The Valencia Sailing website has published an very interesting discussion with Alinghi's Grant Simmer. Excerpts.

What is your view on the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals? Are you surprised by the results?

No, I didn't expect it and I was really surprised. It's just sad that such a strong team with so much talent gets eliminated from the event but this is exactly the event's nature.

When Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle went in there, one of them was going to be eliminated. Both were extremely strong teams but I was surprised it happened so quickly and so definitively for Luna Rossa.

On the other hand, Luna Rossa sailed extremely well, their sailing team did an excellent job. They were smart, crew work was impeccable and as Chris Dickson said they took BMW Oracle by surprise, they underestimated their opponent.

So, was it an issue of Luna Rossa doing an excellent work rather than BMW Oracle failing?

Clearly Luna Rossa did an extremely good work but I think BMW Oracle were a little surprised by that and couldn't or didn't or it was too late to react. It wasn't what they had anticipated and it appears they were shocked by it and couldn't react fast enough.

Frankly, I look at that and think, "God, I hope it doesn't happen to us". You know we are a strong team, just like BMW Oracle, and when you see how easy it was for it to happen, it's scary. It's a valuable lesson for us. When things go wrong and not as expected you should be strong to react in the little time you have remaining.

Could the fact Chris Dickson was the team's CEO, skipper and helmsman negatively affect the team?

It's not the model we have in our team. I obviously don't sail on the boat and Brad and I work together. Especially in this period, just a month before the America's Cup I try to protect Brad from all the other issues of the team.

What about the other semifinal? Are you surprised to see Desafío Español winning two races against Emirates Team NZ?

I think that at least they had the potential to take a couple of races. Now if you ask me whether they could win the semifinal, I think their chances are pretty low, especially considering they have to win three consecutive matches while the New Zealanders need only one.

It's fabulous though for a young team, basically a new one, to get to a level comparable to that of a very strong team. Emirates Team NZ haven't been sailing badly, they have been sailing very well and we all know there is an incredible depth and experience in them. As a result, all the credit goes to Desafío Español for being able to get to that level in the time they had available.

As I said, I find it extremely difficult for them to win three matches in a row, but imagine if the next race is a fluky one and then they only have two in a row.

Out of the four semifinalists who in your view has made the greatest improvement?

Luna Rossa is certainly peaking at the moment.

Does this come as a surprise to you?

Yes, because they were considered the underdogs going into the semifinals against BMW Oracle. Even internally I think they saw themselves as the underdogs.

The turning point might have been in the second race when they lost due to the big separation in the last leg, after leading comfortably throughout. They probably realized it wasn't lost for them, on the contrary.

They changed the boat from the unveiling, they have a different appendage package although compared to BMW Oracle, they never looked either particularly faster or slower.

One thing there was a great improvement though, was the start. James Spithill was getting stronger at every start.

I suppose both Ed Baird and Peter Holmberg are analyzing Spithill's starts against BMW Oracle.

Of course, we are analyzing the potential challengers and it's part of our job to do exactly that. Both Ed and Peter are good starters, we have been doing a great number of prestarts and their level now is very high.

If it comes down to Luna Rossa and Emirates Team NZ who could be, in your view and from what you have seen so far, the potential challenger?

It's really tough to call that but whoever wins it's also going to be a tough opponent for us. We are really going to battle hard when we meet them. The level of the challengers has increased substantially.