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Alinghi crew members - Source: Reuters -
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With the demise of Alinghi on Monday, the Swiss can return to making chocolate, watches and administering bank accounts for the dodgy characters of the world
Alinghi's grandiose vision announced in 2002 was "to win the America's Cup, while earning respect and recognition as a world class sports team as well as sharing our passion".
While they achieved their first goal with aplomb, the only respect they earned was from those who admire conniving, cunning, deception and deceit.
Obviously there is a history of America's Cup holders shifting the goalposts to suit themselves but the 'Swiss' team, they took things to a whole new level.
Why Alinghi won't be missed
1. Dubious tactics
What are your memories of the 2007 America's Cup finals?
Apart from some great ding dong battles between the Challenger Team New Zealand and Defender Alinghi there were also several instances of rules being bent to the nth degree.
The most famous happened in race number four when Alinghi refused to drop their mainsail unaided, as per the rules, instead sending a man up the mast. Eventually it was ruled okay on a technicality by the measurement committee but it left a sour taste for many observers.
2. Swiss-made arrogance
The Alinghi team took arrogance to a whole new level in their America's Cup reign from 2003 to 2010. From the moment the Cup was handed over in a muted celebration on Auckland harbour it was never the same again.
There was little sense of fair play and a win at all costs attitude that made the infamous New York Yacht Club (and Dirty Dennis Conner) look like gentleman.
This peaked ahead of the 2007 Valencia regatta, when Alinghi kept the proposed yacht specifications under their hat for months to give their designers a crucial edge before eventually releasing them to the rest of the field
3. Russell's revenge
After winning the Cup for his new Swiss employers in 2003, Coutts was given the boot in 2004 following a bust up with Ernesto Bertarelli. These things happen, but coincidentally a few months earlier Alinghi amended the American Cup rules to say that nobody could change teams until the end of the 2007 regatta.
While they were entitled to, it was Machiavellian cunning of the highest order and locked Coutts out of his profession for three years.
4. The no-show at the Louis Vuitton
The Waitameta harbour was packed with spectator boats on a balmy
Auckland afternoon in early February 2009. In the round robin of
the Louis Vuitton Cup, Alinghi were slated to race Team New Zealand
in their first match up since the epic 2007 finals. But Alinghi
stayed in the dock, deciding they had nothing to gain with racing
and not wanting to risk damage to their boat.
Some would call it hard-nosed gamesmanship but most would label it
unnecessary, arrogant and disrespectful of the event. Team New
Zealand skipper Dean Barker was famously "pissed off" but we wonder
who is smiling now.
5. Respect for the event
Alinghi always exhibited a lack of respect for the century old traditions of the Auld Mug. This was at its worst in 2007, when they took a full part in the challenger regatta, something that aided them greatly in their tune-ups, but was grossly against the spirit of the America's Cup.
6. The weird saga of Club Nautico Espanol de Vela
The strange saga of Club Náutico Español de Vela
was the classic example of Alinghi's ill-advised bravado. Put
forward as the challenger of record for the 2010 America's Cup, it
was hardly a surprise when there were immediate objections from the
other syndicates. The 'club' apparently had just five members
and had never once ran a regatta when it was put forward to be
Alinghi's partner in organising the upcoming regatta and setting
the rules.
It had been hastily formed weeks before, did not have a website and
had ran just one regatta - a children's event - when the legal
challenges began. Hardly a surprise then when the courts ruled that
it was not a suitable challenger of record.
7. When Kiwi hearts turned black
So many bad memories still rankle from the circumstances of the 2003 America's Cup regatta in Auckland. Sure there were all sorts of behind the scenes wrangling - and maybe Coutts and Butterworth did want to leave but there can be no denying that the Swiss chequebook ripped the heart and soul out of Team New Zealand, buying not just the skills and expertise of the 'gang of five' but also 20-odd years of intellectual property.
But there did not seem to be much appreciation or empathy with how the average New Zealander might be feeling about that as the Swiss team sauntered into town, took the trophy and departed with barely a bow to the hosts.
Allow some rope here but it seems akin to the Russian football team nationalising five of the best Brazillian players, turning up at the 2014 World Cup in Rio, walking off with the silverware and then getting upset at the frosty reception they made have received.
8. Global, but not necessarily noble
Before the emergence of Alinghi America's Cup teams were always loosely based on a nationality which gave each crew a sense of identity. While there have always been plenty of imports, Alinghi's 2007 squad consisted of members from Germany, the United States, Canada, The Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Portugal, Turkey, Ireland, the UK Scotland and Wales, Belgium, South Africa , Australia, Uruguay, Argentina, Denmark and Ecuador. Indeed at times during the 2007 America's Cup regatta there was barely a Swiss sailor on the boat.
