KEY POINTS:
Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth says in his experience the America's Cup is a design race.
"The fastest boat will win," Butterworth said at a recent press conference in Valencia.
"At this level, against this calibre of sailors, if you have a slightly faster boat you are going to beat them. They can all sail well and in their own right win races on any given day, but it's pretty tough to beat a faster boat. At any other cup I've done, the fastest boat has won and I think this will be like the others."
Sizing up his opponents' race boats Butterworth said he was impressed with Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle Racing at the unveiling day. He didn't think Luna Rossa had moved very far ahead.
Whoever makes it to the match will meet a formidable team in Alinghi. Since winning the cup from Team New Zealand in 2003, Alinghi have been top of the pecking order despite losing star helmsman Russell Coutts, who was sacked early in the campaign.
Alinghi have won eight of 13 pre-regattas. Last year they were the only top team not to race a new boat - and still finished equal on points to season champions Team New Zealand.
Alinghi's 85 per cent success rate in races over the past two years is the best among the 12 cup teams. They have won 65 per cent of their matches against the top three challengers - Team New Zealand, BMW Oracle Racing and Luna Rossa.
The team's major strength is boat speed. But they also sail very well. The five New Zealanders on board - Butterworth, Murray Jones [strategist], Simon Daubney [trimmer], Dean Phipps [bowman] and Warwick Fleury [trimmer] are vastly experienced and are probably still the crucial cogs in the team's success.
Yachting commentator Peter Lester says Alinghi justifiably go into the regatta as firm favourites.
"Having seen their boats, they have got two very nice pieces of equipment that are capable of defending the America's Cup. There is no doubt about that," Lester says.
"They lack for nothing in terms of the sailing team, or the boats or hardware. The intriguing thing will be how they use it all."
What will be interesting is who they choose to helm their boats in the cup match - the reliable Ed Baird or the aggressive Peter Holmberg? The general feeling is if the Swiss feel they have better boat speed than their opponent, Baird will steer. If not they'll turn to Holmberg. At the moment they are keeping the competition between the two going.
As expected, Alinghi race boats SUI91, launched last May, and SUI100 launched in March this year, both have nice packages. Neither appear to have anything radical but both are modern in all their features.
The Swiss have a slight advantage over the challengers in that by the time of the match in late June the wind should be a lot more settled. As a result they have been able to design their boats for a more defined wind bracket - expected to be around 7-13 knots.
Going into this cup, many experts believe Alinghi start with yachts at least half a generation ahead of the challengers. Last time, Alinghi led the way in several areas. They instigated the square top mainsail and developed a twisting rig. Already in this cup they have unleashed a black mainsail and, along with Oracle, a jumperless rig.
They are also understood to have done a lot of work on dealing with the wind in Valencia, which tends to vary in speed between the top of the mast and the bottom, and therefore has an effect on sail profile.
ALINGHI
Country: Switzerland.
Sail numbers: SUI 91, SUI100
Team established: 2000
Syndicate head: Ernesto Bertarelli
Skipper: Brad Butterworth (NZ)
Key designer: Rolf Vrolijk
Helmsmen: Jochen Schuemann, Peter Holmberg, Ed Baird
Afterguard: Butterworth, Peter Evans (NZ), Murray Jones (NZ), Jordi Calafat , Juan Vila, Mike Drummond (NZ)
Estimated budget: $180 million
Boat colour: Red and black
