With a very good year and with the second of its two new boats nearly completed, the confidence is flowing for Mascalzone.

Onorato himself is bubbling with enthusiasm; he made clear how much he believes in this team right from the beginning.

"In the last America's Cup, we were competing to learn," he explained when he launched the team. "This time, we are serious… We are focused and committed to fight to the end."

On the water, the team improved by leaps and bounds compared to the 2005 season, but according to skipper Vasco Vascotto, there is still some ways to go.

"I think that we worked very hard", he said. "After the Trapani Louis Vuitton Acts (last year) we saw that we had some problems".

"Our first problem is experience in the America’s Cup Class. We sail against most of these guys (on the other teams) in other classes, so we know we can do it. But here, we have to learn. Our boat was quite old, had some problems, but in the end, we have learned quickly. It’s tough in the beginning but now we feel much more comfortable."

This year, Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team finished in fifth place on the 2006 Louis Vuitton ACC Championship, winning exactly half of its 26 match races. But the Italians were unable to beat any of the teams that finished above them, something that will have to change if the team is to advance next year.

"This result (fourth placed challenger) would put us in the semi finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup next year," Vascotto said after Louis Vuitton Act 12 at the beginning of July. "I’m very happy because we achieved this result using the old boat and we only lost races to teams with new boats. The team is really growing well."

On the Louis Vuitton Challenger Ranking, which will eventually be used to assign bonus points ahead of the Louis Vuitton Cup round robins, Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia sits in fifth place, sandwiched between Desafío Español and Victory Challenge.

These three teams are likely to be in a close fight for a semi final berth, with the other smaller challengers trying to catch up from behind.

After struggling initially with a problem around the traveller area of the hull on its first new boat, ITA 90, the team switched builders for ITA 99, and in mid-November, the team announced the bulk of the work was complete.

As for ITA 90, after several extra weeks in the boat shed, it has been sailing for most of the late summer and autumn, and the team is using it for two-boat training with its older boats.

Vascotto says that he expects ITA 99 to be an improvement on ITA 90, but not a revolution.

"The America’s Cup Class Rule doesn’t allow you to make something completely different," he said. "Both of our boats are from the pen of the same designer – Harry Dunning – so at the end of the story, there isn’t a big difference. But obviously we hope that the second one is better than the first, otherwise we wouldn’t build it. We are convinced the second one will be a little bit better."

"We are happy that we have the opportunity to have a second boat. Vincenzo Onorato has made a big effort to give us the money to ‘play the game’ at a reasonable level."

ITA 99 will go to a yard in Lymington for finishing work before arriving in Valencia in January. After its experience with ITA 90, Vascotto said his team is giving itself plenty of time to test and tune the new boat.

"What we are learning here is that it takes a lot of time to make the boat ‘sailable’. You can see the other small teams have some issues as well. This is just a matter of experience…but we are learning a lot over this last period of preparation."

So how far can Vincenzo Onorato’s team go?

The Italians have spent the summer sailing as much and working as hard as any of the other teams. The team is scheduled to break for about one month over Christmas before returning in January to work up the new boat.

For Mascalzone, as for the other teams, time is short and the schedule is becoming punishing.

"I think that these final months are really difficult for everybody. You feel that the game is becoming closer and closer," Vascotto said, before launching into a romantic metaphor as only an Italian sailor can. "It is one thing to think about going to dinner with a woman. Another is to go to dinner and another again is to hope for ‘something more’."

"What we are looking for now is the ‘something more’ and that takes work. If you work well, and work hard and have the right cards to play in the last few months, you might get lucky."

"We want to show that we belong on this circuit. The goal is for each of the teams, when they come to sail against us, they know that they will have a tough race."