Without Coutts, Alinghi Is a Ship Without Its Rudder

Relations soured. "It's been going downhill for a year," said one Alinghi crewman.

"We met with Brad [Butterworth] about it," said Alain Golaz, a high-ranking official with the Societe Nautique de Geneve, the Cup's official keeper. "He said, 'We'd like to be loved, to be part of the club. We're going to lose our sense of humor if it's all lawyers and accountants making the decisions.' "

Golaz said the loss of Coutts shouldn't damage Alinghi's chance for a successful defense too severely. "All the effort has been to show this as a team -- Jochen, Ernesto, the designers, the sailors, the trainers and the staff working together. If one among these for legitimate reasons decides to do something else, it would not, I think, be so damaging.

"But if he leaves," added Golaz, "it must be on friendly terms, which I think it will. If not it becomes a poaching game, and that's bad."

Left unanswered is what Butterworth might do if his countryman and longtime golfing partner Coutts departs. "Divorce in the family is never pretty," said Alinghi's lawyer, Hamish Ross.

As for last week's racing, it was good fun. The two giant Cup boats with their towering, 115-foot masts drew crowds of spectator boats to the channel leading from Fort Adams to the open ocean, and thousands of fans watched from shore. It's been 21 years since the America's Cup left Newport and Rhode Islanders seemed pleased to have it back, even in modified form.

The races were on short courses close to land, unlike America's Cup races which are held offshore, and the sight of the two powerful vessels charging each other and crossing tacks with inches to spare brought the glory of Cup-style racing back.

Alinghi looked rustier than BMW Oracle but both teams had their inglorious moments. In one race in 18- to 20-knot winds, Oracle's spinnaker burst as it filled after a mark-rounding, with shreds flailing in the breeze. Alinghi, just astern, charged in to seize the lead but Oracle skipper Gavin Brady steered up sharply to prevent the pass. Holmberg's effort to avoid collision was late and his spinnaker brushed Oracle, a foul.

But Brady's steering was so abrupt it tossed bowman Dean Webb into the drink, another rules violation, and on-water umpires flagged it off as a double-foul, the penalties offsetting each other.

Meantime, Alinghi's spinnaker flogged, caught a corner of the mainsail and it, too, shredded.

A collision, a man overboard, and $40,000 worth of sails blown to tatters in about three minutes: What fun!

That sort of mayhem may be enough to convince potential challengers to the next Cup regatta, three years away in Valencia, Spain, they might have a chance to win. A year ago, the specter of a pair of billionaires elbowing everyone out of the pool left many wondering whether anyone else would enter the fray for 2007.

Now Alinghi looks slightly vulnerable and Ellison, with all his insecurities, may peak early. Team New Zealand has mounted a serious challenge with two strong sponsors and $100 million Kiwi dollars in hand, while South Africa, France, Italy and England all have prospects.

And now Coutts, who hasn't lost a Cup race in a decade, is on the loose.

Or is he?