America's Cup- Valencia Sailing interviews Giovanni Ceccarelli

by Valenciasailing.com on 2 Jun 2010
ValenciaSailing continues their coverage of the 34th America's Cup designers meeting that took place on May 18th in Valencia with the third installment.

Today, ValenciaSailing.com we talked to Giovanni Ceccarelli, the Italian yacht designer, one of the 19 participants in that meeting. In the 31st America's Cup, Ceccarelli was the chief designer of Mascalzone Latino while in the 32nd edition in Valencia, he was in charge of design at +39 Challenge.

Valencia Sailing: Let's first start with some background questions on the meeting. From what I saw you were the only Italian designer there. Were you representing the new America's Cup Challenger of Record, Mascalzone Latino?

Giovanni Ceccarelli: No, I wasn't there on behalf of Mascalzone Latino or any other team, I was there representing my design office, Ceccarelli Yacht Design, and I was invited by Ian Burns as such. In fact, almost everybody there was representing just themselves, maybe in order to have a less restricted vision, in order not to be conditioned by any restraints. I think I was invited due to my participation in two previous America's Cup editions and the fact they appreciated my work.

Valencia Sailing: Who was there on behalf of Mascalzone Latino?

Giovanni Ceccarelli: I don't think there was anyone there on behalf of one team or another. When we presented ourselves, each one stated there own design office, except of course from the three representatives from BMW Oracle, Ian Burns, Manolo Ruiz Elvira and Mike Drummond. In fact, they were the only ones wearing a team T-shirt.

I'd like to state that I liked that spirit because in the previous edition, the 33rd, when Alinghi was preparing the new rule, I asked to take part in the meetings but my petition was denied because I wasn't representing any team. Alinghi wanted only team designers in the meetings. I'm referring to the discussions in order to establish the AC90 rule, before the final court decision that established BMW Oracle as the challenger of Record. According to Alinghi, no designer could be accepted unless he was already part of a team, something that I don't agree with. If you represent a poor team you push towards a small and cheap boat. If on the other hand you represent a team with bigger budget you push the rule towards the opposite side.

The spirit of the meeting in Valencia two weeks ago was in fact to have each one of us, freely and based on his background and 'culture', express his opinion and vision, without having an established link to any team.

For the rest of this long, but very interesting interview http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/2010/06/valencia-designers-meeting-part-iii.html!click_here