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Coutts: 'Humiliating' TNZ lockout
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts has spoken out on why he left Team New Zealand, saying he and other sailors were locked out of their base after successfully defending the America's Cup in 2000. "It was symbolic of the prevailing attitude at the time that locks to the base were changed abruptly so that sailors, who had been with Team New Zealand for more than a decade, including Brad, found themselves humiliatingly locked out," Coutts said in a statement on Friday. The defections of the two highest profile Team New Zealand (TNZ) members Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth to the Swiss team Alinghi caused outrage in New Zealand. "By clearing the air we hope we can now return to a focus on the sport and to the action on the water," Coutts said. They quit TNZ after failing to reach an agreement over the management of the next defence with the trustees who controlled the syndicate, he said. Coutts said: "It had been previously agreed that when Sir Peter Blake left the team [I, Brad Butterworth] and Tom Schnackenberg would take over the management. "But it was only at a very late stage in negotiations that we concluded we were very unlikely to be able to reach a satisfactory agreement for this to happen." Negotiations with trustees had stalled for three years and were still unresolved when TNZ member contracts expired the month after it won the series in March 2000, he said. By May, Coutts and Butterworth had met Swiss biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, and joined his Alinghi syndicate. The Swiss team this month comfortably won the challengers series for the right to take on Team New Zealand in the America's Cup starting on February 15 in the Hauraki Gulf. Coutts said he was aware of the strong public reaction locally to his decision to challenge for the trophy he helped New Zealand win in San Diego in 1995. Police are investigating two letters sent to Team Alinghi members, Coutts and Butterworth according to media reports, threatening to harm their children and damage property.
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