Friendly competition between nations
If more people wanted Azzurra to win than Emirates Team New Zealand, it was no insult to the Kiwis. Rather, it was the fact that the Louis Vuitton Trophy concept has been proven to work, and work well...
It wasn’t the most auspicious of starts for the final day of racing on Sunday. Race officer Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio and his team came down to the port before the sun had even risen over the Mediterranean, ready to make the most of the short-lived morning breeze. Go much beyond 10am, and Luigi knew that the wind would most likely die.
“All I wanted when we went out there this morning was for someone to score 2-0, because it could have gotten ugly for a third match,” he said. So when his team discovered that two of the marker buoys had gone adrift overnight, this was not the news he wanted to hear. Fortunately the marker boat team got replacement buoys securely in place, not easy in the deep water off the Cote d’Azur, and racing got underway without any setback.
Not only that but Luigi’s dream came true when Azzurra won both the first two races. Soon after the Azzurri started celebrating, the wind died to zero, so it was a relief to organisers that the winners had won convincingly.
“It was a clear winner,” said Bruno Troublé, spokesman for the World Sailing Team Association (WSTA) and one of the chief architects of the Louis Vuitton Trophy concept. “In light weather they're very good, the Italians. It was the perfect result.
“The Kiwis, they are very good but they are spoilt” added Troublé with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “They won the Louis Vuitton Cup, then the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, so one day you have to lose. They lost to a fantastic team of Italians. they're very good in light weather, they love the conditions here, and I'm very impressed to see Azzurra back after so many years because this name is a brand in Italy, the same as Peter Blake was a legend in New Zealand. It has put sailing back on the front page in Italy.
“In fact Azzurra participated in the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1983, and I was sailing against them on the French boat. I know them well. Today’s victory, it is like the completion of a circle. The way they won was very good, no discussions.”
If the New Zealanders felt like Italy and the rest of the World wanted them to fall to Azzurra, they shouldn’t feel hard done by. It’s just that every neutral supporter likes to see the underdog win, and Francesco Bruni’s team was a very popular winner. “Today's result is a big support for the concept I came up with a year ago in the WSTA.
“The whole idea of the concept is to give the same weapons to the teams. You have slow boats and fast boats in the America's Cup, but when you are sailing a slow boat every day - it hurts a lot. What people loved at this regatta is that they are fighting with the same tools, the same weapons. And this is the whole idea behind the Louis Vuitton Trophy - fair and friendly competition between nations.”
