America's Cup: Quotes from the boats - Race Day 3 - the lessons from Jeddah
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 2 Dec 2023 15:16 PST
3 December 2023
Emirates Team NZ and Luna Rossa - Day 3 - AC40 - Preliminary Regatta - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - December 1, 2023 © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup
From the America's Cup Mixed Zone, the sailors give their thoughts on an anticlimactic Race Day 3 at the second America's Cup Preliminary Event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Day was notable for multiple spinouts by most of the teams - which usually determined race outcomes.
13 sailors from the six teams give their take on the highs and lows of their day, look back on their performance in the event, and where they are going to focus in the months until the launch of their AC75 raceboat - and the remainder of their campaign. Of concern for some of the more experienced teams is not so much where they finished overall in this regatta, but perhaps more telling is the points differential, and that a couple of the experienced teams kept making the same basic mistake.
In mitigation, they plead a focus on testing on development boats, rather than learning the nuances of the AC40-OD. Putting their performance in an even sharper focus is the fact that Italy came within an ace of winning the regatta, with their second tier crew, who had never sailed a match race in their lives, prior to this regatta.
Features in speaking order:
Cup Spy: America's Cup Mixed Zone - Comments from the Boats - Race Day 3 - Dec 2, 2023 - Jeddah.
Features in speaking order:
- Jason Saunders (Orient Express)
- Yves Detrey (Alinghi Red Bull Racing)
- Peter Burling (Emirates Team NZ)
- Arnaud Psarofaghis (Alinghi Red Bull Racing)
- Andy Maloney (Emirates Team NZ)
- Ruggero Tita (Luna Rossa)
- Tom Slingsby (American Magic)
- Paul Goodison (American Magic)
- Ben Ainslie (INEOS Britannia)
- Quentin Delapierre (Orient Express)
- Blair Tuke (Emirates Team NZ)
- Nathan Outteridge (Emirates Team NZ)
- Marco Gradoni (Luna Rossa) - English and Italian