oracle. Russell has been very successful in the past, but he's always had an extremely good team behind him and the America's Cup is a team competition.

SH: And what about the next Cup and those looking on, is there any chance at all of recreating what we saw in Valencia?
BB: When we get some certainty there will be. The fact is that the Cup is a draw card, because even if it is in multihulls they will be huge and fascinating boats and wherever the venue is will draw the America's Cup aficionados and fans.

Do I like the fact that it could just be two boats? No. But it could be the way it is and at the end of the day the boats will be designed to the very highest level and hopefully sailed to the very highest level. And everyone loves a good competition.

SH: And where does the latest ruling invalidating Oracle as COR leave the TNZ lawsuit?
BB: I think Dalton has sued the wrong guy.

SH: If Oracle drop their appeal and TNZ withdraw their lawsuit, would the Defender let them into the Cup as challengers?
BB: Absolutely. First they would have to drop their legal cases and then of course we would welcome them as challengers as long as all the other teams feel the same. This is one of the questions to be resolved with the challengers during the upcoming meetings. We would need both BOR and TNZ to demonstrate that they want to join and contribute to a common vision for the 33rd Cup and to make it a successful event.

SH: And the mood within Alinghi with the latest developments?
BB: The spirit has been really good in terms of boatbuilding and designing.

The designers and the boatbuilders have made a fantastic effort over the past year to get us in a position to compete in the DoG match and there'll be some element of disappointment from those guys that that DoG match isn't going to happen in the short term. But the spirit of the team generally is really strong and our sailing team is there sitting in the wings just itching to get going...