Louis Vuitton Act 6- Ready to Rumble!

by ACM Media on 25 Aug 2005 The 12 skippers of the 32nd America’s Cup gathered for the opening press conference on Wednesday morning, to speak about their preparations for the Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts.

The race track on Øresund (the waters off Malmö) is a tricky one, with the wind influenced by the nearby Swedish and Danish shorelines. Current is also a factor, so local knowledge of the conditions is crucial for success. All the skippers are expecting a very tactically demanding regatta.

With the teams having less than one week to train in Malmö, getting acquainted with the local factors has been difficult and that could favour sailors with more time here, like Sweden’s Victory Challenge, and United Internet Team Germany, led by Danish skipper Jesper Bank.

‘I don’t mind being called a home favourite. I did win a regatta here a few years ago, so that’s fine…I feel at home here. It’s very special to do an America’s Cup event and to be able to speak your own language at the time…it’s great!’

For Magnus Holmberg, the skipper of Victory Challenge, it’s an opportunity to bring the America’s Cup to the people at home.

‘It’s a fantastic moment for Sweden and Swedish sailing,’ Holmberg said. ‘It’s a great possibility to show the Swedish people what the America’s Cup is and what a great event it is. I think we have a huge opportunity to reach out to more people than those who are already really into sailing.’

The Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts 6 & 7 open to the public at 17:00 this evening with a ‘Teams Presentation’. Each of the 12 team boats will parade through the Ytrre Hamnen (an inlet near to the Dockan part of the city) to the Klaff Bron (the nearby bridge and lighthouse). The Malmö ‘Fire Brigade Band’ will provide the musical accompaniment.

Racing begins on Thursday in the Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Act 6, with the first start gun scheduled to fire at 12:10.

Highlights from the Skipper’s Press Conference:

Jochen Schuemann, Alinghi, on the exchange of information that occurs when racing: ‘The concept of the pre-regattas is great…I’m sure it will be perfect America’s Cup sailing. At the same time it’s a big show of boats and teams and we’re all learning from each other. Every day ashore and on the water we learn…we have a lot more strong teams around than just four and we’ll see that over the next days.’

Chris Dickson, BMW ORACLE Racing, on objectives for the Malmö-Skåne Louis Vuitton Acts: ‘We’d all like to win, that’s what we’re all here for. For our team we’ve come with a primary objective of having a stronger performance (than in Valencia)…We have very high expectations of ourselves…we don’t accept bad results and bad performance. If we’re not happy we’ll look to change and improve.’

Iain Percy, +39 Challenge, on changes to his team: ‘One of the big changes for us is in the afterguard. We have Ian Walker, who has been on the same team as I’ve been on with the British Olympic team (Walker was also skipper for GBR Challenge at the last Louis Vuitton Cup). It’s nice for me to be with someone I know so well and trust. We’ve only had a few days together and already we’re speaking English too fast for the rest of the boat! I’m excited and I think it helps to shore up our team a little further.’

Geoff Meek, Team Shosholoza, on changes since Valencia: ‘Chris Law will be steering for the match races. We think our speed is more competitive, and we’re working on that pretty much daily. This is going to be a great regatta for us. I think we’re up there with our boat speed and we can give it a good go!’

Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand, on the local conditions: ‘We’ve done three or four days of practicing here and every day has been completely different. I think all the teams are probably finding it reasonably difficult to understand the conditions here. I think the flat water and the little bit of a ‘random factor’ will make the racing even closer and the results more unpredictable.’

Francesco de Angelis, Luna Rossa Challenge, on what he expects over the coming days: ‘I think the weather will be variable. We’re expecting a couple of windy days at the beginning, but the sea is different, it’s like sailing on a big lake. There have been a lot of improvements in all of the boats, so it will be another interesting and difficult regatta. They always are.’

Thierry Peponnet, K-Challenge, on improvements since Valencia: ‘We want to do better than we did in Valencia. We have lots of small changes in lots of areas. The communication in the afterguard we are more confident with. Our crew work and sails are better. We try to learn from our mistakes and find the right configuration on board. We had some practice racing here the last few days and we’re very happy with the results…I think we’re going in a positive direction.’

Magnus Holmberg, Victory Challenge, on sailing SWE 73 here instead of SWE 63 as in Valencia: ‘We just wanted to change to the faster boat. The boat we’re using here is the second boat we built for Auckland. It’s a little bit of a development from the other boat...but we haven’t used the boat that much. We believe it could be a touch faster and little bit more reliable, so that’s why we made that decision.’

Karol Jablonski, Desafío Español 2007, on racing in Northern Europe: ‘I’m very happy to have America’s Cup racing in Northern Europe. It’s great for countries like Poland, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. If it gives a little push to sailing in my country, Poland, then I’m very happy.’

Vasco Vascotto, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, on distractions in Malmö: ‘I want to thank the organisation here, it’s really nice. It’s really tough to have all the guys asleep early, because all the girls here are so nice. It’s a disaster some times. But thanks Sweden for this nice organisation.’

Jesper Bank, United Internet Team Germany, on keeping it simple after surprising the fleet with three wins in Valencia: ‘The new guys on the block come out and do everything very uncomplicated and whoops, there’s a win. That’s what you saw. We just went out and sailed the best we could and did it very simple. Now we’re in danger of doing the same mistake everyone else does. You say, ‘We can win. So let’s change the sails, let’s change the rig, let’s change the keel, let’s change the crew… we’ll let’s wait and see how it goes.’

Pierre Mas, China Team, on changes to his boat since Valencia: ‘We made a choice to not sail in July and to develop the boat. We changed the keel and bulb, and made some new sails. We arrived here with low preparation…but in the three days of sailing here we can see we have improved our speed. We’re happy with what we have done.’