Thursday, May 31, 2007

"Luna Rossa" Out to Avenge 2000 rout vs "Emirates Team New Zealand"

The ANNOTICO Report

Seven years ago, the Italian whizzed their way through the LV Cup, only for New Zealand to wallop them 5-0 to retain the America's Cup.

Potential Revenge will be available in the Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup that start Friday, June 1, 2007 with "Luna Rossa" matched vs  "Emirates Team New Zealand" in a Best  of Nine Series. The Winner will face the America Cup's Defending Champion Ernesto Bertarelli's "Alinghi"  (from Switzerland) June 23.

 

Italy has won the Coin Toss for the Finals getting to choose it's starting position.

 

Italy and New Zealand have two diametrically opposed Strategies.

Italy goes searching for the big wind.

New Zealand, keeps within a few boat lengths of their rivals to steal their breeze and protect their position. 

 

"Luna Rossa" skipper,James Spithill, has excelled in the pre-start, which has been instrumental in the Luna Rossa's successes.

Spithill strategizes to set traps on the pre start, keeping the opposition off balance, and often causing them penalties in their attempt to recover.

Luna Rossa may already have the world's best match-racer in helmsman James Spithill - and he's still improving.


New Zealand's Barker says they have studied  Spithill's moves tack by tack and admits it is an area he will need to improve on.

 

"Emirates Team New Zealand" held two practice races vs "Alinghi" this week. Verdict: NZ poised, Swiss fast

 

Luna Rossa Out to Avenge 2000 Rout

CNN

From Reuters

May 31. 2007

VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) -- Luna Rossa are aiming to lay the ghosts of the 2000 America's Cup to rest on June 1 when they take on Team New Zealand in the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Seven years ago, the Italian newcomers whizzed their way through the LV Cup, only for New Zealand to wallop them 5-0 to retain the America's Cup.

Well down that year's table, Young Australia's 20-year-old skipper James Spithill watched as New Zealand's Russell Coutts handed the helm to Dean Barker to deliver the final blow to Luna Rossa and lift the Auld Mug in front of a home crowd.

Spithill, now 27 and still one of the youngest helmsmen in America's Cup history, will try to reverse Luna Rossa's fortunes on Friday as he takes on Barker and a Kiwi crew desperate to win the Cup back from Swiss syndicate Alinghi.

Spithill has been hailed this season for his consistent improvement, aggressive starts, and for blowing big-budget BMW Oracle out of the water 5-1 in the semifinals, to set up the first ever final without a U.S. boat.

Luna Rossa, backed by Prada, has been a hotbed of tempers in the past, with the head of the Italian fashion house Patrizio Bertelli famously flying off the handle when he felt bad decisions had been made on deck.

This year, the boat's more international crew seems to be tighter and calmer with Spithill, skipper Francesco de Angelis and Brazilian tactician Torben Grael trusting each other as Spithill plants penalties on rivals at the start and Grael leads Luna Rossa miles away from their opponents in search of wind.

Conservative

At Team New Zealand, the mostly Kiwi team have followed more conservative tactics, keeping within a few boat lengths of their rivals to steal their breeze and protect their position.

The government-backed New Zealanders came into the LV Cup as favorites and have looked strong throughout, winning their semifinal 5-2 against Desafio Espanol.

In the round robins, they won one against Luna Rossa and lost one when they took a penalty in the pre-start -- an area Barker knows will be the danger zone in the best-of-nine finals.

"Most of their matches have been won on James Spithill's pre-starts. We are therefore going to study it really closely, tack by tack," he said.

The winner of the LV Cup finals will take on Alinghi for the America's Cup, which starts on June 23.

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed and are Fully Archived at:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com (Formerly Italy at St Louis)

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed at

 

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net