Sailing: Swiss win place in final as home fans turn on Coutts

New Zealand was bracing itself for a kind of civil war last night as the man they used to love but now love to hate, Russell Coutts, lifted aloft the Louis Vuitton Cup in the same Viaduct Basin harbour packed three years ago with cheering fans as he held high above his head the America's Cup.

Now he is the biggest threat to his home country's proud possession of what is one of the oldest trophies in sport, the sailing prize that has, for over 120 years, lured the biggest egos on to the rocks of despair and now needs a bevy of billionaires to support the world's finest sailors, designers and engineers.

Coutts held the same trophy before going on to a smash-and- grab win of the America's Cup from a much weaker American defender in San Diego in 1995. He repeated the 5-0 thrashing with New Zealand's successful defence against Prada, of Italy, on 2000. With the unstinted backing of the Swiss pharmaceuticals billionaire, Ernesto Bertarelli, he brushed aside the equally well-funded San Francisco challenge, Oracle BMW, with the software house head, Larry Ellison, signing the cheques, and Coutts' fellow-Aucklander, Chris Dickson, as skipper.

For Dickson this is the second time in four America's Cup campaigns that he has made it to the Louis Vuitton Cup finals and been beaten. Afterwards he wanted time to lick his wounds and reflect before making any announcement about a future Cup. For Ellison's chief designer, the Annapolis-based Kiwi Bruce Farr, the search continues for the major trophy in his sport that has stubbornly eluded him. But for Ellison himself there was no equivocation.

Asked if he would be back, the one word: "Absolutely," inspired a huge round of applause. There was applause, too, for Alinghi as they came home in triumph to the Viaduct Basin that has been their home for the last 18 months. There was no evidence of the primitive hate campaign that has been whipped up over the last six months.

But Bertarelli sounded a warning, saying: "Whatever happens over the next three to four weeks will define what this sport is all about. The defining moment is coming." The Swiss have lost only three races on the water (four if you add conceding a race to Prada) since 1 October, two to Oracle BMW, one to Seattle's OneWorld. In the Louis Vuitton Cup final they came from behind three times to score a win, including a final race in which Oracle had a pre-start manoeuvres penalty hanging over them and then fought all the way to the finish.

Now, as the only one left standing of the nine challengers, including one from Britain, which started on the long and grinding road, Alinghi has to regroup and reinforce over the next four weeks before lining up against a Team New Zealand, which seems to have a rules-busting, game-breaking design advantage. On 15 February the home crowd will support only one team and it will not be carrying Swiss colours.

* Weather conditions mean that Ellen MacArthur and her Kingfisher 2 team, who had hoped to set off from Lorient last Thursday in their attempt to break the global circumnavigation record for the Jules Verne Trophy, are expected to be on "red-no go" standby status at least until Thursday.