2007. Bertarelli, the sailor who brought the America’s Cup to Switzerland

Welcome to the special section “GdV 5th Years.” We are introducing you, day by day, An article from the archives of the Journal of Sailing, starting in 1975. A word of advice, get in the habit of starting your day with the most exciting sailing stories-it will be like being on a boat even if you are ashore.

Bertarelli: The gentleman of the America’s Cup is him

Taken from the 2007 Journal of Sailing, Year 33, No. 04, May, pp. 48-53.

We reveal the origins of the story of Ernesto Bertarelli, the man who dared to bring the America’s Cup to Switzerland, who learned to sail on Lake Geneva, who runs a crew as if it were a business. And who holds the Cup that is once again up for grabs.

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Mario and Tommaso Oriani recount Ernesto Bertarelli

Ernesto Bertarelli, the owner of Alinghi, the Swiss America’s Cup-holding boat, was born in Rome on September 22, 1965. His zodiac sign is Virgo and indicates him to be a rational and punctilious man. One wants his reasonableness to prevail over instinct. His great passion is sailing. As an owner his watchword is , “Boating like a business.” He is heir to Serono a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that owes its success to a product against infertility. His destiny takes a turn in 1977 when his father Fabio moves the company to Geneva, leaving Italy worried about social unrest and kidnappings. Ernesto is 12 years old. A nautical club, the Société Nautique de Genève, is very active on Lake Geneva, which is just the thing for him with its nautical base. Sailing also accompanies him to the United States where in 1988, after attending the Babson Collage of Boston he graduates. He later earned a master’s degree in business administration fromHarvard Business School with honors. In the U.S. in 1982 his father had preceded him, who was interested in spreading his products in the States, but that the Regan administration’s restrictions on public funding led him to return to Switzerland where his wife and children remained and where Ernesto was already practicing in the family business. In 1996, Bertarelli upon his father’s passing, became CEO of Serono, giving the ‘company a further boost.

Sailing as a promotional tool

However, without forgetting sailing, which, in addition to being, as mentioned his great passion, he believes is an effective promotional tool. But in that world he is a nobody. So he patiently begins the climb and buys the boats he needs to achieve his goals. When friends hear him talk about the America’s Cup, they ironically ask him if his intention is to park it, should he win, on the Matterhorn. For starters, however, he shows his class by winning the Bol d’Or on Lake Geneva several times. He is also first in the Sardinia Cup and third in the legendary Fastnet and first in the 2001 Farr 40 Worlds. In Australia, also in the same year, he wins the World 12-meter. All of his boats are named Alinghi, a name his father invented in defiance of the seafaring superstition that says changing the name of the boat brings bad luck. To reporters who ask him what Alinghi means, he replies, “Absolutely nothing, in the Bertarelli household they like it and it is exclusive.”

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The first approach to the America’s Cup

The real approach to the America’s Cup took place in 2001 when, in Cowes, a jubilee gathering of the Cup was organized in which old boats that had been protagonists in its fifty-year history participated. Bertarelli wants to participate, but also not to show off too much. For a last check he travels to New Zealand and sets his eyes on the black hulls of the Kiwi team. Thus begins his association with Russell Coutts. Three other moves point to Bertarelli‘s ultimate goal: the first, in the light blue silk-bound volume of members of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, Prince Karim Aga Khan‘s club, where the America’s Cup atmosphere has been around since the heroic days of Azzurra, his name appears. The second move is the tightening of relations with the New Zealand team through Coutts. The third is the purchase of the Swiss boat ( Be Happy. SVI-59 ) who participated with little luck in the 2000 edition and serves to “get the hang of it.” And it is clear that at this point Bertarelli’s decision to participate in the big event has been made. Obviously the club that will launch the challenge on behalf of Alinghi, and whose pennant will be the team’s official one, is the Société Nautique de Genève. Confirmed as the first “hare boat” but soon to be dropped is Be Happy.

The construction of the new boat

The design of the new boat is the work of a team led by Dutchman Rolf Vrolijk and with Dirk Kramers, also from the Netherlands, famous for his involvement in building the American Courageus in 1977. The seriousness of the team is proven especially by the massive presence of New Zealand transfugues, who followed the “traitor” Russell Coutts. Also on board will be an Italian, Cico Rapetti, from Portofino, in whose honor Bertarelli orders the cross of St. George, the symbol of Portofino, be hoisted. Albeit a rookie, the prediction and odds of British bookmakers give Alinghi favored with Italy’s Luna Rossa. The news of sponsors is also evidence of the commitment of those involved in the venture. Aside from Bertarelli‘s personal wealth, the consortium includes UBS, Audemar Piguet and Infonet, among others. Opponents hope that the weakness of the whole operation is the shipowner’s great passion and hope that Bertarelli will not resist the pleasure of taking the helm. But Dr. Ernesto is too attentive to the prerogatives of individuals and will never do so. After all, he is famous for his rigorous selection of those who work with him, and when some journalist asks him how he manages to stay in Auckland for so long, he replies, “The people in charge of my company possess such a level of professionalism and such a sense of teamwork that they guarantee continued success.”

A revolutionary organizational scheme

It will be noticed by financial experts that this was not a joke: about Serono we will have more to say later. How things went in Auckland is known in detail. However, it should be remembered that the effort of the New Zealanders, holders of the Cup, despite presenting a boat with new technical solutions (notably the Ubia, as an appendage to the transom is sympathetically called) but without the fabulous crew that betrayed, lost the final 5-0. Hardly has the echo of applause for the winners died down that the Geneva club makes known an absolutely revolutionary organizational program scheme. It should be recalled that since 1851 the America’s Cup has been a challenge between clubs and therefore to dictate the rules for the next challenge is now the right of the Swiss one as has happened in the past from time to time for The clubs of the winning hulls. It is March 2, 2003, that the Sng and the Challenger of Record announce the creation of AC Management, an independent company that will manage the 32nd edition from an organizational and commercial standpoint. At the head of the company is called a Swiss, Michel Bonnefous, born in 1964, a close friend of Bertarelli and who had no small part in organizing the team’s Alinghi and has a degree in economics. He is as passionate about sailing as Bertarelli.

Valencia the site of the new challenge

In the 2007 Cup rules, a paragraph entry is written on purpose although not explicitly to take out Russell Coutts, who had a bitter quarrel with Bertarelli and allegedly demanded to be active and important inAC Management and was fired by Bertarelli. The Cup final after the Acts and the Vuitton Cup final are awarded to the Spanish city of Valencia. While the media are interested in the news. Bertarelli announces what no one expected: the sale of Serono to the pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA, the oldest company in the industry. Why did Bertarelli sell his prized jewel? In the financial world everything is soon made clear, in his laboratories some biotech drugs effective against the “diseases of the century” have been developed, but in order to enter the American market, which is crucial for their success, investments estimated in many billions of dollars are needed. Bertarelli has, as always, been prudent and shrewd in relying on a company that can invest these sums. To him goes 10.4 billion euros. The core – business will certainly not be sailing but America’s Cup remains his most immediate goal, his opponents in Valencia will notice. And if he wins….

by Mario and Tommaso Oriani

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