As the 5th seed in the regatta which brought 24 teams to Bermuda, Coutts had to make his way past unseeded skipper Dean Barker in the opening round of the Championship, 4th seed Gavin Brady in the Quarter-Finals, and top seed and defending champion Peter Gilmour in yesterday's semi-finals.  Jones, the only unseeded skipper ever to make it to the Gold Cup final, had a 5-2 score in the qualifying round robin, then beat 7th seed Neville Wittey of Australia, 2nd seed Chris Law of Great Britain, and 3rd seed Peter Holmberg of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Coutts and Jones have tangled many times in the past, both in competition and in training as co-members of Team New Zealand, the current defender of the America's Cup. Coutts won that trophy in 1995 as the helmsman while Jones served in the afterguard.  The two have known each other since boyhood and both learned to sail in Wellington, New Zealand."

We put a plan together three years ago," said Coutts, "to get more of our [Team New Zealand] guys experience on the match racing circuit.  By having Murray make it into the finals, it looks like it's paying off.

"That's not good news for the America's Cup challengers that will try tow rest the Cup away from the Kiwis when challenger racing begins in Auckland one year from now.