- Coutts defends quitting Team NZ (11/22/01)
  (source : NZ Herald)

Yachtsman Russell Coutts launched his Swiss America's Cup challenge, Alinghi, in Auckland last night, unrepentant about his decision to quit as Team NZ's skipper. "When I look at it now, we needed new challenges and so did they [Team New Zealand]," Coutts said.

He said claims that he had planned to leave Team New Zealand the day he let Dean Barker take the helm were untrue. "I handed Dean the helm because I wanted to demonstrate that the team should come before any one person's ego."

After that, things changed in the team. "I think it is common knowledge that issues developed that we couldn't resolve. "But the fact is that we began talking with Michel Bonnefous and Ernesto Bertarelli [from Alinghi] well after that final race."

Ironically, Alinghi's new syndicate base is next door to Team New Zealand's. "A bit of banter goes on back and forwards across the fence," Coutts said. "We had many great years with Team New Zealand and we have a great relationship with them." And although he said the shock had gone, he was not expecting New Zealand to rally behind his crew.

List of IACC

List of IACC

The America's Cup is a special combination of state-of-the-art technology and professionals at the highest level of their sport, working as a team to deliver a winning approach.

For the last 145 years, thousands of engineers, architects and researchers of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) have contributed their skills towards the technological development in Switzerland and now, a modern institute of technology could not train high-level engineers and architects without crossing America's Cup a day.

As Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt (the German national center for air and aerospace research) with Illbruck, DERA (Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) with GBR Challenge or Auckland University with Team NZ, Alinghi and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne unveiled their partnership in pursuit of yachting's greatest prize. This formidable undertaking will challenge the best efforts of EPFL's researchers and students.

At least five EPFL labs and some fifteen EPFL researchers are now working in collaboration with the Alinghi Swiss Challenge Team. About twenty EPFL students will soon join them. The partnership carries out its research and development work at the EPFL campus in Ecublens as well as at the Décision SA boat yard on Fenil-sur-Corsier near Vevey.

Professor Jan-Anders Månson, in charge of the EPFL's Alinghi project, remarked, "For me, it is a most extraordinary experience. This is a unique opportunity to apply the results of fundamental scientific research immediately to an important practical undertaking. This normally involves a much longer process. But in our Alinghi project, the performance requirements and the competition between the various teams result in nearly instantaneous technology transfer."

The research partnership has several dimensions : materials science to optimize the yacht shell and test the resistance of its components, computer simulation to design the shape of the hull, especially the section below the water line, and innovative measurement systems to analyze the aero- and hydrodynamics of the boat.

Racing yacht materials are an important focus of attention, as every ounce saved in the boat shell can be transferred to the lower ballast to enhance performance. The ballast normally accounts for about 20 of the boat's 25 tons of total weight. "To have a realistic hope of wining the America's Cup, we need to excel in many areas," said Grant Simmer, the Alinghi team's coordinator of design. "That's the reason this partnership is so important to us. EPFL's academic expertise helps us to validate ideas quickly in broad fields such as material resistance, structural integrity, hydrodynamics, etc."

The scope of the partnership will unfold according to the needs of the Alinghi team and to the innovations created by designers and engineers. "Such a project requires highly developed skills in science, creativity, management, technology, and intuition," explained Bertrand Cardis, co-director of the Décision SA boat yard. "Intuition is fundamental to developing innovations, but intuition must be either confirmed or invalidated by the results of tests and tangible studies.

This is the main principle that will guide the evolution of the EPFL and Alinghi team partnership." The EPFL will also launch a contest for students to develop a semester project that could result in a supplementary innovation for the Alinghi boat. The prize-winning student will be invited to join the Alinghi Team in New Zealand for the Louis Vuitton Cup competition in late 2002.