Catching up with Cameron Dunn before Louis Vuitton Act 12

Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team has published a very interesting interview with their helsman Cameron Dunn, where the New Zealander reviews the previous two Louis Vuitton Acts, gives an outline of their preparation and aspirations for Louis Vuitton Act 12 and more importantly sheds some light into the recent problems the Italian challenger had with their brand new boat ITA-90.

What has the team done to prepare for Act 12 ?

"We’ve had some difficulties with the weather here in the last couple of weeks which has probably stopped everybody – all the teams - from sailing as much as they possibly would have liked. But this last week has been really good. We’ve had some pretty intensive racing against various teams. We’ve raced: Victory Challenge, Areva, +39, United Internet Team Germany - a couple of times, and Shosholoza. We’ve done lots of prestarts and some small races. We’ve been trying to keep the momentum going from Acts 10 & 11. They’ve been really successful.

"The guys are learning a lot. The learning curve is still very steep. It’s on the way up which is very good. We have to keep doing that for another year, but with Act 12 coming up it´s very important right now. I think everybody’s in a very positive frame of mind, at the moment, towards the way things have been going. We’re winning some. We’re losing some. We’re learning all the time, which is really good. At this stage we’re pretty confident. The team’s in a good mood and in a good place for going into Act 12."

Has the team done something special in their preparations?

"After the analysis of Act 10 & 11…we’ve noted down a few things that we thought that we were possibly not so good at, or weren’t our strong areas. We’ve analyzed that and we’ve pointed them out to try and work on the specific areas: some crew work areas, some different techniques in the start box that we’ve really worked hard on to try and improve so that we can strengthen our game. But I can’t tell you what they are otherwise I’d have to… kill you."

Why the use of ITA 77 for Act 12?

"The reason for us using ITA 77 and not ITA 90 for this Act is quite clear: we’ve basically had ITA 90 in the water sailing doing a lot of structural testing and a little boat speed testing against ITA 77. Everything has been very, very positive so far. We did have a small issue with ITA 90 around the traveller area and it´s taking some time to fix. For that reason we didn’t think it was prudent to pull her straight back out before Act 12 and race straight away with her, as we just haven’t had enough time to feel confident in the boat, yet.

"Right now we’re in a very good frame of mind (comfortable) with 77. We’ve made various improvements to her in reliability and speed, especially. So right now it was a pretty easy decision. We would feel pretty silly going into an act with a boat that we haven’t really fully tested throughout the whole range of conditions. I think everybody’s nightmare is to enter a new boat that you haven’t sailed, for example, in 20 plus knots and all of a sudden Act 12 is all windy with big waves. If we break stuff or things don’t work- things that we haven’t encountered before…then it’s not so clever. Look at Team New Zealand in the last America’s Cup: the issues they had with their boat once it came racing hard in the wind, they started breaking things. It doesn’t look so good from the outside, even though you’ve got a lot of good people in the team. So we’re very happy to race ITA 77. We’re feeling very confident with her. We’ve made some improvements, so we’re really looking forward to Act 12 to see if we can do a little better than we did in Act 10".

What do you expect from Act 12?

“That’s a tough one…I think it’s going to be a very similar situation to what we saw in Act 10. You´re still going to have the likes of Alinghi, BMW ORACLE Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa, with a little edge over everybody…especially as it gets windier. The Spanish have thrown a little difference in there because they are sailing their new boat, and nobody really knows how they’re going. That will be interesting from our standpoint to watch them. Victory Challenge have done a modification to their boat again. Areva, +39, United Internet Team Germany, Shosholoza are all in a very similar position to where we were in Act 10. I think the very best would be for us to finish fifth. I think it´s more realistic for us to be fighting for sixth or seventh place. If we can get sixth, which we should´ve got in the last Act- if it wasn´t for the dying breeze against Victory Challenge where they came from 45 seconds behind to beat us. I think sixth is a realistic goal for us. For sure there’s potential for us to do better, but there’s a lot of potential with a lot f these teams, and no races are going to be easy…I’ll assure you of that. If we get light to moderate conditions- who knows- we can be right in there taking races off anybody that we sail against. We’ve proved that last time with Alinghi, finishing one length behind them. If we get a little bit more luck going our way, we can beat these guys.”