Luna Rossa mimics strategy of Team NZ
Luna Rossa appear to have taken a leaf out of Team New Zealand’s book after making some modifications to their boat ahead of the Prada Cup challenger series later this month.
Italian sailing website Fare Vela reported Luna Rossa had built fairings surrounding the cockpits of their AC75, copying a Team NZ approach in a bid to ‘‘optimise the aerodynamics’’ and ‘‘reduce the drag of the crew’’.
The website published a photo of the modified boat out on the water, saying ‘‘the age measure was hypothesised by several observers after seeing the best fairing on Te Rehutai’’.
It’s no surprise that the Italian syndicate may have looked to their rivals to find an edge.
The America’s Cup has never been a game where teams are shy to steal a better concept from an opponent and every team would have been pouring over footage from last month’s World Series regatta, the first time these radical AC75s have been raced in competition.
‘‘You look around the fleet and there’s a lot of really good ideas on the other boats,’’ American Magic skipper and chief executive Terry Hutchinson has said. ‘‘It’s good to see that some of our ideas seem to be working. At the same time, [we may] grab on to a couple of others we can implement into our own sails or techniques.’’
It also wouldn’t be the first time Luna Rossa have tinkered with their design as they vie to earn the right to challenge Team NZ for the Auld Mug from March 6.
While Luna Rossa made the least and less obvious changes to their second boat compared to the three other teams, they modified the skeg running down the middle of the hull almost immediately after it was launched.
There has also been talk that they may have come up with a more economical grinding system that gives greater leverage to the movement of the arms of their grinders.
The rest of the fleet will get a better indication of what changes the Italians have made when the Prada Cup gets under way on January 15.