Quote From Matteo Plazzi

Quote From Matteo Plazzi
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

NOVEMBER 22, 2002

QUOTE FROM MATTEO PLAZZI

Matteo Plazzi, navigator on Luna Rossa, said today: "It's been an important day for us as we have been able to complete all the modifications we had planned on Luna Rossa ITA 74. We had a very long night yesterday: we stepped the mast around 2 am, put the boat in the water at 4 am and at 5 am began measurement. Around 7 am we were able to carry out the first structural tests and at 8.30 we left the dock.

Today's outing was used primarily to check that everything was functioning correctly. Unfortunately the wind was very shifty and we were unable to assess the speed of the boat. However, the few hours that we spent on the water were precious because they enabled us to gain, once more, confidence in our boat and tomorrow we will be able to focus only on racing.

In the ideal world we would have obviously liked to have 3 or 4 days to train with ITA 74 before the repechage round, but this was not feasable as we didn't have enough time. We trained with ITA 80 and were able to test some solutions that we might decide to use on ITA 74.

It's been a tough week and the team worked really hard around the clock in order to reach an ambitious goal.

Victory Challenge is a strong opponent with a good crew and a good boat.

They are at their firts America's Cup experience but have spent a long time here in Auckland training before the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

They achieved some good results in the races and during the past month they have certainly improved. We will have some tough matches and are confident in the modifications that we decided to carry out on ITA 74".

Official Suppliers Prada Challenge 2003: Enervit (active nutrition).

Fabianelli (pasta).

Makita (power tools).

Saima Avandero (transport).

Sanpellegrino (mineral water and soft drinks).

Technogym (fitness equipment).

Corporate Technology Partners Prada Challenge 2003:

PTC Parametric Technology Corporation (engineering design and analysis software).

SGI Silicon Graphics, Inc. (computer systems).

Official Technology Partners Prada Challenge 2003:

CEI Computational Engineering International (engineering visualization software).

ICEM-CFD Engineering (mesh generation software).

Service Providers Prada Challenge 2003:

Dantec Dynamics (solutions for flow measurements).

Green Marine Ltd (boat building and composite technology).

INSEAN The Italian Ship Model Basin (experimental fluid dynamics).

Press Office:

Paolo Martinoni, pmartinoni@Prada-americascup.com Alessandra Ghezzi, aghezzi@Prada-americascup.com

http://www.pradalunarossa.com

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