Alinghi has won the AC 2003 in Auckland, New Zealand. As landlocked country with no access to the sea the Swiss had to look for a coastal town. In the closer selection came Marseilles, Lisbon, Naples and Valencia. Someone in Naples set for 1 day into the Internet the for Alinghi extremely lucrative tender conditions. Valencia won the contract Bertarelli took with his AC management company full control of the Cup events including the LVC.The IACC formula was changed with the “Version V “(=Roman 5) towards a box-rule. The race values are set so tight that little room for experimental design changes was left. (similar to the car Formula 1) An end of the IACC class was foreseeable, when Alinghi introduced the new, but not accepted V90 class. Russell Coutts had a dispute with Bertarelli and left the team with a severance and a non-competition clause. 3 Yacht Club from new countries (Germany, South Africa and China) deposited their challenge. RSA 83 to SUI-100 altogether 17 new yachts were built. 11 of them were sailing in the LVC resp. AC.
SUI-64 cut already in 2003 the head of the mainsail far aft. 2007 all teams followed this design with a horizontal set up. By the increase of the sail area on the mast-top, the faster winds there could be better exploited.Emirates NZL failed to wrest the America's Cup from the defender Alinghi.
SUI-100 erfolgreiche Verteidigerin des AC 2007
NZL-93 erfolglose Herausforderin desAC 2007
As landlocked country with no access to the sea the Swiss had to look for a coastal town.