The one-design nature of the America’s Cup warm-up series meant that while time on the water in the AC45 gave the top teams an advantage, smaller teams could post good racing results through recruiting the right talent.
Unfortunately for Team Korea, their star helm in 2011, Chris Draper was a little bit too good and drew attention from larger, better funded teams. In December, Team Korea announced that Draper would leave the team - the underlying message was that he had got a better offer.
At the same time, the Italian team Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 was gaining momentum and that team, which launched and sailed its AC45 for the first time in Auckland on Monday includes Chris Draper.
While ORACLE Racing probably aren’t too worried yet, it has to be remembered that it was Luna Rossa that put BMW ORACLE Racing out of the 2007 America’s Cup, beating the ‘American’ team 5-1 in the Semi Finals.
The Italian team has been quietly building their multihull credentials in the Extreme Sailing Series, winning the 2011 championship with a team that includes Paul Campbell-Jones, who also won the tour for Extreme 40 catamarans in 2010.
As well as Chris Draper, the sailing team also includes Francesco Bruni, who proved his match race credentials in the World Match Racing Tour in 2011 finishing 2nd. Matteo Plazzi, who was with Luna Rossa for three campaigns as well as getting a taste for giant multihulls with BMW ORACLE Racing for the last Cup is also on the team.
Max Sirena, the skipper of the team said about being in New Zealand:
“We are very happy to be back here in New Zealand. Many of us spent five years of our lives here and have been looking forward to coming back since. It’s a little bit like coming back to your “second home”: some of the best memories of Luna Rossa’s history are tightly linked to Auckland. We therefore have a great relationship with the country and its people, who always showed us their friendship and welcomed us warmly. We really feel at home !
“Our plan is to sail the AC45 alone for about the first 10 days and then we’ll join Emirates Team New Zealand for some racing to have some real competition. We have to use this time as well as possible. We’re starting from zero in the AC45 so we have to close the gap.”
