Breeze Magazine 37
How Sweet It Is By Ivor Wilkins As New Zealand erupted in jubilant celebration over the successful defence of the America’s Cup, the scarlet and black Te Rehutai machine which scored an epic 7-3 victory over the Italian Challenger disappeared from sight into its hangar at the Emirates Team New Zealand base. For chief designer Dan Bernasconi, who is credited as the main mastermind behind the AC75 concept, it was a bittersweet moment. He wished the racing could continue — at least for one more day. “We were looking at tomorrow’s forecast,” he said, which promised a change from the predominantly light-to moderate conditions that prevailed for the 10-race series. “It would be great to do more racing in a bit more breeze. The boat just loves breeze. Upwind in 15-20 knots, it is sensational. It has a lot more to give in those conditions.”
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli skipper, Max Sirena, had a different view. “I was keen to do all 13 races in the first day,” he said. The Italians knew the longer the match went on, the more the defender would improve. The way the Covid-interrupted schedule played out created a rare situation where the dice loaded in favour of the challenger. The cancellation of the two European regattas robbed all the teams of valuable racing opportunities, but once they set up camp in Auckland, the challenger had three times more racing than the defender. In its entire preparation for the match, Emirates Team New Zealand only had six races, all of them in the pre-Christmas regatta, at a time when the teams were at the bottom of a steep learning curve. After that, the home team trained alone on the sidelines for two months through to a Covid-delayed America’s Cup start on
March 10, while the challengers raced amongst themselves, honing equipment, race-craft and technique. “Luna Rossa made massive improvements after December; their performance ramp was almost vertical,” ETNZ afterguard Glenn Ashby said. “They were also sailing their boat better and better and pulling off manoeuvres we thought weren’t possible early on.” All the teams, including ETNZ, attested that every day of racing provided new lessons and performance gains. Italy knew their best chance of wresting the Cup away was to strike early and strike hard. “We missed a few opportunities at the beginning,” Sirena acknowledged. “We felt we could win more races.” Nevertheless, by dominating the starting box and adopting an “elbows out” strategy of keeping a close cover, Italy came out punching and did put early points on the board, putting up the best performance by an Italian crew
