MATCH RACING MULTIS


It was the first time since the America’s Cup started in 1851 that a multihull had been raced, and was one of the most incongruous editions the event had ever seen. Many, including Conner himself, felt multihulls had no part in the America’s Cup and following Stars and Stripes’ quick two-nil victory over New Zealand the Cup – which for years had been setting the benchmark for match racing events all round the world - returned to its monohull roots. However a debate had been started that reared its head 20 years later when, after years of legal wrangles, the Deed of Gift was referred to once more and the 33rd edition of the America’s Cup, and both teams opted for multihulls.


Back in 1988, Conner told a newspaper prior to the Cup that it would be “a design lottery in which the sailors will have little or nothing to do with the outcome”. That prophesy came true again in 2010 as ORACLE’s 90ft wing-sailed trimaran obliterated


Alingi’s catamaran,


incomparable in all but length. Yes, these state-of-the-art multihull machines were at the cutting edge of new technology, but were they killing the true spirit and soul of the America’s Cup? Many believed the 33rd edition had sounded the death knell for the relationship between multihulls and match racing but ORACLE backer Larry Ellison and co had other plans, opting to contest the 34th edition in 72ft catamarans with a series of events to decide a challenger held in scaled down 45ft boats. Capable of speeds of well over 20 knots, the AC45s promised a spectacle of racing that would cry out to devoted fans and sailing newcomers alike – but still the burning question remained of whether they could be match raced.


Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget / www.americascup.com


“With monohulls, it’s a race of metres, while with multis it’s a race of kilometres. It’s got to be about close racing otherwise there’s no point.”


Photo: Javier Salinas / Alinghi


As the fleet gathered earlier this month in Cascais, Portugal, for the first round of the America’s Cup World Series, one man studying the action closely was Brad Butterworth, a legend in the America’s Cup history books and also skipper of the


defeated 2010 Alinghi team.


Butterworth has four America’s Cup wins to his name, but for a man who was badly burnt by his only multihull experience, he remains remarkably open-minded about a future of the Cup on two hulls.


Brad Butterworth photo: Guido Trombetta / Alinghi


Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget / www.americascup.com MATCH RACING 360° | AUGUST 2011 page | 7


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