For New Zealander Cameron Dunn, expectations are high, but realistic for Mascalzone Latino.

Dunn is especially proud of the way the team has come together – especially looking back on the team’s early sailing experiences.

"From what I remember of all of us sailing together in Elba it was pleasing to see how quickly all of it changed, how quickly things came together", he said. "We had two months to get the team together before we started racing, and that’s a big ask".

"The improvement from last year to this year has been tremendous, and that’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of time on the water. We know we’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve got time to do it."

"We’re not a team that’s full of America’s Cup experience", Dunn added. "Obviously, we have some very experienced people, but if you look at other teams, maybe only Shosholoza is as inexperienced as we are".

As the team continues to improve, Mascalzone is staying in Valencia but plans to take a break of a couple of weeks around Christmas.

"We’ve been going now since April of last year so just over a year and a half now" he said. "It’s gonna be a two years campaign once we start racing and burnout’s a very important thing to think about, and to manage".

"It’s easy to think you’ve got to maximize every moment on the water, but after a while, it’s quality, not quantity."

New Zealander knows his team has a climb ahead of them to reach the Louis Vuitton Cup final – but now that Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia has their new America’s Cup boat, it’s full steam ahead.

"We’re certainly very happy with ITA 90, now that we’ve had it out sailing for a decent amount of time", he said. "The two boat testing with 77 is going really well".

"A lot of the America’s Cup comes down to boat speed and I’m confident that if we can have similar boat speed to the top teams I know we can beat them if it’s our race", he said.

"A lot of it, at the end of the day, depends on the day", Dunn concluded. "You’ve seen how close the racing has been among the top four teams – they’ve been one, two boat lengths away from each other all around the race course. A lot just depends on whose day it is."