Our Story

THE EARLY DAYS

Alinghi, created in 2000, won the 31st America’s Cup in Auckland for the first time in a staggering 5-0 victory against Team New Zealand on 2 March 2003. The Cup was returned to Europe for the first time since the inaugural race in 1851.

A ONE SECOND AMERICA’S CUP VICTORY

Alinghi won the 32nd America’s Cup 5-2 against old rivals Emirates Team New Zealand in Valencia on the 3 July 2007 after one of the most thrilling match races of all time. The final and deciding match was won by just one second! This put Switzerland and Alinghi firmly in the history books, along with the USA and New Zealand, as a multiple America’s Cup winner.

The 32nd America’s Cup, run as per the new model laid out by Ernesto Bertarelli, was widely acclaimed to be the greatest sailing spectacle ever. With four years of competition including preliminary Acts and 12 teams from five continents, plus more than 6.4 million spectators and over 4.2 billion TV viewers, the event ended up distributing substantial benefits to all the competing teams.

THE LAST FEW YEARS...

Immediately after the successful defence in 2007 Alinghi and its yacht club Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) launched the 33rd America’s Cup aiming to maintain the momentum created by developing the successful organisational model and by implementing cost containing measures.

The process of presenting a Protocol in partnership with the Spanish Challenger of Record, Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), and crafting the new class rule, competition and event regulations with the first entered challengers was well underway in 2007 when BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) and the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) struck with a law suit that disrupted the originally intended 2009 multi-challenger 33rd America’s Cup.

Alinghi, the Société Nautique de Genève and the 18 entered challengers received good news from the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court on 29 July 2008 when it ruled the Spanish Club Náutico Español de Vela to be the legitimate Challenger of Record for the 33rd America’s Cup. This was short-lived: four days later BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) brought the 33rd America’s Cup to a halt again, dragging the competition off the water and back into the New York Court of Appeals.

The American team won its appeal on 2 April 2009 and was imposed as the Challenger of Record. Alinghi invited them to Geneva for a meeting to discuss the terms of the 33rd America’s Cup within the framework of the GGYC Notice of Challenge which states a 90x90foot yacht: a multihull. The Defender accepted the GGYC/BOR challenge – as ordered by the court – and suggested opening the challenger selection up to other yacht clubs. SNG also invited the new Challenger of Record to discuss the format, venue and calendar of the event. It was understood that another meeting would take place imminently but on 28 April, GGYC and BOR took the America’s Cup back to the New York Supreme Court on contempt of court charges over the date of the Match.

The defending yacht club asked that the court also address the matter of the pending GGYC Custom-House Registry during the 14 May hearing to save time in getting the competition back on the water as soon as possible.
The presiding judge at the hearing on 14 May, Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich of the NY Supreme Court, ruled on the issues immediately. She declared that unless an alternative date is agreed through mediation (which she also ordered must take place), then the Justice Cahn 12 May 2008 Court Order is in effect and a match must be raced in February 2010 in Valencia or any other venue of the Defender’s choosing (so in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere). In another important decision, Justice Kornreich ordered the GGYC to stick to the specifications of their Notice of Challenge or risk disqualification and instructed the Challenger of Record to provide the Custom-House Registry as soon as possible.

A LOOK AT THE PRESENT

Despite the legal fight in New York, Alinghi continues to keep sport at the heart of day-to-day business: the boat builders and design team are working hard in Villeneuve, Switzerland to finish the multihull for a summertime launch on Lake Geneva and the sailing team is preparing for a multihull 33rd America’s Cup with two teams training during the Challenge Julius Baer this year. “I am 100% committed to fighting for the 33rd America’s Cup and defending our title on the water again,” says Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi president.

FROM CHALLENGER TO TWO-TIME DEFENDER: THE STORY SO FAR