Matteo de Nora: “We won’t let Luna Rossa win the America’s Cup”

by Fabio Pozzo, La Stampa 10 Oct 2018 13:45 NZDT 10 October 2018

Emirates Team New Zealand Principal Matteo de Nora in a reflective mood at the America's Cup Winner's Media Conference - Bermuda June 26, 2017 © Richard Gladwell

Italian America's Cup correspondent Fabio Pozzo, writing in La Stampa, spoke with Emirates Team New Zealand Principal Matteo de Nora as to his thoughts and overview of the 2021 America's Cup and build-up.

Here is the English translation version of the interview.

The America’s Cup is essentially a race against time. For the Kiwis who are working to defend it; for those who have launched the challenge and for those who would like to do it.

The 36th America’s Cup, which will be raced in Auckland in 2021, will start next June, when the teams will launch the first of their two boats that are now under construction. The pre America’s Cup regattas will be held in the Mediterranean Sea, two at least (on pole to host them are Cagliari, Naples and Trieste). Meanwhile rumors, announcements, meetings, tests will be on going.

Team New Zealand, who hold and organise the Cup, don’t speak much; however Matteo de Nora, the Team Principal with Italian origins, is speaking to La Stampa.

La Stampa: So far only three teams are challenging for the America’s Cup: Luna Rossa, American Magic and Ineos Uk. If there will be only the three of them, would it be a failure for you?

De Nora: “No. We made a specific choice after winning the Cup in Bermuda in 2017: organize the most technologically advanced sailing race ever seen while honouring the history that makes the America’s Cup so unique. Even at the cost of having fewer participants. This is the premise on which the new boat was born: a monohull with foils (the appendages that lift it from the water). A complex, complicated and fast machine although more stable than the previous catamarans, futuristic. A boat that will have a lasting effect: in five years we will probably see his innovations also on leisure sailboats. We had already revolutionized the sail world when we introduced the foils on the multihulls, now we are doing it with the monohulls “.

La Stampa: It is true that among you and Patrizio Bertelli, the owner of Luna Rossa and CEO of Prada, there is disagreement as he wanted to return to the monohull but you surprised him taking the design of the boat to the extreme?

“We all wanted a return to the monohull and to a boat with a high technical value: to end up with foils was the automatic consequence. Disagreement? I have not seen Bertelli in a while, but if there was any issue with him I would have known”.

La Stampa: Do you think other teams will be able to enter?

“I think one will, two maybe. There are several teams interested. A second American challenge, a Norwegian, the French who have never given up, the Swedes of Artemis who have never really left the game ... The hypothesis of a second American challenge seems the most likely to me “.

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