AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
OCTOBER 23, 2002
END OF DAY QUOTES
At the end of today's racing Francesco de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, said: "We knew it was going to be a long and
difficult day. The wind was very light and shfty amd at times we sailed into patches of almost no wind.
We have been, however, lucky to race on the course close to shore where the conditions were certainly better than those
on course Juliet. It wasn't the perfect day for assessing the speed and performance of Luna Rossa after the
modifications that we carried out last week, as the conditions were far too unstable.
We did anyhow get a good feeling of ITA 74 and we ended the day with positive indications. We won both races today by
playing well the frequent wind shifts rather than by having a faster boat. We now need more time to expose the boat to
different weather patterns and other opponents".
Torben Grael, tactician on board Luna Rossa, said: "We have certainly started well this second Round Robin with an
important day that brought us two precious points. These points will be very important for our placement in the general
standings towards the quarter finals and the selection of the challengers in double chance and single chance groups. The
boat feels faster and has responded well in today's conditions. These have been difficult races with many wind shifts
and we are happy with the results even though the starts were not all that good.
Considering that Mascalzone Latino was able today to put up an impressive first part of the race against OneWorld, I
think that our result with them takes on a particular significance. Also in the race against Oracle our boat responded
very well."