The rooftop of the Castel dell’Ovo, one of Naples’ most iconic landmarks, was transformed into a relaxed press conference zone for the skippers who will contest the second Preliminary Regatta of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup. With the sun rising high over the ramparts and the stunning Bay of Naples as the backdrop, it was picture perfect and the ideal place to set the tone for what promises to be a thrilling regatta over the next four days, starting with Official Practice Racing today at 2pm CEST.
All the talk pre the Press Conference was around the ‘dark horses’ of the regatta namely La Roche-Posay Racing Team and ARC Team USA who make their team debut here in Naples. The benchmark setters in Sardinia – Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand – were both cautious in their approach to the regatta with all eyes on the weather forecast for the weekend which suggest changeable conditions across the range.
Andrea Tesei of GB1, one of the world’s top trimmers in foiling boats, cautioned about the expected conditions saying: “The most common conditions are the onshore sea breeze and this offshore north-easterly we’ve seen in the last few days of training. The sea breeze is actually quite peculiar. It’s not like Cagliari where it was pretty stable and straightforward. Here you start with more of a 230, then swapping into a 270 and coming off this hill of Posillipo, which makes it very shifty and very gusty.”
“So it’s quite a playful course with shifts in pressure. And obviously also the offshore breeze is very up and down, both in terms of pressure and shifts coming out on top of the city with the heating of a really big city. And there’s going to be a lot to do in terms of being on the right shift and on the right side of the pressure.”
A different kind of pressure was evident amongst the sailors and none more so than with Nathan Outteridge, skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand, who succumbed to a rare defeat in the final in Sardinia: “There’s always big pressure in an America’s Cup event, right? But there’s only as much pressure as you put on yourself and I feel like, as a team, we’ve done a pretty good job of preparing for this event. The last event, we didn’t really get much time in the AC40s. We were on a ship going up to Cagliari, and we got a pretty good result there, but plenty of things we wanted to work on. So, this event for us is trying to put into practice the things that we identified as areas we need to improve. And I’m sure that we’ll finish here with a longer list than what we started with, which is how the America’s Cup works.”
Peter Burling, skipper of Luna Rossa 1 who will be joined by a new crewing configuration of co-helm Marco Gradoni, and trimmers Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei, echoed the sentiment of his former co-helm Outteridge, saying: “There’s always pressure to perform. We’ve got quite a changed lineup and for the team and there’s been a lot of focus on both the AC75 in this last period as well but we feel like we’re in really good shape to perform this weekend. But we also feel like we’re on a really steep part of the learning curve with quite new configurations. And in saying that, it gives us an amazing opportunity to learn and evolve as a team. It’s really, really exciting times.”
Challenger of Record GB1 were represented by skipper Dylan Fletcher who was sporting the facial scar of hitting the combing in his cockpit after a collision with the Tudor Team Alinghi chase boat ahead of the first practice session earlier in the week. Dylan alluded to how the team have bounced back saying: “We had an unfortunate incident in training on the first practice day just ahead of the first start, where we collided with the Tudor Team Alinghi chase boat, but fortunately everyone was safe. Just a bit of minor injuries, scratches to myself. But the team’s looking in good shape now. Alinghi lent us their spare foil arm to get our race foil arm fixed up, so thanks to them and we’re looking forward to getting out there.”
Paul Goodison, meanwhile, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi has overseen a ‘coming together’ of the team in recent weeks saying: “We weren’t as prepared as we wanted to be going into the last event, obviously, with not so much time together on the boat and also from the shore side, not so much time together. The guys have been working incredibly hard on the shore side, and the boat’s becoming more reliable and faster every day. We’ve had two really nice sessions here in Naples to get used to the conditions. Spending more time together as a group and a sailing team has been really important, just how we work communicating to each other, but also socially…and it feels like the team’s grown a lot and quite quickly the last two weeks, and we’re excited to get racing again.”
Quentin Delapierre, skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team, was in fine spirits buoyed by the arrival this morning in Bagnoli of the team’s AC75 that had travelled by barge from Lorient. Quentin though was focussed on the regatta ahead, saying: “The AC40 is all about racing. I’m not sure you can make any difference compared to the top teams with the boat only. And that’s all about the trust between the four guys on board and I think we are in good shape on this side with Jase (Saunders), Florian (Trittel) and Diego (Botín). That’s our strengths, and we will push hard on the racing side this weekend.”
One of the most exciting aspects of the Naples PR2 regatta is the arrival of ARC Team USA who will make their debut in this cycle. Harry Melges IV will steer from the starboard pod despite unfortunately breaking his foot stepping into an inflatable support vessel. Harry smiled as he said: “Unfortunately, I broke my foot last week training here in Naples. It’s not a super cool story, but I was just stepping on the RIB and a freak accident happened. But all you need is your head and your hands to sail this boat, so it should be all good. Of course, the goal is to always be on top, but this isn’t only our debut as a team, it’s also the last time we’re going to get to race before the big show next year. We’re really going to take a good look at our processes going into this week and making sure we’re taking the learning going into the big show. It would mean a whole lot (to win), but that’s also not the focus right now. We’re really focused on the future and making sure we’re learning every day and getting better every day.”
One of the defining narratives of this Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup cycle is the emergence of some incredible female foiling talent and they were represented at the skippers’ press conference by two of the sport’s finest ambassadors in Hannah Mills OBE, the skipper of Cobham-Ultra GB2 and Margherita Porro, skipper of Luna Rossa 2 and the current defending Women’s America’s Cup champion. Margherita alluded to the fact that Maria Giubilei will be starboard trim on the Luna Rossa Principal Team this weekend, saying: “For sure it’s a very emotional moment for us. We are a new team, but we are hungry. We want to do our best result for sure, like everyone else here. And it’s also very special moment because we have at least one girl on both boats, and I think it’s a pretty good message.”
Hannah Mills was excited for the racing coming up in Naples saying: “There’s no other warm-up, really. So, for us, with the Women’s and Youth, and obviously GB1 with the America’s Cup in mind, the chance to get to race on the racecourse, yeah, it’s amazing.”
All eyes now on the Practice Racing before the gloves come off and the finest sailors in the world go head-to-head across eight fleet races to decide the final two for the winner-takes-all Match Race Final on Sunday.
Naples. Be there.
