Bruno Troublé, consultant to Prada during the 36th America’s Cup, former helmsman for Baron Bich and organizer of the Louis Vuitton Cup has described a Solent based Cup challenge as . . . ‘a bit of a joke’.
The veteran America’s Cup personality was speaking with Tip & Shaft about the rumoured America’s Cup challenge between the Brits and the New Zealanders as a game of poker to get the NZ government to pay up, which explains why Team New Zealand, who are losing Emirates as their sponsor, are threatening to hold the Cup abroad.
Troublé claimed that in speaking recently with Grant Dalton, the Team New Zealand boss, Dalton had told him there were a lot of options, but that isn’t the one he favours.
Bruno Troublé thinks the most likely outcome is a post Covid America’s Cup organised quickly in November 2022, in Auckland, with the present teams, so that they don’t get taken apart.
That’s also why the New Zealanders spoke so soon about tightening up the nationality rule.
They want to avoid a ploy like Bertarelli used and which harmed them so much when the head of Alinghi hired a lot of the New Zealand crew for the 2003 Cup .
Troublé claims that he is fighting hard now so that the eight existing boats can be used by the new teams, which would mean doing away with the rule concerning the place of construction for the boat, which in his opinion, serves no purpose now.
Read the full Tip & Shaft interview here . . .
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