America's Cup: Bertarelli criticism: "Catamarans in the guise of monohulls"

Two-time America's Cup winner Ernesto Bertarelli has issued a double rejection of the new New Zealand Cup defenders: The Swiss Alinghi racing team owner criticises the futuristic boat class of monohulls with their huge foils, calling them "catamarans in the guise of monohulls". And they are also the reason why he has now ruled out Alinghi's originally considered renewed participation in the America's Cup.

In the sailing news service "Scuttlebutt", Bertarelli is quoted unequivocally in this regard: "Yes, I would have taken part. Switzerland now has sailors who could do this without any problems with the nationality rule. The new boat change has cost the America's Cup at least two teams. One is Alinghi (the other is Artemis, ed.). Then they would have had six from the start. And it would have been easy to increase to eight."

A look at the history of the Cup shows that there was more consistency in earlier times. The twelve-oared boats, for example, were used for ten consecutive Cup editions, while the 82-foot-long boats of the International America's Cup Class were used five times in a row. Today, on the other hand, things are constantly being reinvented: The boat change initiated by the New Zealanders for the 36th Cup edition in 2021 is already the third in a row.

The most radical change took place in 2013, when Larry Ellison's Oracle Team USA replaced the monohulls previously used with catamarans. However, catamarans had been used before in the history of the most prestigious regatta in sporting history. According to Bertarelli, what the Kiwis are now doing is switching to an untested radical monohull concept based on ballast-foil arms - in his view a "new craze" that he does not want to support. The 2003 and 2007 Cup winner is convinced that the choice of the new boat class is responsible for the currently still limited field of only four officially registered Cup teams. So far, only Emirates Team New Zealand, Patrizio Bertelli's Italian "Challenger of Record" Luna Rossa, Sir Ben Ainslie's Ineos Team GB and the New York Yacht Club are officially in the game. However, there are indications of further interested parties from America and Italy.

Bertarelli expressed his displeasure unusually clearly: "I just don't understand it: why do you have to change the boat for every new edition? You could see that the previous Cup followed one direction. You could put the same amount of work into a follow-up project, but take less risk of making a mistake. Look at the British and Ben Ainslie in the last edition: The best sailor in the world, but he had the wrong boat - game over."