Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai - Mascalzone Latino Team wins fleet racing

by Lorenza Priamo on 26 Nov 2010

Mascalzone Latino - Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai Subzero Images

Louis Vuitton Trophy Duba.

Fabio Cannavaro, the former captain of Italy’s national football team, World Champion in 2006, will once again be onboard Mascalzone Latino Audi Team in the first match of the semifinals at Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai. Stemming from Naples, just like Vincenzo Onorato, he has already been the 18th man onboard Mascalzone Latino in the 32nd America’s Cup pre-regattas.

Cannavaro is a long-time friend and since last June he is in the United Arab Emirates in order to be a defense player, and captain, of Al-Ahli Club, one of the teams taking part in the UAE’s top professional league.

Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai’s one and only day dedicated to fleet races was sailed today on the waters off the revolutionary Palm Island in very light conditions and was clearly dominated by Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. Although it was a series of exhibition races that don’t count towards the overall leaderboard, it was impossible to tame Gavin Brady’s (NZL) spirits and the kiwi star match racer showed his aggressiveness since the first race. A stroke of genius in the first prestart put the 'Latin Rascals' ahead of the other three yachts, spot on the pin end of the line. Mascalzone squeezed out Emirates Team New Zealand and All4One, got an early lead in the first beat and extended up to the first weather mark. The remaining three yachts were unable to threaten the Italians that bagged their first victory of the day.

The other match sailed by the 'Latin Rascals', third and last of the day, was definitely quieter but nonetheless hardly-fought by Mascalzone Latino: after its initial inconsistent days, the Italian crew couldn’t get enough victories. Once again, the team sporting the colors of Club Nautico di Roma gave the best of them and fully showed its potential. After waiting for the right moment to attack the first yacht off the starting line, Artemis, three quarters up the first beat Morgan Larson’s (USA) strategy was starting to bear its fruit and Virtual Eye was showing Mascalzone Latino’s bow ahead of the fleet. From that point and thanks to a wind shift that was brilliantly spotted, Mascalzone’s lead kept increasing and the race was virtually over. Brady rounded the first weather mark one minute ahead of his opponents and crossed the finish line in spectacular manner after the race was shortened to two legs.

With these victories Mascalzone Latino writes a piece of history. It was in 1991 when the legendary 'Moro di Venezia', owned by Raul Gardini and skippered and helmed by Paul Cayard (USA) that won in San Diego, California, the first ever ACC world Championship. In that occasion too it was in fleet racing. Today, the last opportunity ever to watch an ACC fleet race, 19 years later, it was again an Italian team, this time owned by Vincenzo Onorato, to dominate the rest of the fleet. A cycle that will enter the annals of history for being opened and closed with two Italian victories.

During the post race press conference, BMW ORACLE Racing chose to face the German-French alliance of ALL4One in the semifinal races, meaning that Mascalzone Latino Audi Team will have to race against Emirates Team New Zealand in a first-to-two-points series.

Gavin Brady (NZL), skipper and helmsman of Mascalzone Latino Audi Team:
'It was a fun day and a good practice for the semifinals that start tomorrow. We are all competitive, in all the teams, and whenever we get on the start line on these boats to race it’s good to be competitive. These boats are pretty unique and probably people have mixed feelings but sometimes the fleet racing is as fun to watch as the match racing. There’s lots of race within the fleet and it was good. These boats are just fine for fleet racing.'

Gavin went on saying: 'Fleet racing is more common but at the end of the day the fundamentals between fleet racing and match racing are very similar. The basics of sailing still apply; you have to be on the favorite end of the start line, at full speed, get the first wind shift and have good crew work. If you can have all that, you have a good chance to win, whether it is match racing or fleet racing. We need to carry on what we did today, tomorrow. There is just one other boat to worry about and maybe it’s easier.'

Finally, Brady commented on Emirates Team New Zealand, his opponents in tomorrow’s semifinals:

'It’s great to race Emirates Team New Zealand. It’s very special for me because I’ve grown up sailing against Dean Barker and many of the people onboard that boat. They are friends on land but archrivals on the water. We won one race and lost two against them in the round robins. I feel it is now 2-1 to Dean and now I’ll get a chance to revenge that. The big difference for us tomorrow is that there is no holding back. We can just go for it while in Auckland and La Maddalena we had to be a little bit more careful. You will certainly see a very aggressive style of match racing tomorrow. We are going to come out tomorrow and be sticking it in there, whenever we can. We will be very aggressive.'

Il Moro di Venezia won the very first fleet race of this class of boats in 1991. Now, another Italian boat wins the very last fleet race of the same class. Morgan Larson (USA), tactician on Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, told us:

'I’m trying to think whether I was alive in 1991. Raul Gardini was a great hero for the sport and for me, growing up in San Francisco, seeing Paul Cayard with Raul Gardini was a great thing as a child. I think he got a big impression on a lot of people, especially a lot of the Italian sailors. It’s very nice for Vincenzo [Onorato] to, sort of, turn the lights off.'