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America's Cup holder Ernesto Bertarelli is unrepentant about upsetting legions of yachting fans by pulling Alinghi out of a mouthwatering clash with Dean Barker's Team New Zealand.
Barker slammed Alinghi's no-show, accusing the billionaire's crew of bad sportsmanship.
But Bertarelli called it "pure mathematics".
The Swiss entrepreneur
said: "Our objective is to meet Team New Zealand in the final. We are going to do everything we can to get there. It has nothing to do with Dean."
Alinghi's crew feared losing a point if the yachts touched at any time, which could count against them going into the final.
"Any competitive team would have done the same thing," said Bertarelli, fresh off the water last evening after watching a juicy result as Alinghi downed bitter rival Larry Ellison's BMWOracle by 32 seconds. It also marked a clash on the water between one-time Team New Zealand sailors Brad Butterworth on Alinghi and Russell Coutts on Oracle.
"I think everyone wants to see a Team New Zealand-Alinghi matchup at the end of this regatta. We're going to do everything we can to get there."
Bertarelli is preparing for a big week here and in the United States.
He wants to take on Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton final at the weekend. Before then, in New York on Wednesday, the Court of Appeals begins to consider yet another America Cup court case.
The stakes are extremely high. The case hinges on Alinghi's choice of a challenger of record for the next cup. Oracle argues the Spanish yacht club is a sham and lets the Swiss tilt the contest in their favour.
Bertarelli said he had no plans to see Ellison in Auckland: " I think we're too far along this unfortunate path that we might have to wait for the result. Plus I would say no proposal has come out of their camp so far."
Ellison is preparing a giant multi-hull challenge against Alinghi if he wins the appeal, though he also has mentioned the prospect of a conventional regatta. Should Bertarelli prevail, Valencia in Spain will again host an America's Cup, this time in 2010.
Bertarelli flourishes a quote from a recent interview with Team Origin's director, Mike Sanderson. The head of the British team says the rules and set-up for 2010 will deliver " possibly the most fair America's Cup we've ever seen".
But then US yachting veteran - and America's Cup winner - Bill Koch has filed a letter with the New York court which savages Bertarelli for disregarding the terms of the event's Deed of Gift.
The Swiss holder, fumes Koch, "seeks to trample tradition and tarnish the prestigious reputation of the America's Cup".
Replies Bertarelli: "That's one person's opinion." He says a lot of words in Koch's statement "don't reflect the facts".
Just as many leading sailors support his position, he says, adding that the court has already ruled that the current defender, Societe Nautique de Geneve, has done nothing wrong.
He says he has worked hard to foster competition in the cup, and keep it on the water rather than in the courts.
He recalls that he helped Team New Zealand get to the racing in 2007 with a loan and says it is evidence of his determination to sail rather than slug it out in the courts. According to the American magazine Forbes, the 43-year-old is the world's 76th richest man. His personal wealth was put at US$8.8 billion ($16.5 billion) in 2007, a fortune he amassed by selling the family biotech firm.
He remains an eager investor in the healthcare field, and says he was immensely proud that a drug his firm created has been cleared to treat patients with multiple sclerosis.
Bertarelli was last in Auckland in 2003. He lived in the city for six months and left with the America's Cup, destroying Team New Zealand 5-0 with the help of a crew he hired from the cup holders.
" You have to understand that I didn't come to New Zealand to look for those sailors. Russell came to look for me. I didn't really necessarily understand at the time the magnitude of what it would mean for New Zealanders."
He added: "If I didn't hire them somebody else would have. I can't be blamed for hiring Russell and the other sailors who are still with me.
"My intent was not to destroy Team New Zealand. My intent was to build a team."
Bertarelli famously fell out with Coutts before the 2007 cup in Valencia, when Alinghi won the series against Team New Zealand 5-2.
Coutts, he said, did not want to race under the contract he had signed: "I realised he was planning to do the same thing to Alinghi that he did to Team New Zealand. I just defended my team."
Alinghi has signed 18 teams for the planned 2010 regatta. Bertarelli says the protocol makes it possible for syndicates to compete without breaking the bank or struggling to raise sponsorship in the midst of a global recession.
"The model of Valencia we are promoting is to allow teams who don't necessarily have indefinite means behind them to be successful. "
Bertarelli admits he made mistakes after the 2007 regatta. Now, with all the significant teams signed on for 2010, he insists he has satisfied everyone "except one team".