On Wednesday, Naples hosted the official presentation of the 38th America’s Cup, with the match between the New Zealand defender and the winner of the Challenger Series set to take place from 10 to 18 July 2027. Before the final closing date for entries on 31 January, five challengers have been officially registered, including Tudor Team Alinghi, the new name of the Swiss team that withdrew during the course of last year. Its new director, 47-year-old New Zealander David Endean, who has six Cup campaigns under his belt (including with Artemis and Ineos UK), outlines the new project to Sailorz.
Can you tell us how you became the director of Tudor Alinghi Team?
I had been speaking earlier last year to Ernesto (Bertarelli) and Brad Butterworth about the possibility of working with Alinghi if they decided to go again. Obviously, they were deliberating on what was happening in the America’s Cup at the time, and then that went quiet when Alinghi withdrew their interest in the America’s Cup. And then at the end of November, Ernesto came back to me and said, ‘Look, things have changed. The Cup’s Partnership is looking positive and I’m happy and excited to get going again’. So I started with the team in December.
What made Alinghi finally decide to participate in the Cup when the whole project was halted last year?
The America’s Cup Partnership is the short answer to that question, where Ernesto finally saw that the group that had come together was starting to agree with some of the principles that he felt were needed to make sure that the America’s Cup was a success going forward. You know, central governance, cost cap limitations, the nationality rule opened up a little bit, things like that which were not on the table for quite a long time. Through the year, I think the people that were negotiating the Partnership details sort of really saw the value in making sure the Swiss team were involved, and so there were concessions made and the landscape started to improve for Ernesto and the Alinghi team, and they now, as I say, see value in it and see the future for it going in the right direction. So they changed their mind and got back involved.
And now, are you starting from a white sheet?
It is a white sheet because, as you said, there was no one with the team, everyone was let go and released from their contracts. It’s not really a white sheet because we’re using all of the old assets. You know, the next America’s Cup requires you to race the old boats, use old masts, you can use old sails. So it’s not a blank sheet of paper from that element. We’ve got to start with sort of where the team left off last time. I think it’s an opportunity for the team to make some changes, and certainly, the team will look smaller purely because of the cost caps. We will definitely be bringing people back from the last project and the last campaign because I think it’s important to make sure we don’t lose all the value that the team did create last time. But it’ll be different, it’ll look different from the outside for sure, with different team members.
“We’ve got plenty on the next
couple of months”
What are now your priorities for the next months?
The priorities are to recruit our team, to start to build the team. We know we’re very late, but it would be a mistake to think that rushing right now is a good idea, so we’ve got to be really careful about making smart decisions and building the core group of people that we can move forward with. Recruiting is taking some time because people moved away and got on with their lives, you know. So at this stage I can’t sort of release any names. As I’m sure you all remember, the boat suffered some pretty severe damage throughout the last campaign [just after the campaign, during a training session, ed’s note]. So the boat has been repaired, but we now need to take stock of where everything is structurally. So we’ve got to test the boat, much like it was when it was first built. We need to go back and look at our mast program and figure out where we’re going with that, and also the appendages. So we plan to have new appendages on the boat for racing next year and we need to evaluate what risks are involved with sailing with those again, and that will help define our schedule. So we’ve got plenty on the next couple of months.
Will you change completely the sailiing team? And can you still work with Arnaud Psarofaghis, who was the driver during the last Cup, or others?
We’re certainly taking a review of the whole team, like I say not just the sailing team. But, you know, we’ve spoken to Arnaud, we’ve spoken to several of the team members from last time. You know, Nicolas Rolaz has joined us. We’re also making the most of the opportunity to see what international sailors we could bring in. And I think a lot of the teams are doing that, not just the Swiss team, because I think it creates an interesting opportunity to create some depth in the sailing team, and that blend with the Swiss sailors will make us a bit stronger on the water for sure.
Some America’s Cup teams are also racing in SailGP. Could you do that?
It’s a good question because clearly the sailing and the racing that SailGP offers the sailors is the best out there right now, like it’s unmatched. I think from a race preparation, making decisions under pressure, close intense racing and technical racing with foiling maneuvers, roundings, all of that sort of racecraft that you want to practice, you kind of have to do SailGP. I think we have too much on our plate right now to partner with a team, but certainly in our discussions with the sailors, we’re sort of making sure that they can keep racing this year as part of their preparation. But we have too much on our plate right now to think about taking on or working with a SailGP team specifically. We might look at that in the future, but it’s not in the cards right now.
“It’s going to be fierce and
very exciting racing”
There is a budget cap of 75 million euros for the next Cup. It seems that Ernesto and Alinghi want to be more conservative. Can you tell me more about that?
Yeah, I think the intention is for the budget cap to reduce further in AC39. And so we’re going to go ahead and operate under the future budget cap now, which will prove to the rest of the teams that it can be done. And we think we’ll learn a lot from that in this iteration, which will put us in a strong position for AC39.
There are five teams for the next America’s Cup. Do you think there is a chance to have a sixth one?
I think there’s always a chance of a sixth one, you know. There’s certainly rumors in the industry that there’ll be a sixth one. It’s a challenge at this late stage I think for a new team. You know, I’m noticing for a team that’s not new, but you know starting later is difficult, so starting late and starting with even less than we have right now will be hard work. But I think the defender do a lot to try and make sure new teams… there’s a path for them to come through and they support them very well. So it wouldn’t surprise me if we see a sixth team show up, but I wouldn’t bet my house on it just yet.
With the new era of the America’s Cup now, is there more chance for every team to win the Cup, and is the Alinghi’s goal is to win in one year?
I think it’ll be a challenge. From where we are now, I don’t think we’re going to be able to be as competitive as we’d like to be on the racecourse in one year’s time or in 14 months’ time. We’ll be focusing this time on making sure our core group is up and running, that we have good performance tools, that we make smart decisions that will look forward to AC39 and beyond. That said, we’re going to be making sure that the sailing team are fully prepared and ready to take the fight out there. We’ll have new appendages on the boat, good sail program. I think there’s always going to be an element that we feel a bit like the underdog, and but everyone wants to feel like the underdog, everyone wants to unload that pressure. But I think, Luna Rossa and the Kiwis are very strong, the French and the British too. The French this time, they’ve got more preparation, they’ve already got that platform, the Barcelona campaign under their belt, so they’ll be very strong on the water as well. So I think it’s going to be fierce racing next year and very exciting.
Image : Team Alinghi
