America’s Cup, Checco Bruni: “Me at the helm of Luna Rossa? I don’t know. But we are strong.”
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In the last America’s Cup he was one of the two helmsmen along with James Spithill, and in Barcelona he is still running for a place at the helm of the Italian AC 75, despite strong internal competition with the new entries of Ruggero Tita and Marco Gradoni.
Checco Bruni – The Interview
We interviewed Checco Bruni less than a month before the start of the Preliminary Regattas in Barcelona, an appetizer for the Louis Vuitton Cup that will begin on August 29, to take stock of Luna Rossa’s challenge and make initial assessments of the other teams.
In our chat, we also touched on crucial points such as that of the Italian design team but not only that, Bruni also unbalanced himself by admitting that the foils the New Zealanders are trying out in the latest tests have a very small surface area.
And again: who will eventually helm Luna Rossa?
Bruni is ready for it, but regardless of who will be there he has confidence in the strength of this Luna Rossa that can count on 4 very strong helmsmen.
Not to be missed. How is Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli today and how is Francesco Bruni
And we are maybe the ones who have sailed the most in these two months, which makes us feel more ready than the others maybe, also psychologically.
Things are going well, but not only for us, the other challengers also seem very prepared, including the French who had some problems at the beginning, but they have a potentially very fast project.
Are the conditions under which you are training similar or dissimilar to those you will encounter in late summer? It is hard to say for sure, what we do know is the weather history in Barcelona, which tells us that statistically the wind from September starts to drop, especially in October.
In all of this there is the wave component, because Barcelona gets the Mistral wave that is generated in the Gulf of Lion, which then turns in a particular way and also arrives in Barcelona with a direction that mounts from the southwest.
What AC 75 opponent has impressed you the most for some solution? The boats look more similar this time, the ones that look a little different to me in terms of hull shape and crew arrangement are the Americans, but I couldn’t tell if they made better or worse choices than the others.
They certainly took different paths. Is American Magic Luna Rossa’s rival to win the Louis Vuitton Cup? It only takes a week and something can change based on what the teams test.
We have good feelings in terms of speed, and I think certain differences that were seen in Auckland will not be there.
Luna Rossa in the America’s Cup has had many positive campaigns, at least two exciting ones, but it has always lacked the final piece, often with a boat that failed to be a winner all the way.
What in light of this is the minimum goal of this campaign? Going all the way is a goal, as is improving on Auckland’s performance, and in my opinion we have the makings of a great performance.
However, it will be more difficult than Auckland, there are more teams, the quality has leveled off.
First of all you have to focus on the Louis Vuitton Cup, if you don’t win that you don’t go anywhere.
Luna Rossa’s design team no longer relies on Martin Fisher and Mario Caponnetto, how has it been reorganized? The key thing has been the constant Horacio Carabelli, who coordinates the design, and I think Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli would not be as strong without him.
That has been the most important thing for me, the fact that Horacio continues as coordinator.
There have been changes in the various departments, between those who wanted to leave or those who were not confirmed, but a lot of new and very knowledgeable designers have come in.
Do the sailors in Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli get involved in the design team’s choices?
Think for example of an element like Vittorio Bissaro, who in addition to being a sailor is also an aerospace engineer. Yes, we get involved in design decisions as much as we are asked and as much as we are able to collaborate.
Vittorio Bissaro clearly in this sense is a very important figure being an aerospace, but he is not the only one, there are also others like Enrico Voltolini, for example.
To the naked eye it appears that Team NZL’s foils are smaller than yours, and as a result of a numerical match we made on some photos there seems to be a difference of between 6 and 8 cm in width between Luna Rossa’s larger foils and those of the New Zealanders.
I’m not asking you to confirm our numbers, but what is your idea of their appendages and whether you are concerned about them in any way and talk about them internally.
The furthest boat in the photo was Luna Rossa, but despite the perspective LR’s foil appears larger in width.
According to our numerical tally, Team New Zealand’s foils would be between 6 and 8 cm narrower than those shown by LR.
Differences on shape as well, with the Italian one straight and the Kiwis’ curved instead.
The curvature, if deformable, could delineate an appendage that changes shape depending on the speed of the boat and the load it is subjected to.
The New Zealanders are the ones who have been pushing the most on the minimum wing area, although the third foil is more similar to the others, which suggests that they might still tweak something, and we have seen them sail in asymmetric mode as well.
So we’ll have to see what they’re going to do more than two months from now, because very narrow foils may not necessarily be the right ones in October conditions, with less wind.
We don’t know what they will come up with, so far it is experimentation.
In any case we at the defender have to think about it, but first come the other challengers, we must not forget that. Who will helm Luna Rossa?
Francesco Bruni You will know as we go along, I would like to know too of course, because I would rather be on board than on the dinghy (laughs ed.).We are a very strong team, with 4 capable helmsmen , and this is a great strength that not everyone has.
Hypothetical also that we can make some turnover, we will have to evaluate the positive and negative things of such a choice, but you can change the crew until 12 noon on race day.
Marco Gradoni is also one of the possibles, he is almost guaranteed to be helmsman of the Youth with the AC 40, but he is absolutely in play on the AC75 as well.
We will see in the end what will be the best decision and who will perform better in the various conditions. What can young people, like Gradoni or Tita, already bring to this America’s Cup? They brought a fresh point of view as well as their talent which is really important, they stimulated the “old guys” like me, it’s healthy that there is always some healthy competitiveness within us, it helps everyone improve, and that’s the goal.
What America’s Cup do you expect for Luna Rossa If there is the speed of the boat as a whole, if we have a competitive boat, we lack nothing to win.
But we will only know when we get alongside the other teams.
We are aware that things have gone well so far, but woe betide us, because the margins for growth will chase them all, and they have to be pursued until the last day if we want to be competitive and try to go all the way. Mauro Giuffrè
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