In 2007, Luc Gellusseau tells all
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With five America’s Cup challenges under his belt and a key figure in three challenges, as a man with a passion for car rallies, Luc Gellusseau loves competition. In just a few days time, CHN95 will be launched in Valencia. Here he tells all !
This is your 5th America’s Cup. What is it that keeps Luc Gellusseau going? Where does this incredible energy and motivation come from to take part once again in the Cup?
What motivates me? It’s simple, I want to win the America’s Cup ! The Cup is the most difficult thing to win, a real holy grail ! Buddy Melges won it when he was 62 on America3. Given my age, I still have 9 years left! A lot can happen in that time! What really interests me is to benefit from all editions and form a solid crew, gain experience, use all the means available to me the best I can. I just love competition ! Should I feel I have the slightest chance of winning, I will compete!
The winner, for sure, is the one who has made the best out of the means available to him. And we all know, that in the America’s Cup, the biggest financial means gives you a real edge. Russell Coutts won the Cup because he had a lot of experience and a team with substantial financial means. Jochen Schueman first started with a low funded Swiss challenge in 2000, with very little personal perspectives, before joining a top level team in 2003. The main difference was the amount of financial means at his disposal.
This is the 3rd America’s Cup project you have set up, you’ve acquired a lot of experience, but you still haven’t succeeded in finding the financial means that might help you win. Why?
Actually I’m not sure why. That’s how life goes, the people you meet or don’t meet I suppose… Hopefully next time! However things should be put into perspective. Here we are in Valencia with a team and sponsors, all set to go. There were around 30 teams who tried to set up a challenge.16 official challenges gave up. Thus, I think we are performing well !
Performing well? But you are at the bottom of the league. Are you serious when you say you are performing well?
Is that a serious question? Of course we are performing well, in fact incredibly well. What does it mean anyway “to perform well?” There are two ways of judging performance. The first one is ranking. In the America’s Cup there is only the winner that matters and who got it right. The only one who receives all the praise is the winner. The Cup is either first or nothing. That’s the beauty of this competition. That’s why it is a grail, something outstanding. All the losers are just… nothing. From that point of view, I agree with you. Only the winner has performed well, the other 11 haven’t!
But performance can also be seen as the ability to optimise the available means of your team, at a specific moment. And that’s really interesting. Take an example of non-performance : Young America in 2000. They wanted to win the Cup, they had huge means, lots of experience and talent, but their boat broke ! That’s what I call not performing well.
On the other hand, getting where we are today with so little means compared to other teams, this is performing well. 16 teams didn’t make it and we are in the first twelve! And what makes me feel so proud, so happy, is to be here in Valencia, with a boat that has been built for the first time in China, delivered within the scheduled and with a team at work. That, to my mind, is a real performance. Only a year ago, this wasn’t obvious.
CHN95 is your 4th boat. How would you define her?
It is an original boat for several reasons. First of all, the story of her conception is unique. We formed a task force with only a few people with a lot of experience and we asked them to design and build a boat that would have the potential to compete with the best, with no design compromise.
What do you mean exactly by that?
The designers were free to do what they felt was best. We didn’t tell them “the boat has to be so, it has to look like this.” On the other hand, they had big constraints : time, as they only had three and a half months to design her, and the obligation of using an existing deck and structure, those of CHN69 … for financial reasons as usual! Thanks to their skills and their multi America’s cup experience, this was made possible. And we have carefully examined changes on other team’s boats. This freedom with constraints forced the designers to be creative.
After that, we had to build the boat. It was a pretty big adventure to build a racing boat in China, something that had never been done before. That was original by itself.
Rumour has it that CHN95 is part of a trend?
I don’t know, it doesn’t really mean anything. I would need to see the other boats to comment. Who has really seen enough new boats to be able to say that such and such a boat is “part of a trend?” I haven’t anyway.
We have a bowsprit which means that we had to push the volumes forward. I’m not sure that other boats have a bowsprit like ours for example. All I can say is that the volumes of our hull are forward just like the majority of other boats. However, only small differences on specific points are likely to give you an edge. Take NZL84 and 92 that both look alike. There is no doubt in my mind that 92 went much further and is the superior boat.
6Sens with Bouygues-Telecom Transiciel, Areva and now China. What is the guiding line?
Life, opportunities, meeting people ! When Coutts joined Alinghi, that was part of life. Anything I have ever done was because I met the right people and they had confidence in what I could do.
In 2000 you were technical director but you went on board on the 3rd Round Robin to bail the team out, and did the same again in 2003. Do you expect to be on board for this 32nd edition?
Yes, but no-one knows yet!
What are your predictions for this Cup?
We’ll come in 7th as challengers!
Fdb
What motivates me? It’s simple, I want to win the America’s Cup ! The Cup is the most difficult thing to win, a real holy grail ! Buddy Melges won it when he was 62 on America3. Given my age, I still have 9 years left! A lot can happen in that time! What really interests me is to benefit from all editions and form a solid crew, gain experience, use all the means available to me the best I can. I just love competition ! Should I feel I have the slightest chance of winning, I will compete!
The winner, for sure, is the one who has made the best out of the means available to him. And we all know, that in the America’s Cup, the biggest financial means gives you a real edge. Russell Coutts won the Cup because he had a lot of experience and a team with substantial financial means. Jochen Schueman first started with a low funded Swiss challenge in 2000, with very little personal perspectives, before joining a top level team in 2003. The main difference was the amount of financial means at his disposal.
This is the 3rd America’s Cup project you have set up, you’ve acquired a lot of experience, but you still haven’t succeeded in finding the financial means that might help you win. Why?
Actually I’m not sure why. That’s how life goes, the people you meet or don’t meet I suppose… Hopefully next time! However things should be put into perspective. Here we are in Valencia with a team and sponsors, all set to go. There were around 30 teams who tried to set up a challenge.16 official challenges gave up. Thus, I think we are performing well !
Performing well? But you are at the bottom of the league. Are you serious when you say you are performing well?
Is that a serious question? Of course we are performing well, in fact incredibly well. What does it mean anyway “to perform well?” There are two ways of judging performance. The first one is ranking. In the America’s Cup there is only the winner that matters and who got it right. The only one who receives all the praise is the winner. The Cup is either first or nothing. That’s the beauty of this competition. That’s why it is a grail, something outstanding. All the losers are just… nothing. From that point of view, I agree with you. Only the winner has performed well, the other 11 haven’t!
But performance can also be seen as the ability to optimise the available means of your team, at a specific moment. And that’s really interesting. Take an example of non-performance : Young America in 2000. They wanted to win the Cup, they had huge means, lots of experience and talent, but their boat broke ! That’s what I call not performing well.
On the other hand, getting where we are today with so little means compared to other teams, this is performing well. 16 teams didn’t make it and we are in the first twelve! And what makes me feel so proud, so happy, is to be here in Valencia, with a boat that has been built for the first time in China, delivered within the scheduled and with a team at work. That, to my mind, is a real performance. Only a year ago, this wasn’t obvious.
CHN95 is your 4th boat. How would you define her?
It is an original boat for several reasons. First of all, the story of her conception is unique. We formed a task force with only a few people with a lot of experience and we asked them to design and build a boat that would have the potential to compete with the best, with no design compromise.
What do you mean exactly by that?
The designers were free to do what they felt was best. We didn’t tell them “the boat has to be so, it has to look like this.” On the other hand, they had big constraints : time, as they only had three and a half months to design her, and the obligation of using an existing deck and structure, those of CHN69 … for financial reasons as usual! Thanks to their skills and their multi America’s cup experience, this was made possible. And we have carefully examined changes on other team’s boats. This freedom with constraints forced the designers to be creative.
After that, we had to build the boat. It was a pretty big adventure to build a racing boat in China, something that had never been done before. That was original by itself.
Rumour has it that CHN95 is part of a trend?
I don’t know, it doesn’t really mean anything. I would need to see the other boats to comment. Who has really seen enough new boats to be able to say that such and such a boat is “part of a trend?” I haven’t anyway.
We have a bowsprit which means that we had to push the volumes forward. I’m not sure that other boats have a bowsprit like ours for example. All I can say is that the volumes of our hull are forward just like the majority of other boats. However, only small differences on specific points are likely to give you an edge. Take NZL84 and 92 that both look alike. There is no doubt in my mind that 92 went much further and is the superior boat.
6Sens with Bouygues-Telecom Transiciel, Areva and now China. What is the guiding line?
Life, opportunities, meeting people ! When Coutts joined Alinghi, that was part of life. Anything I have ever done was because I met the right people and they had confidence in what I could do.
In 2000 you were technical director but you went on board on the 3rd Round Robin to bail the team out, and did the same again in 2003. Do you expect to be on board for this 32nd edition?
Yes, but no-one knows yet!
What are your predictions for this Cup?
We’ll come in 7th as challengers!
Fdb