2021. The six times of Luna Rossa

Welcome to the special section “GdV 5th Years.” We are introducing you, day by day, An article from the archives of the Journal of Sailing, starting in 1975. A word of advice, get in the habit of starting your day with the most exciting sailing stories-it will be like being on a boat even if you are ashore.

The six times of Luna Rossa

Taken from the 2021 Journal of Sailing, Year 47, no. 3, April, pp. 88/97.

It has been exactly 24 years since that February evening in 1997 when Patrizio Bertelli walked into Frers’ studio and came out ready to make the America’s Cup. In between there have been six Luna Rossas, some blindingly beautiful, others less so. But all with the spirit of the origins, that of the great Italian adventure.

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Who knows what Patrizio Bertelli was thinking that February afternoon in 1997 as he walked through the streets around Milan Cathedral, heading for German Frers‘ studio. Here begins our story, the saga of Luna Rossa, on a cold Milanese evening. Perhaps it was one of those days when even Milan is sunny in winter, what is certain is that something must have put the Aretine patron in a mood for escapism. But that afternoon in Milan, in the studio of German Frers, Luna Rossa might as well not have been born. Patrizio Bertelli was on his way to the designer to discuss draft designs for a cruising boat. What happens in the Argentine’s studio is a “sliding doors” scene. Bertelli enters with one idea. German proposes another one to him. The Prada patron must then choose which door to take, whether that of his idea, to build a cruising boat with which to travel and continue to do some racing with other boats. Or listen to Frers‘ suggestion, design a boat for an America’s Cup challenge. What would have happened if Bertelli had taken the first door we cannot know, the fact remains that that evening in Milan the following was born Luna Rossa. No one knew it, but it would become the longest history of a team, led by one man, in theAmerica’ Cup. The six times of Luna Rossa.

A magnificent obsession

A history made of great victories but also of bitter defeats, but one that nonetheless has given so much to Italian sailing. No one can forget the boating boom of the early 2000s right after the America’s Cup, and even if times have changed there is a bet that this summer at the next sailing courses for younger people there will be a nice increase in enrollment. All thanks to the insight Patrizio Bertelli had 24 years ago that evening in Milan. A magnificent obsession. A sporting dream that has now covered multiple generations, as aboard the new Luna Rossa there are the children of the 2000s, such as Matteo, Ciccio Celon‘s son. Now also taking an interest in racing is another Bertelli, Lorenzo, the son, and that is how Luna Rossa is almost being handed down generation after generation. The history of this team in the America’s Cup is in fact unique, since, if we also count the challenge that later failed due to protest against Oracle, those of Luna Rossa are now no fewer than six America’s Cup campaigns. No other union in the history of the Cup has ever stayed together for so long, apart from just Team New Zealand. But theAmerica’s Cup has always been a very English-speaking contest, as its name also testifies, which is why the sporting feat of a Latin team like Luna Rossa is something that will remain well written in the history of the Cup in the future.

The First Moon

Within weeks Bertelli built the crew list and the outlines of the syndicate. For the helm a specific choice, the Neapolitan Francesco De Angelis, then 37, who in 1995 had won theAdmiral’s Cup with Brava and was at the top of many One Design or box rules classes of the 1990s. Joining him on tactics was Olympian Torben Grael, fresh off winning gold in the Star at the Atlanta Olympics. Doug Peterson also joined the design team. The crew gathered the best Italian talents: Pietro D’Alì, Stefano Rizzi, Lorenzo Mazza, Ciccio Celon, just to name a few, as well as, of course, a young Max Sirena, at the time 26 years old and on his first America’s Cup campaign. Work began in Livorno with the arrival of the first “hare” boats, then the team moved to Punta Ala where it was based for a few months before moving to Auckland. In 1999, in Punta Ala itself, the first Luna Rossa, ITA 45, the one that would win the Louis Vuitton Cup and go on to play for the America’s Cup, preferred to ITA 48. The challenger selection for the 2000America’s Cup was a tough one, eleven chellengers of which at least five were leaving with the goal of trying to win the Louis Vuitton Cup. In the finals, as in a movie plot, it will be Cayard who will be the opponent to beat, the friend of yesteryear, the helmsman of the Moor of Venice. What ensued was a no-holds-barred series, on the water and at journalists’ microphones, won by Luna Rossa after an epic 5-4. But the Italian boat in the America’s Cup final remained bewitched by “black magic,” by that Black Magic as ungainly as it was innovative and fast. The Kiwis had pulled one of their rabbits out of the hat, and 5-0 was served.

The “fishing boat” of 2023

As he crosses the finish line of the last race of 2000 Luna Rossa hoists a pennant that reads “Arrivederci.” At that very moment the Italian boat became Chellenge of Record and prepared to stay in New Zealand to prepare for another campaign. Expectations needless to say were high for the rematch attempt. The level of challengers rose further, with the arrival of Alinghi and Oracle, which were followed by other quality unions such as One World which did a lot of harm to Luna Rossa. Something did not go right. The experienced Doug Peterson was put in charge of the design team and was given great confidence, but when it was launched ITA 74 it was already clear from the first training sessions that the numbers did not add up, and at the regatta in the first Italian sunrise in front of the TV it was immediately obvious that something in the middle was wrong, so much so that the boat was nicknamed “the fishing boat” because of its speed deficit. ITA 74, after Peterson‘s dismissal, was heavily modified, along with the sistership ITA 80, which did not, however, prevent Luna Rossa from being eliminated in the semifinals against the Americans of One World, who had rising star James Spithill at the helm, just 23 years old and already in his second Cup.

The magical 2007 edition

In Italy we are in the midst of a sailing boom on the wave of the adventure started in 2000 by Luna Rossa. An enthusiasm that explodes when for the first time the America’s Cup stops in Italy in 2004, for the Louis Vuitton Cup Acts organized by Alinghi in Trapani. It was a series of memorable regattas where, in addition to the spectacle on the water, Italy and the Sicilian capital showed all the enthusiasm for the regatta with a huge public presence on land and at sea. It was the prelude to the 2007 Valencia Cup, the one with as many as 13 challengers, where Luna Rossa presented itself with the newcomer James Spithill, who went to replace De Angelis, who remained the skipper of the Italian boat, however. Luna Rossa started very well in the round robins, but initially seemed slightly inferior to the Americans of Oracle and the New Zealanders during the group stage. The semifinals vs. Oracle for this very reason represented the moment of truth. Mogul Larry Ellison ‘s American boat with Chris Dickson at the helm was a no small hurdle, but the Italian boat’s improvements combined with Spithill ‘s stellar form at the start settled the matter quickly with a peremptory 5-1 win. Memorable was the start in which the Australian rifled no less than two penalties on his opponent for a pre-start that has remained in the history of the trophy. The 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup final, vs. Team New Zealand, is one of open wounds: the second 5-0 loss the Kiwis received almost hurt more than the first one in 2000. There was the illusion on the eve of it that they could play it out, and indeed the performance against Oracle had proved comforting, but the Kiwis had grown enormously in the meantime and, with the benefit of some lackluster racing by Luna Rossa, the series had no history.

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The Undecided Moon of 2013

The Cup at this point enters the chaos of the legal dispute between Alinghi e Oracle. The Americans won it in a surreal challenge in Valencia between a trimaran, Oracle, and a catamaran, Alinghi and decided to put it up for grabs again in San Francisco in 2013 with a new class of boats, the AC 72, very complex rigid-wing catamarans. Patrizio Bertelli proved more cautious than in the past, the economic crisis was being felt internationally, and Team Prada set the challenge more to stay within the Cup world than to be competitive. There were only 3 challengers, Luna Rossa was able to quickly get rid of Artemis but could do nothing against Team New Zealand which prevailed 7 to 1, earning the chance to challenge in the final Oracle. Match that will be remembered as that of the great American comeback from 1-8 to 9-8.

The unfinished challenge

Bertelli is not having it and wants to try again, this time starting far in advance with a major design research. Oracle at this point announces another class change for the edition, with the AC 62, and Luna Rossa immediately starts developing the design. But challengers were latent, and the defender then decided to “tack” on theAC 50, still a catamaran but significantly smaller, with many one-design elements, again changing the game. This infuriated Bertelli, who thus saw all the advanced stage of design development as in vain. The rest of the story is well known. The patron withdrew the challenge, but gave the go-ahead for Max Sirena to move from Team New Zealand and bring them some of the innovations the Italian team had envisioned, such as the famous cycling grinders to increase hydraulic power generation for maneuvering. This technology, too, was decisive in the Kiwis’ victory in Bermuda, who after 14 years of chasing bring the Cup back to New Zealand. The ritual of the challenge thrown on the finish line of the last race is repeated, and on June 26, 2017, Patrizio Bertelli and Agostino Randazzo, president of the Circolo della Vela Sicilia, officially present the challenge for the 36th America’s Cup, which will be raced in 2020/2021 in Auckland, New Zealand, where 20 years earlier it all began. The circle then, at least ideally closes with the return to the land of the Maori. An edition this one marked by a new change of boats, probably the last for a while, taking the America’s Cup into the future. If a few years ago someone had told us that a boat would be born that would do 35 upwind at 12 knots, at an angle of less than 20 degrees, and would nimbly go over 40 in the stern, we would have laughed. Luna Rossa managed with an almost all-Italian team, with technologies largely belonging to our country, to interpret this new class of boats to the best of their ability. The team spirit seen on the water in Auckland is the one that, although with very different nuances over the years, has always distinguished Luna Rossa and is the reason why the Italian boat warms the hearts of non-sailors as well. Being able to enthuse an entire country 20 years after the first time is no small feat. It is a unique story.

by Mauro Giuffrè

NDR. The 2021 edition of the America’s Cup saw a return to monohulls and competed in AC75-class boats. Luna Rossa, after winning the challenger selection tournament (Prada Cup), again challenged the Team New Zealand, but was defeated 7-3.

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