Prada
Challenge turns to Wellington (11/03/02) (source:
Stuff.co.nz)
A new-look bow for the Prada syndicate, covered
by a shell of the mould to minimise the risk of damage
during transportation, was photographed yesterday. It
was being loaded for transport at Hakes Marine Construction
in Rongotai.
But which of the two Italian boats to get the new look
is unconfirmed.
The syndicate's most recent boat - ITA80 - was sent
for modifications to Cookson's Boatbuilders in Auckland
for modifications on October 8 (a week after designer
Doug Petersen was dumped by syndicate head Patrizio
Bertelli), and returned under the cover of darkness
at 3am on Saturday.
A Italian leading designer said the shape was a "knuckle
bow" along the lines of the design Team New Zealand
first introduced on NZL60. That type of bow pushed the
wave further out in front of the boat, "making the water
think the boat is longer then it is, thereby getting
a gain in speed", he said.
Prada, who lost 0-5 to Team New Zealand for the America's
Cup in 1999, have been the only challenger this time
around not to use an adaptation of the design, and had
been surprise strugglers in the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Around-the-clock work would have been required to make
the new bow and meet the deadline.
"These are huge changes to the boat," the designer said.
"It's only been made in Wellington because of Paul Hakes
and his band of merry men. They are specialists in their
field."
Hakes learnt his trade at Cookson's and was lured to
Wellington by prominent boat owner Stewart Thwaites,
for whom he is building a new ocean racer.
Hakes refused to comment yesterday, except to say he
was disappointed with The Dominion Post's decision to
publish the photo and was "contemplating my position
in Wellington, as to whether I stay or not".
"There are only two kinds of managers (helmsman)
ones that have been fired and ones that are going to
be fired", said Rod Davis. "It's all a question
of time".
"Sometimes I think the sooner the better. Most
of the time I think; I love this game. Being a starting
helmsman is high pressure stuff at the best of times,
this is made worse in our case (Prada) as we have not
had two boats to practice starting for a month now".
" Our practice comes in the form of the real thing...
At the end of the day all you can do is back yourself
and do the best you can, accepting that not every start
will work out our way".
Prada
await return of ITA-80 (10/27/02) (source:
Foxsports)
Prada faces a tight schedule to have its second
America's Cup yacht ready for next month's challenger
quarterfinals.
Syndicate operations manager Laurent Esquier said Saturday
that Prada, the challenger champion, was not expecting
the return of ITA-80 to its Auckland base for some time.
"It's going to take another few weeks," he said.
Esquier said work on ITA-80 was continuing at an Auckland
boatyard within a set timetable but the amount of time
available to test the boat against its sister, ITA-74,
before the quarterfinals would be limited.
Prada has raced ITA-74 in both the first and second
challenger rounds.
"We wish to be able to try or test 80 against 74 as
soon as possible," he said. "We have very limited time
and we're working very hard at it."
The decision to extensively modify 74 and 80 between
the first and second rounds had been prompted by Prada's
poor first-round performance. The challenger champions
won only three of eight races and immediately sent both
race yachts to the shed for modification.
ITA-74 emerged after five days with a new bow, the most
obvious of a number of changes. ITA-80, which has been
off-base since Oct.8, appears to be undergoing much
more comprehensive alteration.
"We took a non-conventional approach of modifying heavily
our two boats because we faced a non-conventional situation
in the first round so we had to react," Esquier said.
"We came here obviously with boats with different strengths
to what they have now so the decision to change both
boats so extensively came during the round robin."
Esquier said the modifications made to ITA-80 should
bring it closer to top challengers Alinghi of Switzerland
and OneWorld of Seattle.
"We feel 80 is going to do the things she should to
beat those guys. "How much we will see. We would not
do it if we were not convinced we were on the right
track."
A
new ITA 74 for the Italian Derby (10/21/02) (source:
stuff.co.nz)
Today is officially the first day of the second
round of the Louis Vuitton challenger series, but only
the outstanding first-round race between the Italian
syndicates will be sailed.
Once this race is completed Round Robin One can be officially
closed and, starting Wednesday October 23, Round Robin
Two will take off. The calendar for this second round
shows the same pairings as the first with nine days
of racing and each challenger racing every other opponent
once to conquer one point.
As the only one-boat campaign in the America's Cup,
Mascalzone Latino have spent the past week making repairs
and minor changes to their boat ITA72, while Prada have
completely redeveloped ITA74.
"We did some work in different areas," Prada skipper
Francesco de Angelis said yesterday. "Obviously it is
more visible what has been done to the bow and the hull,
but that is not all we did. We did some work to the
rig and the sails."
The defending Louis Vuitton Cup champions have had a
disappointing time so far and have worked to improve
their yachts.
Their second yacht, ITA80, was sent to the boat yard
midway through the first round for modifications. ITA74
was remodelled in less than a week and now, among other
changes, sports a knuckle bow.
"I'd like to thank all the people involved in working
on it. They did an amazing job in a short period of
time," de Angelis said.
The second round would be used to assess the changes.
"It is not easy to assess because the other boats have
made changes as well, so it is hard to fix your performance
in a field that doesn't stay the same."
Mascalzone Latino helmsman Paolo Cian said it was tough
coming up against Prada at the best of times, let alone
a revamped Prada.
"Off course we are curious to see the difference in
their boat now."
New
bow for Luna Rossa ITA 80 (10/14/02) (source:
sailingworld.com)
ITA-80, the second Luna Rossa of the Prada syndicate,
has gone to Cookson's yard to have a new bow added.
The highly volatile head of the syndicate, Patrizio
Bertelli, wants a boat with a double knuckled bow like
NZL-60.
Like all fashion conscious tycoons, he wants to be with
or ahead of the rest in style, and Doug Peterson, who
tested plenty of the type of bow profiles that Bertelli
sees as omnipotent, holds that the bow shapes he signed
off are superior.
Consequently, Peterson goes and Bertelli draws the double
knuckle and Prada rips off NZL-60.
Luna
Rossa ITA 80 goes to yard (10/07/02) (source:
Prada)
Luna Rossa ITA 80 will leave today the Team Prada
base to be transfered to the yard where the team designers
and technicians will carry out modifications to the
hull.
At the same time the development of Luna Rossa ITA 74
continues as this boat will be used also for Round Robin
Two of the Louis Vuitton Cup 2002-2003.
Luna Rossa ITA 80 will be back in the water the first
week of November.
