Port America's Cup in Valencia, Spain, must be the most spectacular new venue in the world of sport this year.
On a sunny, postcard-perfect morning last month, Curtis Blewett of Whistler, B.C., sat overlooking the beautiful, renovated harbour - costing the Spanish more than €500-billion ($730-million Canadian) - with the blue Mediterranean glistening a few hundred metres to the north.
Life was good for Blewett, 34, as he had a breakfast of eggs, sausages, cheese and orange juice on the elevated terrace of the compound of the last America's Cup winner, Alinghi from Switzerland.
He was on the Swiss boat in 2003 in Auckland, New Zealand, and is back for Alinghi's first defence, again as mid-bowman on the 17-man crew.
"This is a pretty awesome team," he said. "There are some very smart people and it's run in a really good style."
Most of that is because of Ernesto Bertarelli, the Swiss pharmaceuticals billionaire who finances the team and is a runner and grinder onboard.
As America's Cup holder, Alinghi, from landlocked Switzerland, choose to defend in Valencia. It got €90-million ($127-million) from the Spanish after receiving bids from several southern European sites.
Bertarelli, 41, is not short on cash, having spent €100-million ($146-million) on Alinghi's campaign, or short on sportsmanship. In the preparation stages of the Cup competition this year, he lent Team New Zealand €7-million ($10-million), which the Kiwis have since paid back, to ensure the winners from 1995 and 2000 would have a yacht again this time.
Now that Team New Zealand has emerged as the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup (the regatta among 11 challengers) and will sail against Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup, beginning today, Bertarelli's largesse could come back to haunt him.
New Zealand survived more than two months of Vuitton racing to earn the right to take on Bertarelli, Blewett and the rest of the crew.
In 2003, Alinghi was the challenger and was 26-4 in the Vuitton before winning the America's Cup 5-0 in the best-of-nine final against Team New Zealand.
This time, it basically has had to forge its form for the final by training against its No.2 boat. "Being a [Vuitton]challenger, your race team gets galvanized out on the water against the other teams," Blewett said. "Here [as the defender] we can only race against each other. Because of that, we hunted down and hired a lot of really goods guys. We have awesome guys who are probably not going to sail in the America's Cup who other teams would love to have."
At 5 foot 10 and 190 pounds, Blewett is a buff, hard-wired sportsman. His mid-bowman position involves looking after the sails and climbing to the top of the 107-foot mast at least once a day to check the rigging.
He sailed on the Whitbread Round the World race winner in 1997-98 and on AmericaOne in the America's Cup in 2000 and is something of a cult figure in sailing circles. "Curtis is the ultimate athlete," said veteran Peter Isler of the United States, a navigator on BMW Oracle, a Vuitton semi-finalist. "He is really good at what he does, a god - a real extreme athlete."
An Alinghi publication describes Blewett "as an intrepid adventurer. One day Curtis was walking along in Zermatt, Switzerland. Fascinated by Mount Cervin (the Matterhorn), the young Canadian decided to climb to the summit. After buying a few ropes in a local shop, he achieved his desire on the same day."
In 2003 when Bertarelli announced after winning the America's Cup that it would be taken to the top of Mount Cervin, Blewett was the only member of the team who had actually climbed it.
"I call it the sewer," Blewett said of the below-deck space where he operates. "It's dark and it's wet. I basically have to repack the head sails for them to rehoist. So I use a few simple systems, some elbow grease and just go for it. It's like playing in the backs in rugby, a really physical job."
There is no light in Blewett's sewer. "I have a little pencil head lamp that I run around with in my pocket in case I need to spot something," he said. "It's pretty dark down there. There's no paint, just carbon."
Leading up to the America's Cup in 2003, Blewett had to live in Switzerland to satisfy national residency stipulations. Those rules have been abolished, so this time he has been in Valencia since late 2004.
"The race is still managed by national groups and there's still a nationality-based management and team vibe," he said.
An open market has been a boon for elite sailors such as Blewett. "I'm really happy with what I'm making, but it's not superstar sports money," he said. "We probably make Canadian Football League wages."
If it's in the CFL ballpark, then it ranks with the best. Sources suggest he earns upward of $200,000 (U.S.) a year.
Blewett will never be Canada's athlete of the year, but having a chance to be on two America's Cup winners, in the competition for the oldest trophy (since 1851) in sport, makes him unique.
"One of the proudest things I have is the last time I won the America's Cup I got a letter from the prime minister saying good job," he said. "It's hanging in my house. That's pretty nice."
He misses British Columbia and was last there in January. "It was so fat at home for powder [snow] I freaked out and bolted home for 10 days," he said. "It was like skiing a season in a week. On the last day of my trip, Mount Currie was on. We jumped in the heli and got dropped up top. We tore it up. It was amazing.
"I'll be back in the Whistler bike park this August. I'll be downhill riding and doing the Wednesday night races. I love it around there."
For now, the Cup final looms. He does not expect a 5-0 victory as in 2003 against Team New Zealand. "The boats are too close," he said. "As this class [of yachts]gets better, the designers know which was the fastest boat last time. They all start again at a closer level. Hopefully, we'll sail really well, but the Cup's going to be 5-2 or 5-3."
How famous is Curtis Blewett in Switzerland? "You get spotted once and a while," is his modest reply.
Pressed for specifics, he is asked whether he thought Swiss tennis-playing favourite son Roger Federer would know who he is.
"Roger came sailing with us in Dubai [in February]" Blewett answered. "I had to show him how to pee off the back of the boat. He was asking me where the toilet was, and I said, 'You're looking at it.'
"So I don't know if he'll remember me, but he'll remember the guy who told him that."