Quote From Francesco De Angelis
Francesco de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, said today: "Last night, after our third match against Alinghi we assessed
the situation and evaluated what we had seen in the first three days of racing. We then decided to seize the opportunity
to make further midifications to ITA 74. Considered the weather forecast which called for strong winds in the next few
days, the race period may have extended even further and had we kept on racing we would have lost our window of
opportunity.
What we wanted to see with Alinghi we had already seen at the end of yesterday's race. It is always difficult to abandon
a series because in any event you learn a lot from racing and we did have very close and hard fought matches. The races
with Alinghi were very close and Luna Rossa proved fast in certain conditions, while SUI 64 was faster in others. All in
all the results were very interesting. The modifications to ITA 74, which we are already carrying out, had been planned
quite a while ago, this is why we were able to decide within an hour from the end of the race to change strategy and be
operative immediately.
We saw that we still have a margin for improvement, surely now everything is closer, the gains are smaller and more
difficult to attain. It is possible that in the near future we will face Alinghi again and this is one of the factors at
the bottom of our decision. In fact through the repechage formula you can always find yourself facing again the same
opponent against whom you have lost in the past. The difference is that by staying in the top tier of the scoreboard you
have more time to do a great deal of work "in house", but without being able to test it against others.
The repechage, on the other hand, is more costly in terms of energy, equipment wear and tear and fatigue but it allows
you to sail more races. And this in turn means testing your boat against more opponents and furthering its development,
together with that of the crew. You may then find yourself in the same spot but through a longer and more difficult
route.
Luna Rossa ITA 74 is now in the shed for the modifications while we still have some work to do on ITA 80, which will be
sailing again in a couple of days.
I am confident, our team knows how to fight till the end and we are certainly not lacking the determination and desire
to do well. Our confidence and objectives are unchanged and this is exactly why we have decided to withdraw from the
quarter finals."
Official Suppliers Prada Challenge 2003: Enervit (active nutrition). Fabianelli (pasta). Makita (power tools). Saima
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