Hinting Toward Multi-Hulls for America's Cup

The next America's cup is gradually taking shape and Sir Russell Coutts is hinting towards multi-hull racing in San Francisco. It's six months since BMW Oracle CEO and Skipper Coutts hoisted the old mug for the fourth time at the 33rd America's Cup after beating Alinghi 2-0 in a Deed of Gift match.

Design rules for the next edition come out next month and Coutts is suggesting multi-hulls are the best way forward."We are quite positive about multi hulls because there are quite a number of teams that would bring a number of new teams to the game and some of the existing teams are relaxed about it," Coutts said.

Extensive tests have been carried out in Valencia on multi and mono-hulls to see what works best on television with the audio now recognised as being as important as the pictures. "It will take a fair bit for the sailors to get used to all the audio being available for broadcast. That's going to sound a bit strange from me because I was one of the worst offenders at turning the microphone off but it's probably the way it's got to go," Coutts said.

He's also suggesting television could become the decider for umpire calls and all forms of technology used in other sports are under consideration to try and make the regatta more exciting. San Francisco remains Oracle's preferred venue for the race with the decision and the date of the next cup to be made by the end of the year.

Here is the link to watch Martin Tasker's 21:05 minute interview with Sir
Russell Coutts: http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/one-sport-extra-russell-coutts-21-05-video-3742429