At the Alinghi base opening on Saturday Ernesto Bertarelli, head of the Alinghi syndicate, nominated his vice-president and tactician, Brad Butterworth, to be the skipper of Alinghi.

Brad was modest in his acceptance, commenting: “It is a great honour to be put in a position where he [Ernesto Bertarelli] gives me this sort of trust.”

The New Zealander is on his sixth America’s Cup campaign and has won three, the last with Alinghi. He races as tactician and forms the core of the Swiss America’s Cup Defence.

For Alinghi, ‘skipper’ is a title rather than an active role, as Brad explains: “It won’t make any difference to the way we sail the boat, everyone has their area and their responsibilities, but I guess it will be a little bit different for me as it makes me responsible for the boat as a whole. I will be thinking about doing my job well onboard and continuing on as we have in the past.

“Off the boat, it doesn’t really change much either. As you get older, you wind up with the most experience and so I guess that is where I am at. Really, once Russell [Coutts] left I took over some leadership of the team and I am happy in that position and comfortable to carry it on, especially with the strong group we have.”