The Official
Website of the
International
Sailing Federation

Alinghi syndicate head, Ernesto BERTARELLI (SUI), team skipper, Brad BUTTERWORTH (NZL) and design team coordinator, Grant SIMMER (AUS), faced the media this morning to announce the race crew for the 32nd America's Cup. The race yacht SUI 100 had been announced earlier in the week to race in the Match.

'We Are Ready'

BERTARELLI welcomed the media and said the team is raring to go, 'We are ready for the Challenger and ready for the Match.'

BUTTERWORTH announced the race crew for the Match. The team skipper listed the 17 crew members, and added, 'We have great depth in our team and are spoilt for choice in every area, for this reason it has been hard to find a final 17 crew to race the Match. We are very fortunate to have such a high level of ability as it means we can operate as a squad and rotate crew if we have to.' He went on to insist that the whole crew is on stand-by to rotate in during the Match.

The yacht these 17 sailors will race is to be SUI 100, as announced on Wednesday. SIMMER described the evolution of the last America's Cup Class yacht built for this 32nd America's Cup campaign, 'On Saturday, SUI 100 will start her first official race. This yacht is the result of five years of development by the Alinghi design and sailing team and the product of seven months hard work by our shore crew, first with the build, then the maintenance and the constant refinement. Needless to say we are very proud of her.'

The first race of the 32nd America's Cup Match by Louis Vuitton begins at 15:00 on Saturday 23 June.

Alinghi Race Crew

• Bowman - Pieter VAN NIEUWENHUYZEN (NED)
• Midbowman - Curtis BLEWETT (CAN)
• Mastman - Francesco RAPETTI (ITA)
• Pitman - Josh BELSKY (USA)
• Grinder - Mark MCTEIGUE (AUS)
• Grinder - Matt WELLING (USA)
• Trimmer - Simon DAUBNEY (NZL)
• Trimmer - Lorenzo MAZZA (ITA)
• Grinder - Will MCCARTHY (AUS)
• Mainsail trimmer - Warwick FLEURY (NZL)
• Strategist/traveller - Murray JONES (NZL)
• Runner/pitman - Dean PHIPPS (NZL)
• Runner/grinder - Rodney ARDERN (NZL)
• Navigator - Juan VILA (ESP)
• Afterguard/runner - Ernesto BERTARELLI (SUI)
• Tactician - Brad BUTTERWORTH (NZL)
• Helmsman Ed BAIRD (USA)

The America's Cup Match and Challenger/Defender Series are designated as ISAF Special Events. For more information on the America's Cup, the Louis Vuttion Acts and the teams competing, visit the official America's Cup website - www.americascup.com.

For a complete list of all the news about the America's Cup 2007 CLICK HERE.