38th AMERICA’S CUP, PRELIM REGATTA, SARDINIA PRESS CONFERENCE

The gloves began to come off, the rivalries started to intensify and with the first day of Official Practice Racing today after three un-official races yesterday, there’s a pecking order establishing.

As expected, Emirates Team New Zealand’s senior team performed well in the breeze yesterday and Nathan Outteridge, skipper, commented: “It was really good just to get a good training day against everyone. We haven’t sailed the AC40s much lately. We’ve been on ships coming up here, so the other teams have had a bit more time in the boats of late, but it was good to get a good training day under the belt. The first time we’ve sailed with that four-person configuration was pretty much yesterday and the boat seemed to be going pretty well. I think what we learnt is that it’s super tight. It’s all about accuracy and sailing on the shifts and you learn that you’ve got to race the boat well. It’s not just about trying to hammer it boundary to boundary. You’ve got to tack on the right shifts.”

The big news of this regatta is the inclusion of Women & Youth teams with Emirates Team New Zealand, GB1 and Luna Rossa all fielding teams competing against the principal sailors. Hannah Mills OBE is skippering the Athena Pathway team this weekend and said: “Everyone’s feeling like there’s whole new energy. Obviously, with the investment from Oakley Capital coming in and the new identity, and then for Athena Pathway, we’ve got really strong support from our sponsors to carry on. So, I think everyone feels like we’re in a good place. We’re in a fresh place. And the AC40s are such amazing boats to get racing around, and we’re very fortunate to have two boats to race against each other.”

Erica Dawson is helming for Emirates Team New Zealand alongside skipper Jake Pye, and is hoping to take some scalps saying: “Super excited, it’s just an amazing opportunity to be going up against these sailors who have been my heroes in established cup teams. That’s a pretty unreal opportunity. Obviously, everyone back home is just so supportive, and it’s so cool to share these stories with the young girls who are just starting their sailing journey. To be able to give them something to look up to is pretty cool. We’re only really just coming together for the first time now but it’s just a great bunch of people, and we’ve all just got such a big learning curve that we’re just giving it everything. Who knows where we’ll end up?”

The stand-out performance yesterday was just how fast GB1, the Challenger of Record, were with Dylan Fletcher and Ben Cornish steering. At the Press Conference, Dylan ramped up the pressure saying: “We’re definitely aiming for the top step of the podium. You always want to stand on the top step, don’t you? We’re all sailors and racers at heart. I think that we’re going to be pleasantly surprised with where we are stacking up against the other teams.”

Paul Goodison, Skipper of the new-look Tudor Team Alinghi that is bristling with talent, was eager to get racing, saying: “We have such a great atmosphere amongst the team, but it’s the first time we’re really getting put under the pressure this week. We saw yesterday when we were out there racing, we’re just learning how each of us reacts and how we work together. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for us to test ourselves against these probably a little bit more established teams, but we’re excited to go racing. We’re excited to learn more overall what we’re really made of.”

Home favourite Luna Rossa had both Peter Burling, skipper of the senior team, and Marco Gradoni, Youth America’s Cup winner, on stage with Marco saying: “We will give our best to be in the top two. It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s not going to be easy for no one. I’m not surprised about the speed of anyone. I think they’re super-fast. They’re super strong teams. It’s going to be a mental game till the end. Team Luna Rossa is certainly a tough opponent to beat; I think everyone knows that, and we just have to prove it over the next few days. Our goal is to bring the trophy home at the end of these three days. It will be extremely difficult, but we’ll head out on the water every day with that goal in mind.”

The ‘trophy’ that Marco alluded to was the prize for this weekend’s regatta, a stunning creation from Sardinian sculptor, Roberto Ziranu, that was sat next to the America’s Cup and the Louis Vuitton Cup on stage. Crafted from a base of juniper gathered from the mountains of Ogliastra and with forged sails tinted by flames, it is an outstanding prize for the winner of the match-race final on Sunday.

One team that are eyeing glory on Sunday is La Roche-Posay Racing Team, led by Quentin Delapierre who many are tipping to do well this weekend. Quentin was full of expectation saying: “The America’s Cup is a really tough trophy to win. This is why it’s famous, and this is our vision. We are building this team with really good sponsors, huge support, and I think here in Cagliari with Jason and Flo and Diego, we can win this, but we also can make huge mistakes. It’s just making sure we sail well, our process are good, and we’re not putting too much pressure on winning this one.”

Two teams that are entered for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup but who, because of their late-entry status, will not be on the starting-line here in Sardinia, were represented on stage by two legends of the sport.

Tom Slingsby, a past winner of the America’s Cup, is Head of Sailing for Team Australia and said: “It’s so exciting for our country, for all the sailors who grew up in my generation who have been wanting to see this happen again. It’s a really important and exciting time for us. 1983 for sailing as a sport in Australia was just the biggest moment we’ve had. And even as a country, for sporting moments that impact a country, 1983 was probably our biggest sporting moment ever. And to think it came from sailing is unbelievable. We’ve grown up hearing about the legacy of that and wanting to recreate that, and as an athlete, I think there’s nothing more you could want to do than sort of stop a nation and create a moment where everyone goes, ‘Where were you when Australia won the America’s Cup?’ As an athlete, that’s why we compete, and we’ve now got the opportunity to do that again.”

Ken Read, a former America’s Cup sailor and commentator, is the new CEO of American Racing Challenger Team USA and he is excited by what’s in store for the coming months, saying: “This is about welcoming a new generation of sailors, hopefully from America, into the America’s Cup with us thinking the long haul. Not just one year from now, but thinking to the future, and yeah, really exciting time, actually, for our team. And I think a kind of a relief for sailing in America because for a while there it didn’t look like this might happen. So, thanks to our principals, last minute, literally 24 hours from the deadline of entering, our entry went in, so we are a fresh and new participant.”

Tonight, at the Bastione di San Remy, high up on the hills overlooking Cagliari, the Opening Ceremony will take place before a parade down through the town led by some 300 local dancers in full folk costume, to the Race Village. There the ribbon will be cut and the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta, Sardinia, the first stop on the ‘Road to Naples,’ will begin