America’s Cup team celebrate first victory
The Swiss team bidding to grab world yachting's greatest prize have made a winning start with their new training boat, "Alinghi".
With Germany’s triple Olympic gold medallist Jochen Schümann at the helm, Alinghi’s four-man crew won the first regatta of the Alinghi Swiss Tour on Monday.
The five-regatta competition was created to drum up support for the team and to raise the profile of sailing in Switzerland. The races are being held on the lakes of Geneva, Lugano, St Moritz, Thun and Neuchatel.
Monday’s race saw Alinghi narrowly beating another boat from its club, the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). As well as the four remaining regattas across Switzerland, Alinghi’s crew are due to hold summer training sessions in the French resort of Séte and compete in the Cowes Week regatta in Britain.
Genevan billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli has pumped some SFr55 million into the ambitious project, which aims to bring the America’s Cup to Europe for the first time in the competition’s history.
swissinfo with agencies
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