Sea, Sail & Surf newsLouis Vuitton Cup
Francesco de Angelis about Prada Luna Rossa’s withdrawal
ITA 64’s new bow ready for the modifications
Saturday 16 November 2002 –
- Luna Rossa new boa arrived joining Prada base
- Photo: C.Borlenghi / Sea&See.it
Late last night Team Prada filed a request to execute a series of modifications to Luna Rossa ITA 74. Work started immediately at the end of the so-called "no change period" when no changes are allowed to be made on the competing yacths. Over the next few days Prada’s crew and shore team will work around the clock with a roster system. At the same time the team will work on the development of its second yacht Luna Rossa ITA 80.
Having pulled out of the quarter finals, Team Prada proceeds to the quarter finals repechage that will be raced on a best of seven series starting from Saturday, November 23. Alinghi, having thus scored 4 points over Prada in the quarter finals, advances to the semifinals scheduled to start on December 9.
Francesco de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, said today : "Last night, after our third match against Alinghi we assessed the situation and evaluated what we had seen in the first three days of racing. We then decided to seize the opportunity to make further midifications to ITA 74. Considered the weather forecast which called for strong winds in the next few days, the race period may have extended even further and had we kept on racing we would have lost our window of opportunity.
What we wanted to see with Alinghi we had already seen at the end of yesterday’s race. It is always difficult to abandon a series because in any event you learn a lot from racing and we did have very close and hard fought matches. The races with Alinghi were very close and Luna Rossa proved fast in certain conditions, while SUI 64 was faster in others. All in all the results were very interesting. The modifications to ITA 74, which we are already carrying out, had been planned quite a while ago, this is why we were able to decide within an hour from the end of the race to change strategy and be operative immediately.
We saw that we still have a margin for improvement, surely now everything is closer, the gains are smaller and more difficult to attain. It is possible that in the near future we will face Alinghi again and this is one of the factors at the bottom of our decision. In fact through the repechage formula you can always find yourself facing again the same opponent against whom you have lost in the past. The difference is that by staying in the top tier of the scoreboard you have more time to do a great deal of work "in house", but without being able to test it against others.
The repechage, on the other hand, is more costly in terms of energy, equipment wear and tear and fatigue but it allows you to sail more races. And this in turn means testing your boat against more opponents and furthering its development, together with that of the crew. You may then find yourself in the same spot but through a longer and more difficult route.
Luna Rossa ITA 74 is now in the shed for the modifications while we still have some work to do on ITA 80, which will be sailing again in a couple of days.
I am confident, our team knows how to fight till the end and we are certainly not lacking the determination and desire to do well. Our confidence and objectives are unchanged and this is exactly why we have decided to withdraw from the quarter finals."
Source Prada Luna Rossa
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