Louis Vuitton Act 6, Day 1- Skippers' Quotes

by ACM Media on 26 Aug 2005 Quotes of the day - Race Day One

Jochen Schuemann, helmsman Alinghi, on the wet and windy weather conditions: ‘While racing you don’t think about the wet and cold, you think about the good breeze and it was really enjoyable to have such good wind today.’

Ian Burns, navigator, BMW ORACLE Racing, on breaking a spinnaker pole: ‘In that amount of breeze there is plenty of load on and the pole was relatively light. Our biggest concern was to avoid wrapping the spinnaker around the forestay. That nearly happened, but we managed to get the sail to fill again and then we carried it down the final leg without further drama.’

Chris Law, helmsman, Shosholoza, on his first race at the helm of RSA 83: ‘The mood on the boat is pretty good. The boat is going much better, and we got off the line pretty well in both races. We level-pegged with BMW ORACLE Racing all the way to the layline…but overall we’re getting better and better.’

Tatsuya Wakinaga, trimmer, Luna Rossa Challenge, on reliability on the first day: ‘Our weather team said it would be windy for the first and second day so we were well prepared for the stronger conditions. That's why we didn't have any breakdowns.’

Charlie McKee, tactician, Luna Rossa Challenge, on all the teams operating in one big base compound: ‘There aren’t as many secrets as people like to think there are. It’s a little overblown, that whole secret thing. For the top teams, mostly you’re following your own path anyway, although of course you’re interested to know what other people are up to.’

Terry Hutchinson, tactician, Emirates Team New Zealand, on building trust with helmsman Dean Barker: ‘Dean and I are working hard on our relationship on the boat, so that when I say ‘black’, Dean understands that I mean black, and not an offshade of white!’

Cameron Appleton, afterguard, K-Challenge, on a startline incident with +39: ‘They decided they were going to start between us and the committee boat, which was surprising because the conditions were pretty full on.’

Stefan Rahm, tactician, Victory Challenge, on his race against Alinghi: on sailing SWE 73 here instead of SWE 63 as in Valencia: ‘We were surprised at the speed difference between us and Alinghi. We haven't been sailing in this strength of breeze that much but we thought that although they'd probably be quicker it was going to be pretty equal and we would have to keep it pretty tight. We think Jochen is not as good on the start as Magnus and we made a pretty good start. But after that they were gaining all the time and we couldn't reach them.’

Hamish Pepper, strategist, Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, on distractions in Malmö: ‘‘We broke two mainsails today. The first one was when the clew blew out in the first race. The second was the webbing strops on the headboard of an older mainsail. The guys have been giving the boat a thorough check over to make sure that any shock loads haven't damaged the rig. But there's no question that this has been a disappointing one for us today.’