Yachting: That old Black Magic may go as well

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Defectors Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth could take their glory boat, NZL32, with them to the waters of Lake Geneva as they begin a new America's Cup life in Switzerland.

The ex-Team New Zealand leaders - bound for a new partnership with Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli - will take the Kiwis' design secrets in their heads, but may also have something more concrete.

Black Magic I, the boat that won the 1995 Cup, will be leased out to the highest bidder to boost the Team New Zealand coffers.

Bertarelli has expressed an interest in chartering the boat - in fact, that was how he initially contacted Coutts when he was in Switzerland last month.

Coutts said yesterday that he would talk to Team New Zealand boss Tom Schnackenberg about the possibility.

"I'm all for cooperation agreements that help both parties," he said. "If it suits Team New Zealand, let's do it. It's win-win."

After flying in at 5am yesterday, Coutts is bound for Switzerland again in a couple of days. He wants to be there when Bertarelli launches the new syndicate in Geneva on Friday.

Little has been revealed about the campaign, other than that Bertarelli - personal wealth $US4 billion - will provide the dollars.

But Coutts was adamant it would not have an unlimited budget, like Prada had for the 2000 Cup.

"The budget is tight, real tight. Mr Bertarelli didn't get where he is today by being foolish with his money," he said. "But we are going to have adequate funds and be competitive with the others."

Coutts will be skipper and pull a multi-national team together. It brought back memories of starting up Team New Zealand in 1992, beginning from scratch with just five people.

"Mr Bertarelli is an international player. He's not restricted by the boundaries of running a challenge in Switzerland," he said.

That seemed to be his parting advice to Team New Zealand yesterday. Coutts reckoned the Kiwis should look across the seas for crew and designers to bolster the team in the wake of defections.

"Team New Zealand will again have to look at more innovative solutions. Not only should they be concentrating on keeping people, they should also be sourcing people from offshore. This is a world game, there are other teams not limiting their opportunities to one country."

That has become only too obvious in the last two months, as big players such as the world's richest man, Larry Ellison, Prada and a new Italian syndicate, probably backed by Benetton, move in on Kiwi crew.

The more teams, the more room that has to be found to house them in Auckland. Peter Kiely, chairman of America's Cup Village Ltd, expects at least 16 challengers based on interest shown so far, but there are only 11 bases in the Viaduct Basin.