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Competition heats up in America's Cup

Coutts will lead a Swiss challenge against his former team

LONDON, England (CNN) -This year's America's Cup will have a higher level of professionalism and competition than previous years, says two-time winner Russell Coutts.

Coutts transferred from Team New Zealand to the Swiss Alinghi syndicate for the 2002-03 America's Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.

With the Louis Vuitton Cup not starting until October, he is unwilling to pick the top boats just yet.

"We've never seen this in an America's Cup before -- this level of professionalism or competition, and I think it's going to be very difficult to pick who's going to be the semifinalists," he told CNN in Auckland.

This year ten yachting syndicates from around the world will converge on Auckland to challenge for the Louis Vuitton Cup. The successful team will win the right to race Team New Zealand.

In 2000 Team New Zealand's 'Black Magic' defeated Italian syndicate Prada 5-0 in the best of 9 finals to retain the America's Cup, the oldest sporting trophy in the world.

"Teams like Prada have an advantage because they didn't have to set up their infrastructure and so forth and they could get going earlier, but I don't think that alone guarantees them success," Coutts said.

"I think you're going to see a lot of competitive teams out there."

In considering his sailing opposition, he said he had "a very healthy respect" for them.

"I worry about how much the others are achieving, whether they are achieving more than us, whether we are doing enough.

"I think that's good for me. I think if I get confident, I start to get complacent. "

Coutts was one of a handful of defections from Team New Zealand after the successful defence in 2000, prompting much public outrage. He took Team New Zealand's Brad Butterworth and others with him to the Swiss team, financed by millionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

Looking back on the change in allegiance, he said: "I think the move has been good.

"I can understand how New Zealanders felt when we first moved, but I think it's becoming more accepted."

He also said the event itself would benefit from team changes.

"I think it's enabled some new people to come in to Team New Zealand, it's enabled some talent to go elsewhere spread throughout the other teams and I think that's created a much better competition, a much more competitive environment and you're going to see a real race this time."

Comparing the upcoming series to previous years, Coutts said teams would now be focussing on one boat at a time.

"In the past you couldn't afford to focus too much on one boat (in the first two rounds) in the series because there was a variety of boats out there and depending on whether you drew the boat on a strong wind day or a light wind day you couldn't really do much about it, it was in the lap of the gods so to speak.

"Now perhaps there may be a little bit more refinement going on in terms of the best way to race another team. "