AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Swiss Alinghi backer Ernesto Bertarelli has said he wants to be involved again in the next America's Cup despite having a bitter introduction to sailing's most elite event.

The Swiss biotechnology billionaire said on Friday he was keen to remain involved in the America's Cup as either a defender or a challenger.

Bertarelli's new $55 million Alinghi syndicate is challenging holders Team New Zealand in the 31st America's Cup that began on Saturday. Alinghi won 1-0. (Full Story)

Should the Swiss win, they would become the first European team to win the America's Cup since the regatta began in 1851.

"Right now we're thinking that whatever happens we're going to be here next time," Bertarelli told a news conference.

Bertarelli, the 37-year-old chief executive of Serono, Europe's largest biotechnology firm, has funded most of his first America's Cup campaign himself.

Alinghi dominated the long challengers series and comfortably beat U.S. software billionaire Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing in the final last month to win the right to take on New Zealand.

But it has not been all plain sailing for Bertarelli's multinational team.

Bertarelli caused outrage in New Zealand fans in 2000 when, only weeks after Team New Zealand became the first non-U.S. team to successfully defend the Cup, he lured Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts, tactician Brad Butterworth and several other key crew members to his new syndicate.

The defections resulted in a short-lived "BlackHeart" campaign in New Zealand, which urged locals to publicly criticise New Zealanders sailing for other teams.

A separate "Loyal" campaign praises the Team New Zealand sailors who remained.

On a darker note, security was stepped up around some Alinghi crewmen after they received threatening letters.

During a brief trip to Geneva two weeks ago, Bertarelli complained about what he described as an "aggressive press campaign" in New Zealand and said he needed "a breath of fresh air" during his visit home.

But a more conciliatory Bertarelli said on Friday he understood support for Team New Zealand under new skipper Dean Barker -- Coutts's prot�g� during the 2000 America's Cup.

"I think the level of support is great, it's absolutely normal," Bertarelli said. "We are very much aware that they are going to have local support and it's part of the game."

Bertarelli said his team was grateful for a letter of support it received overnight from Swiss President Pascal Couchepin.

Couchepin's letter of encouragement brought the simmering issue of nationalism to the boil, with the event being portrayed by local media as "patriots versus pay cheques."

The Swiss president welcomed Alinghi's challengers series win as a victory for a forward-looking, creative and multicultural society.

"Alinghi's victory is also the victory of team spirit and an attitude which should serve as an example: the choice of action over inaction, of optimism over nostalgia, of openness to the world over inward-looking nationalism," Couchepin wrote.

Coutts said he had no regrets about joining Alinghi.

Reuters contributed to this report.


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