Brad Butterworth

Bradley William Butterworth, OBE (born 1959) is a world-renowned yachtsman best known as tactician and skipper in the America's Cup for Team New Zealand and the Alinghi team of Switzerland.

He was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand in 1959. He has been sailing since age six.

Butterworth has sailed and been successful in many international sailing competitions, including the Admiral's Cup, the Kenwood Cup [Honolulu Star Bulletin 1996, August 16th [http://starbulletin.com/96/08/16/sports/story3.html] ] , the Sydney to Hobart Race, the Fastnet Race, the Whitbread Round The World Race and the America's Cup.

In 1983 Butterworth started in the America's Cup as a sail-maker in the winning Australian campaign for the Cup.

1987 was a busy year as he was the skipper of the top-ranked Admiral's Cup boat Propaganda when New Zealand won the Admiral's Cup in England [RORC History of the Admiral's Cup [http://www.rorc.org/admiralscup/history/1987/default.html] ] after being aboard New Zealand's first America's Cup challenge in Fremantle as tactician earlier in the same year. He has been involved in the America's Cup in almost every event since 1983 and in the winning team four times, twice as "challenger" and twice as "defender".

He was also a watch captain on "Steinlager II" with Peter Blake when she won the 1989-90 Whitbread Round The World Race [Profile of Butterworth on the official America's Cup Website. Checked April 2008. [http://www.americascup.com/en/acclopaedia/circlinggalaxy/profil.php?idIndex=&idContent=5144] ] and skipper of a Whitbread 60 (later Volvo Ocean 60) class boat in the 1993/1994 race where he was associated with Dennis Conner and Tom Whidden [Interview with Brad Butterworth on the official Volvo Ocean Race website. Checked April 2008. [http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2007/march/butterworth/index.aspx?bhcp=1] ] .

Butterworth was tactician on the America's Cup winning teams of 1995 and 2000, both times winning the America's Cup match 5-0. He was awarded OBE after the 1995 event.

After the successful defense of the America's Cup in Auckland in 2000 the then skipper, Russell Coutts, tactician Butterworth and several other members of the New Zealand team moved to the Alinghi team. They then won the America's Cup in 2003, beating Team New Zealand 5-0 in waters near Auckland. After Russell Coutts left Alinghi in March 2005, Butterworth became skipper himself and went on to win the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia, again beating Team New Zealand, this time 5-2.

Public reaction in New Zealand to Butterworth and the other New Zealanders changing teams and moving to a Swiss team in 2000 was mixed. Some supported the move believing they were simply professional sailors who had already previously sailed in non-New Zealand campaigns in other sailing events (including Butterworth's own participation in the 1983 Australian team in the America's Cup), while many others regarded this move as a betrayal particularly since the America's Cup was - at that time - running with predominantly nationality-based teams. Butterworth's impressive unbeaten run of 16 wins in America's Cup racing dating back to 1995 came to an end on June 24th, 2007 when the defender, Alinghi, was beaten in the second race of the 2007 America's Cup by the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand.

Butterworth was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2004.

Footnotes