He won five straight races in 1995 in San Diego when the New Zealand challenger Black Magic defeated Dennis Conner and Young America, when the charismatic Peter Blake was skipper, Coutts steered and Brad Butterworth called the tactics.

Again in 2000, the score was a New Zealand 5-0 victory, this time against Italy’s Prada, on home waters off Auckland when Coutts handed the helm for the last race to protégé Dean Barker, then just 26 years old.

A few months later and Ernesto Bertarelli engages the services of Coutts, Brad Butterworth, Simon Daubney, Warwick Fleury and Murray Jones, the core of the successful Kiwi team. Bertarelli puts together the Alinghi team which Coutts then skippers against the Defender, Team New Zealand. In the Match he inflicts a 5-0 defeat to Barker and his Kiwi compatriots, sending the America’s Cup back to Europe for the first time in 152 years.

In the months that follows, disagreement between Coutts and Bertarelli sees the Kiwi forced on to the sidelines for the 32nd America’s cup. After being defeated in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007, Larry Ellison signs up Coutts as CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing Team to organize their challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup. Coutts selects match racing firebrand James Spithill (AUS) as skipper-helm, standing back to manage the team, ensuring all of the key components are in place, from technological innovations to a solid, talented sailing team which includes a core which has sailed many miles together on a wide variety of crafts. 

After two and a half years of legal debates, the 33rd America’s Cup was scheduled to get under way on February 8th 2010 off Valencia. It ended up on february 14 with 2 - 0 victory for BMW ORACLE Racing - the seventeenth consecutive victory of Russell in the America's Cup.

(Americascup.com and BSch)