Luna
Rossa first in Valencia (03/11/04)
(source :
masmar.com
translated
by Cupinfo.com)
Luna Rossa operations in Spain began yesterday,
as the Italian team set up their base on a 3000 sq
m site rented from Real Club Náutico de Valencia.
The first six containers delivered yesterday include
the composites lab, the weather team instruments,
the sail loft, and spares and equipment for the two
boats.
Antonio Marrai, head of logistics for the team, is
scheduled to arrive in Valencia today, and the base
should be operational next month.
In
a e-mail I received today, Loïck Peyon says the
rumors, reported by French newspaper Libération
(which wrote that Bertrand Pacé "had deserted
the Front"), are absolutely not true.
Qualified as "lie allegations" by the two
co-leaders of the French syndicate, they should give
a right of reply in the newspaper.
Bertrand
Pacé with the Luna Rossa Challenge ? (02/23/04) (source
: Libération)
According
to the French newspaper Libération, citing
rumors circulating, Bertrand Pacé would be
ready to jump off the Team France project and to sign
with the new Bertelli's Luna Rossa Challenge.
In spite of the hopes raised by the Loïck Peyron's
notoriety, the Team France has already pushed back
the deadline three times and doesn’t have anything
concrete to present yet.
Luna
Rossa and Le Défi make a place in Valencia (02/19/04)
(source :
masmar.com)
According to the Spanish
Website Masmar.com, the new Luna Rossa Challenge and
the French Team Le Défi came to an agreement
with the Club Náutico de Valencia to use (at
Alinghi's side) the former Desafio's base for the
Louis Vuitton Cup 2000.
The two teams will head to Valencia in the next two
month as the new Defender is already beginning its
installation there.
Luna
Rossa Challenge in the money hunt (02/09/04) (sources
: Farevela)
The Luna Rossa Marketing/Sponsorship Team, (leaded
by Giacomo Ovidi and Luca Paderni) announced that
they will concentrate their efforts on the international
markets.
The new structure, built by Patrizio Bertelli count
on contacts made with some multinationals companies
to secure the necessary funds.
If it doesn't work, the syndicate will appointed a
company which specialises in raising funds of the
magnitude needed to participate in the America's Cup.
According to the last edition of the Italian newspaper
"Gazzetta dello Sport", the change of position
for Patrizio Bertelli is now finalized and, in its
third incarnation estimates about €80 million,
a new Prada Challenge will be there in 2007.
Currently, active negotiations are in place with potential
new members and "a victorious puzzle" will
be assembled in the next few weeks said Antonio Marrai,
Logistics and Services Manager for the new challenge.
From April-May, with the summer season approaching
in the northern hemisphere, the team's activities
will relocate to Spain where they will start to build
a new base in Valencia in March or April 2004, it
will be close to Oracle's new base as in Auckland.
The team's facilities (the operations base, the gym,
the accommodation...) are scheduled to leave Livorno
in March or April. Prada will have only one base in
Valencia, they not will be training in Punta Ala.
The definitive installation is planned after the September
Pre-Regattas but the Spanish are seeking to convince
the Prada Challenge to remain during the summer, in
order to participate in the very fashionable "Copa
de la Reina", in the first week of july.
Patrizio Bertelli, in another dramatic 'coup de
theatre', now announces : "There is a 70 percent
of chance that we can be there again, but with a different
team".
This is a complete change of position for the Italian
billionaire who has previously said he would
not mount another challenge. A new position he fully
assumes.
"The common sense and a comprehensible bitterness
leaded me to say 'basta' but the mood for challenge
doesn't go away easily", Bertelli explains. "Further
more, it would be an offence not to use the extraordinary
patrimony of means and experiment we have build during
the two campaigns in Auckland".
Ready to go again. But after he spend more than US$120
million on his two America's Cup campaigns, Patrizio
Bertelli will not return without a partner in an adventure
he now estimates about $75-80 million.
"There will be no more Prada boat but a new Luna
Rossa in which my group will be one partner",
he says. "I'm meeting a lot of people and I'm
looking for someone who shares my enthusiasm and who
understands the range of the event when the whole
world will be focused on Europe".
"Several major elements missed and there is a
little time that we know the venue. The time to play
starts now."
So the time is now come to rebuilt a new team and,
while appreciating the value of the Prada's assets,
Patrizio Bertelli affirms he learns the lessons of
earlier campaigns.
"We will start again with Francesco de Angelis
as skipper, but regarding the rest, we will set out
again for nothing", the Italian says. "The
historical group, around a hundred people, will be
renovated with youngest members".
The main victim of this new program is Doug Peterson
who will have to leave his place for new designers
who will be able to build the Luna Rossa 2007.
"I will not remake the error of trusting Doug
Peterson", Bertelli explains. "I finished
with the despotic designers. The boat for Valencia
will be created by a group which ears and stays in
contact with Francisco de Angelis and the others.
It will have to be a completely new boat".
As for the other Italian projects, "We will see
whether they are serious, not by reading the newspapers,
but by looking at the register-book".
A
new team on Prada's foundation ? (11/12/03) (source
: Cupinfo.com)
Patrizio Bertelli announced that Prada will not
pursue the America's Cup for 2007. "This adventure is
finished," he told an Italian newspaper.
Some observers, though, believe that he may change his
mind in the future but contracts with 2003 Prada members
are said to have expired at the end of March.
If Prada indeed declines to enter for 2007, sources
now told CupInfo Website that Francesco de Angelis is
actively assembling a new Italian team with support
from Patrizio Bertelli that extends to the Prada physical
assets, including their yachts, plus Bertelli's financial
support for the first year of operation.
Luna
Rossa may be back in the Cup (04/29/03) (source
: Yahoo.it)
Disappointed by Prada's loss in December to American
syndicate OneWorld in the Louis Vuitton Cup, Patrizio
Bertelli said he would not mount another challenge.
Rumors began to fly around that Alinghi's 2007 America's
Cup defence in Europe have finally encouraged the
syndicate head of the former challenger champion to
resume Italian's assault on the Auld Mug.
According to the Italian press, Luna Rossa Campaign
should become a consortium-directed activity, rather
than a program under the Prada single umbrella and
the activities could be directed by Francesco de Angelis.
Prada
won't mount another challenge (02/24/03) (source
: FoxSports)
It appears the moon has set for Prada's Luna Rossa
boats after six years of America's Cup competition.
Patrizio Bertelli, the syndicate head of the former
challenger champion, was quoted by Italy's largest sports
daily Gazzetta dello Sport Sunday as saying he would
not mount another challenge.
"This adventure is finished," Bertelli said, according
to Gazzetta , of Luna Rossa (Italian for "red moon").
Bertelli spent more than US$120 million on his two America's
Cup campaigns and was disappointed by Prada's loss in
December to American syndicate OneWorld in the challenger
series in New Zealand. In 2000, Prada won the series
but was swept in the finals by New Zealand.
As for the two boats, Bertelli told the paper from New
Zealand that they will stay there for now. "I could
sell them," he said. "I've already had requests, even
from Italy."
Prada
completes testing in New Zealand (01/27/03) (source
: Prada
Challenge)
The last testing session at sea in the Hauraki
Gulf is over for Team Prada.
After being eliminated from the Louis Vuitton Cup on
December 17, the design team and crew have been working
on a series of modifications to the yachts Luna Rossa
ITA 74 and ITA 80 that had been planned many months
ago.
Starting from today, the Prada's shore team will work
on the demobilization of the boats and various equipment.
As Bertelli is expected to make a decision on his syndicate's
future in March or April, small group of team members
will continue working in Auckland throughout the America's
Cup.
The head of the Italian syndicate, Patrizio Bertelli,
returned to Auckland to see what defender Team New Zealand
and Louis Vuitton Cup finalists Alinghi and Oracle were
hiding under their skirts.
Team New Zealand stole the limelight when it revealed
the hula, its innovative false hull appendage - and
evidently Bertelli was impressed.
His two-day trip must be regarded as significant. The
wealthy businessman adopted a hands-on role in design
decisions and he is understood to have insisted on the
bow makeover for Luna Rossa between the first and second
rounds of the challenger series when Prada was off the
pace.
That he was interested enough to return and inspect
other syndicates' underwater secrets, when he could
have been sent pictures, suggests he feels the syndicate
has unfinished business.
Bertelli intends returning for The Match between TNZ
and the successful challenger. He is expected to make
a decision on his syndicate's future in March or April.
Prada first challenged for the cup in 1999 when it won
the challenger series final against Paul Cayard's AmericaOne
but the silver bullet was then whitewashed by Team New
Zealand.
Last month, the OneWorld Challenge ended Prada's challenge
in the semifinals. Since then, the syndicate has scaled
down its operation but operations director Laurent Esquier
said the team was completing its research and development
cycle.
"We are still here and we are still working because
we believe this team has a future," he said.
Scale models of developments, which have been tested
in tanks and wind tunnels, have now been tried on the
syndicate's boats which have again been out on the water.
The syndicate expects to continue testing on the Hauraki
Gulf for at least another week.
Prada spokesperson Alessandra Ghezzi said the syndicate's
decision on its future would be influenced by the cup
winner and where the next cup will be held.
"So far, he (Bertelli) hasn't committed to another cup,"
she said.
Team
Prada resumes work (01/03/03) (source
: Prada
Challenge)
Francesco de Angelis and his crew have started
sailing again with Luna Rossa ITA 74 and ITA 80. The
boat development program continues with daily sessions
for sail tests and comparisons.
In the past few days the Hauraki gulf has shown its
summer aspect with sunny skies and moderate breezes.
