Small
Judicials troubles for Prada (02/07/01) (source : Yahoo.it)
The operational italian base at Punta
Ala would have been put under sequestration at the
request of an Italian magistrate. It would seems that
problems of building permits are the cause of this
decision..
News
from Prada Challenge (02/02/01) (source : quokkasailing)
In its second incarnation, Prada Team is very
familiar. It's another $50 million campaign, with
the money directed less at start-up costs and more
at development. Continuity is king. Doug Peterson
is in charge of design, and for the third Cup in a
row, he's working with CFD specialist David Egan.
.
Peterson, who helped design the 1992 (America3) and
1995 (Team New Zealand) winners, is investing heavily
in innovation for his fourth run at the Auld Mug.
Ian Howlett, who anticipated the long/narrow/ heavy
corner of the IACC Rule back in 1992 and wide chord
rigs in 1995 for stillborn British efforts, is a new
recruit. So is free-thinking Frenchman Juan Kouyoumadjin.
Likewise American Scott Ferguson, who played a big
role in Young America's rig program.
Given the individuals, some fiery debates can be expected.
Most of the new blood is in the sailing team, recruits
such Kiwi young gun Gavin Brady, for whom the Italians
fought tooth and nail in face of strong offers from
Oracle Racing. A coach last time, Rod Davis is vying
for the helmsman's job against Brady and de Angelis..
The Neapolitan said the afterguard make-up is his
call, not syndicate leader Patrizio Bertelli's, and
that he will be the skipper. "Mr. Bertelli is the
CEO, and he expects each person responsible for an
area to do the best for the team. So, yes, there is
a lot of individual talent. My job is to make sure
the team makes the best use of it," said de Angelis..
De Angelis has asked Torben Grael back, the man whose
high-risk tactics attracted as much adverse comment
as plaudits for his very high percentages in reading
Auckland's breeze. "I know him really well," de Angelis
said. "I've been with him for six years, and he was
a strong player for us. I respect his skills. He was
part of our past experience, and it always good to
build on that." Grael's return will not be known one
way or the other until he finishes putting together
a Brazilian-flagged Volvo Ocean Race entry, using
the spare boat from either Roy Heiner and Mark Rudger's
Assa Abloy campaign or Grant Dalton's Nautor-supported
effort.
Prada
sails back into Hauraki (01/21/01) (source : stuff.co.nz)
The Team have just finished a Northern
Hemisphere summer sailing their IACC in Punta Ala
and now, the Prada testing programme begins in Auckland.
Prada will be out on the water again this week, sharing
the gulf with six other boats from Oracle Racing,
OneWorld and Team New Zealand.
But here will be one major difference to their last
buildup. Not only will the Italians have their two
Luna Rossa but they will also be sailing USA53, one
of the two Young America's boats bought following
the last America's Cup. USA53 almost sank during the
last challenger series but it is now a fascinating
test horse for the Italians. "Young America has been
very interesting and it has been a good opportunity
to see something which has different characteristics",
said the italian skipper.
Francesco de Angelis said Prada teams would compete
on the world matchracing circuit and confirmed Louis
Vuitton Cup winners would be prepared to line up against
other teams off Auckland this summer.
De Angelis is confident the Italians will have lined
up against another syndicate before they pack up and
return to their Punta Ala base in late March. "I would
like to race against other teams," he said. "I believe
they may have the same philosophy."
Asked if Prada would consider racing Team NZ, de Angelis
didn't rule out the possibility (In the 99-2000 campaign,
there was also an agreement between the challengers
that none would test race against Them). "We will
race anybody who we think will help our programme
step up," he said. "We hope to race as much as we
can while we are here." The TNZ, after wiping Prada
5-0 in the America's Cup, would have to be useful
opponents.
De Angelis said Prada had increased its sailing team
by 10 members to 35, meaning a crew could be out on
the circuit but the syndicate could still continue
two-boat testing. Brazilian tactician Torben Grael
is missing and there are three Kiwi faces in the crew
for the first time. Two of the New Zealanders - Gavin
Brady and Rod Davis - could even take the steering
wheel off de Angelis, but he would still remain on
the boat as skipper.
While de Angelis will skipper the boat, the Italians
have signalled they are not locked into the popular
figure helming their boats during the challenger series
which begins in October next year. Rod Davis, the
syndicate's coach from the last campaign, and Gavin
Brady, who sailed for Paul Cayard's AmericaOne, are
definite candidates. De Angelis declined to reveal
how the helmsman would be decided but he indicated
a "philosophy" was in place.
The Italians will pour a $125 million plus budget
into the next Cup but de Angelis, despite his syndicate's
increased experience and Team NZ's loss of personnel,
doesn't believe it will be any easier to wrest the
Cup from the defenders. And he believes winning the
Louis Vuitton Cup will be a formidable task against
syndicates who can now match the Italian budget. "It
doesn't seem any easier when I look down the road.
I believe all the teams will be approaching the next
America's Cup with the belief they are going to do
well."
De Angelis wasn't buying into talk TNZ may be weakened
by the loss of so many key personnel from its last
defence. He said the defender had kept people who
would maintain continuity while up-and-comers would
ensure its continued strength. "New Zealand is a very
strong team," he said. "I don't think it will be easy
to bring the Cup away. Some said it was possible last
time because challengers were strong and Team NZ didn't
have another team to race against but eventually they
came up with a good result."
Prada
sails back into Hauraki
(02/10/01) (source : sailsail.com)
Both de Angelis and Prada's fashion
billionaire boss, Patrizio Bertelli, were determined
that the crew of Luna Rossa would return to Auckland
stronger and more determined for the 2003 cup.
The Team have just finished a Northern Hemisphere
summer sailing their IACC in Punta Ala and now, the
Prada testing programme begins in Auckland. Prada
is out on the water again, sharing the gulf with six
other boats from Oracle Racing, OneWorld and Team
New Zealand.
The team's facilities (the operations base, the gym,
the accommodation...) are still the same as the ones
used during the past America's Cup but three International
America's Cup (IACC) Class yachts two Luna Rossa
and one Young America were sent from Italy to Auckland
on a cargo ship.
Francesco de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, met the
local media in Auckland to illustrate the training
programme over the next few months and explain the
main focus of the Team ("In a certain sense (we)
have to forget the past and look beyond").
Concerning the future boats, the napolitan said "we
need to focus on the research and development to be
carried out on the old boats in order to define the
features of the new ones" and that The America's
Cup formula is quite restrictive and has already been
widely explored. "All the teams have reached
the same high level of technical preparation, but
you always end up with someone who is a touch faster.
Each small innovative solution will be very important
and hard to overcome. The core of our design team
is still the same, but the group has been reinforced
with new people. The builders' team, who did a really
excellent job on the Luna Rossa yachts in the last
Cup, is still the same, too".
Concerning the test, he said that the Prada Challenge
will train in Auckland until the beginning of April
and during this period they will carry out tests and
in-house racing sessions. "We will also race
against other teams if we have the possibility to
do so."
Concerning the crew, "Our philosophy was to build
on the experience gained from the past America's Cup
and to reinforce the team with new acquisitions in
all the different departments without nationality
constraints. The core of the team is still the same
one that started working on the America's Cup project
three years ago". With this largest Team "A group
of sailors form our team will compete in all the major
events of the international match racing circuit.
Last time we were unable to do so as we had a smaller
sailing team and we had to interrupt the team's activity
when we went racing elsewhere."
If the budget for the next Cup hasn't been disclosed
yet, de Angelis explained "This time the resources
will be allocated differently as the set up costs,
such as operation bases, trial boats, etc., have already
been coped with last time. We will therefore have
more money to spend on research and development."
>> Beautiful
pictures from Carlo Borlenghi at: www.seasee.it
Prada
expected in Auckland (01/09/01) (source : Yahoo.it)
Francisco de Angelis will arrive
in New Zealand next Wednesday, with good part of the
Prada Team,in order to begin the new step of training
in native place, to prepare the AC 2003 (before going
to Auckland Gavin Brady and some Prada's members will
participate on a Farr 40 to the Key West Race Week)
.
The complete team is expected in New Zealand from
the next week and will work, in this phase, with two
'Luna Rossa' (ITA 45 and ITA 48) and one of the two
former 'Young America'.
The Prada sailing team completed their European
training program in their home waters of Punta Ala
in Italy. The crew and the shore team have already
de-rigged the boats, three of which will be shipped
shortly to New Zealand.
In the next few weeks the team will be working on
a de-mobilisation plan of the operations base in
Punta Ala, which will be shut down at the beginning
of December until May 2001.
The team's activity will start again at the beginning
of January 2001 in New Zealand. The first sailing
session in Auckland is scheduled for mid January.
For team Prada - who won the Louis
Vuitton Cup on 6 February 2000 after having completed
48 races (38 won) and officially announced their intention
to compete in the XXXI America's Cup as Challenger
of Record - the activity has been full on almost non-stop
since the day they left New Zealand.
In the Genoa International Boat Show,
Patrizio Bertelli, Francesco de Angelis and Doug Peterson
met today the journalists during a press conference
where they outlined the programmes of team Prada.
Patrizio Bertelli,
CEO of the team, said : "Ours is a challenge
of continuity. Since the end of the last America's
Cup we have been working with the aim of improving
certain areas and creating a team which will be
able to sustain the work of the next two years.
Starting in January we will be sailing again in
New Zealand [ until march].
We are aware of the fact that the next challenge
will be more difficult than the last, both from
a sporting point of view and because statistics
say it will be so.
The new boats will be called Luna Rossa and will
carry the same colours as before.
Our budget for the next America's Cup will be around
50 million US$. The costs for all the teams have
increased since the last event. This time, however,
we won't have to deal with the set up costs of the
operation bases"
Francesco de
Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, said: "We
have just started a new cycle of activity. We now
have to face two and a half years of hard work. Our
objective is to build a strong team which can train
together with the maximum effort and dedication. Individually
we all know our strengths and weaknesses and it is
now our opportunity to come together as a team.
The composition of the team and the roles are still
'open' [see attached Team list]. It would be impossible,
at this stage, to define in detail all the positions.We
hired some non Italian sailors since we have one year
less to prepare than the last America's Cup. We thought
this was the quickest way to improve the level of
our team".
Doug Peterson,
Design Director of team Prada, said: "The Design
Team of this challenge is slightly different than
the past. This time Patrizio Bertelli decided he wanted
his own Design Team. We will create an environment
which will enable us to work to the maximum potential.
In the past America's Cup we were one of the last
Challengers to begin operations. This time we have
lots of momentum. We added new people to the Design
Team with the standpoint of bringing new ideas and
being more efficient. More than ever we will work
closely with the Sailing Team".
THE TEAM STRUCTURE
Patrizio
Bertelli - President and C.E.O
Sailing
Team
Design
Team:
Francesco
de Angelis - Skipper
Alberto Barovier
Paolo Bassani
Lars Borgstrom
Gavin Brady (ex Stars
& Stripes)
Daniele Bresciano
Thomas Burnham
Sean Clarkson
Pietro D'Alì
Rod Davis
Simone de Mari
Steve Erickson
Massimo Galli
Cristian Griggio
Andrew Hemmings
Michele Ivaldi
Albert Jacobsoone (ex
Le Défi Français)
Dario Malgarise
Lorenzo Mazza
Carter Perrin
Matteo Plazzi
Romolo Ranieri
Piero Romeo
Massimiliano Sirena
Doug Peterson
- Design Director
David Alan-Williams
Andrea Avaldi
William Brooks
Miguel Costa
David Egan
Scott Ferguson
Ian Howlett
Michel Kermarec (ex Le Défi Français)
Juan Kouyoumdjian (ex Le Défi Français)
Jed Lowry
Claudio Maletto
Paolo Periotto
Bruce Sutphen
