Tomorrow is the big day

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The much awaited hour is approaching. The Louis Vuitton Cup finals start tomorrow at 15:00. The two strongest challengers of the fleet will face each other for the best of 5 races on the Valencia waters. While waiting, the pressure is mounting. The teams training on the water are watched carefully and the whole world speculates. Yesterday, Emirates Team New Zealand dared a match with Alinghi. Thursday morning, it was time for a kickoff press conference. We were waiting for Spithill and Barker. It was the navigator from Luna Rossa Challenge, Andy Horton, and Terry Hutchinson, Emirates Team New Zealand who answered questions from the press. It is proof that the helmsmen are under pressure and the teams are looking to keep them under wraps. Selected excerpts.

Terry Hutchinson (ETNZ) about yesterday's training with Alinghi: “We are preparing ourselves to the maximum we are able to do. This option to sail with the Defender makes up part of our training strategy. The only condition was that we wouldn’t talk about the performances of the boats".

Andy Horton (Prada Challenge), questioned about the winner of this training regatta between the Kiwis and the Swiss: “We didn’t see this regatta directly, but from our information, it seems that it was Alinghi that had won.”

Andy Horton questioned about Oracle’s failure and the performance of their team "“At this level anything can happen on any given day. We happened to gel for the semi final pretty well, and no one believes that BMW ORACLE was sailing 100% - it happened to go in our direction. As a group we came together and learnt a lot of things. In the round robin we were sailing really well and BMW ORACLE weren’t at the peak of their game, which is why it turned out the way it did.”

Terry Hutchinson (ETNZ), asked about the way they see the finals: “Luna Rossa, is an excellent team composed to very good elements. “We are going to take one start; one beat, one leg, one race at a time, and look at opportunities within those races to capitalize on any mistakes they might make. If we are behind on the first cross, we will look for the opportunity to keep the racing close and hope that an opportunity is presented. Potentially those opportunities are few and far between and in our training we have been preparing to ensure we get the first cross, and control of the race.”

Andy Horton (Prada Challenge) questioned about the timing of the team since the end of the semi-finals: “We started by taking five days of vacation, without coming to the base, without sailing, with our families and our friends. It is really like we have well recharged the batteries. We have progressively started to sail intensively again during the last two days. The team is feeling pretty good, we feel rested, after being away and doing something that has nothing to do with sailing - we are ready to roll."

Terry Hutchinson (ETNZ), asked about the possibility of having a second helmsman if Dean Barker loses the starts against Spithill: “Dean Barker is our man."

Fdb/Lh
Valencia May 31 2007