LOUIS VUITTON ACT 10 opening

Pierre Mas, skipper, China Team, on how the team has changed from the winter: Over the winter, part of the team was working hard on CHN 79, to improve the boat and make it as fast as possible. The other part of the team has been sailing in China and the Philipines to do some sailing tests and bring the best Chinese sailors to Valencia. The goal is to continue to integrate the Chinese sailors and build a team.

Ed Baird, helmsman, Alinghi, on whether the ‘old’ SUI 75 will be competitive against the newer boats: It’s unlikely that a boat that was designed four or almost five years ago should be able to outperform one of the new ones. But it’s always our hope, and it would be a fantastic day, if we can take a race off of a new boat.

Chris Dickson, skipper, BMW ORACLE Racing, on deciding to race the new boat, USA 87: There’s been a lot to learn about it, from the top of the mast to the bottom of the keel…we’ve sailed it for 20 days now, maybe 50-hours of testing, which isn’t a huge amount, but to get a measurement certificate last night is the point at which we took the decision to race 87.

Karol Jablonski, helmsman, Desafio Espanol 2007, on whether his team will race the new ESP 88 this year: The new boat went in the water for the first time yesterday – it’s floating! – and it looks great. Tomorrow we’ll try some structural tests and if everything goes fine…and we know more about it, we’ll make a decision to race it in the Louis Vuitton Acts in June.

Magnus Holmberg, skipper, Victory Challenge, on changes over the winter: We have done a lot of changes to SWE 63, the biggest one is the change of the bow, but also we have done modifications to the mast. It’s very interesting and very important on the long term for us…We will learn a lot during the Acts and I think it’s a good investment for the long term perspective.”

Vasco Vascotto, helmsman, Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team, on changes to his team: It is nice for us to race at home – Valencia is our home now. The new boat is almost ready, and last night we had a nice party at our base. We have a new helmsman, Jes Gram-Hansen, who will do the starts and Flavio Favini will take the helm for the rest of the race.

Iain Percy, helmsman, +39 Challenge, on expectations for the 2006 season: If we found ourselves in the position we finished in last year in these Acts, we’d be very happy. The teams after the ‘big four’ are very tight and anyone could almost finish anywhere so we’d be happy to be at the front of that. The team is happy and motivated and we have a strong unit.

Mark Sadler, skipper, Shosholoza, on the improvements his team has made over the winter: We’ve spent a lot of time getting the boat up to speed and have a new mast and new sails. We’ve brought in some experience to the afterguard. Tommaso Chieffi will helm in these Acts and Dee Smith is on tactics, and Paolo Cian has just joined us as well. So we’re very excited.

Dean Barker, skipper, Emirates Team New Zealand, on the speed jumps between the last generation of boats and the new ones: What we all saw last year was that Alinghi still had a pretty big advantage over all of the other teams in terms of performance. So the step from where it was last year to where you probably have to be next year to have a chance is pretty significant…we feel like we have made a good step forward but we still have a lot of work to do.


Francesco de Angelis, skipper, Luna Rossa Challenge, on how his team is looking ahead of the first race: It’s been a pretty busy spring sorting out the new boat, and I’m sure that the coming Louis Vuitton Acts will be a difficult one as all of the teams have been working hard…Valencia is a very challenging race course and that makes all of the races quite open.

Thierry Peponnet, skipper, Areva Challenge, on trying to keep up the performance his team showed in 2006, with NZL 60, from the 2000 America’s Cup: It will be hard. Everyone is moving higher and higher. When a nice lady feels a little bit old, she maybe loses some weight, she tries to have a new skin, tries to take advantage of some new make-up, maybe a new dress…so that’s what we did over the winter. We did a good job, but we know that we’re sailing an old lady. It will be difficult this year.

Jesper Bank, skipper, United Internet Team Germany, on whether there is an advantage to sailing an old boat: We’ve been training through the winter here and we saw when some of the other teams showed up that it probably took less than two weeks for them to get to the level they were at before, and we still have to catch up. I don’t think we have an advantage in any way, sailing the boat we have. It’s still hard work.

Matches of the day

Flight 1     
Match 1    Desafío Español 2007    vs.    Alinghi
Match 2    Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team    vs.    +39 Challenge
Match 3    China Team    vs.    Luna Rossa Challenge
Match 4    Emirates Team New Zealand    vs.    United Internet Team Germany
Match 5    Areva Challenge    vs.    Victory Challenge
Match 6    Team Shosholoza    vs.    BMW ORACLE Racing
           
 Flight 2          
Match 1    Luna Rossa Challenge    vs.    Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia Team
Match 2    Alinghi    vs.    China Team
Match 3    Desafío Español 2007    vs.    +39 Challenge
Match 4    United Internet Team Germany    vs.    Areva Challenge
Match 5    BMW ORACLE Racing    vs.    Victory Challenge
Match 6    Team Shosholoza    vs.    Emirates Team New Zealand