KEY POINTS:
To the victor in the America's Cup go the spoils. Thus it is that Alinghi have dictated that the 33rd staging of the event will be sailed in bigger and faster boats, with a new challenger-series format. Happily, Team New Zealand seem comfortable with the changes. But some of the more inexperienced syndicates may be rather less sanguine, especially with the premium on a high level of preparedness even at this early stage. There may also be quibbles that the Swiss syndicate have undoubtedly strengthened their hand.
Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth says the new class of yacht, with a maximum overall length of 27.5m, will be "bigger, faster, harder to sail". Boats 24m in length have been used for five cup regattas going back to 1992. Class rules will be issued by the Alinghi design team by the end of the year. Time will short for other teams' designers if, as expected, the next cup is sailed off Valencia in 2009. For Team NZ, that is not an undue concern.
They also seem unfazed by the prospect of Alinghi's competing in both the trials and challenger section of the new format. Yet it is hard to see the purpose of the Swiss syndicate's sailing in the updated equivalent of the Louis Vuitton Cup other than to get themselves race-hardened. Alinghi have obviously examined Team NZ's early advantage in this year's cup races and determined that next time they must be up to speed from the very start.
A protocol determined by an independent governing body, as in virtually any other international competition, would never countenance this added advantage. Yet the defender's right to compose the rules supplies much of the America's Cup's mystique. It guarantees controversy. It also ensures the cup changes hands only rarely. And that it remains the symbol of yachting supremacy.
