Yachting: Rivals now in view for Alinghi

VALENCIA - Looking out from the rooftop of Alinghi's plush base in Valencia, skipper Brad Butterworth can keep a watchful eye on the challengers.

The chic three-storey building is in a prime spot.

To the right is BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa, while almost straight across are Team New Zealand.

Regarded as the three big challengers, you'd be pretty safe to assume it will be one of those teams who line up against the Swiss in a year's time.

Until recently that probably didn't worry Alinghi too much. The defenders were several steps ahead of the challengers, meaning Butterworth's famous talent for gathering information on the opposition has probably been a bit redundant.

But three losses in the round-robin competition has revealed a few chinks in the Swiss armour.

Butterworth said losing could be a positive for his team. "If it was the America's Cup it would be a negative ... but, for us, we learn more from the races we lose than we do from the ones we win.

"At the moment we rotate our crew a lot. We haven't got down to one final group that will sail the boat for the Cup.

"Every time we get to race against the challengers is a bonus for us."

This regatta is the last match-racing event before the challenger series - Alinghi's last proper hit- out against the challengers. In the past the challengers have not practised against the defender in the lead-up to the Cup, however Luna Rossa have already done so, taking on Alinghi in their new boat earlier this year.

But Butterworth, competing in his sixth cup, isn't sure it will happen again. "We have friends in other teams but understandably we are blacklisted from Team New Zealand, Oracle won't sail with us. Luna Rossa has once but I think they got in trouble for that. I can understand that, that it is just part of the game."

When considering the opposition, Butterworth said Team New Zealand seemed to be a typical Kiwi team getting on with the job and not worrying too much about anything else. He said he was impressed with their new boat NZL84 .

"We like the new Team New Zealand boat, we like the bow. We don't know much about the others."

Butterworth is not sure how much longer he will be in the cup scene. "I don't know what to do [after this cup]. Half the time I don't think much further than the end."