I check-in with Tudor Team Alinghi’s director for technical and sailing, New Zealand America’s Cup veteran Dave Endean – the man in charge of making sure that in AC38 the Swiss syndicate improves on its somewhat lacklustre performance in the last Cup in Barcelona.
JC: I heard you use the phrase ‘in start-up mode’ during your presentation earlier today. What does that mean in terms of an America’s Cup challenger?
DE: It means that we've got a lot of challenges ahead of us and not much time. These teams require a lot of people – and I think that the hardest challenge is to get that many people together working efficiently. Getting the culture right across the board is really challenging. Everyone sort of looks at this operation as a team that has already been there – in that we have got all these assets. But it’s not about the hardware so much. It's about the people. And I think trying to go from zero to 100, literally, in about 11 months is a challenge for any business – let alone a sailing team.
JC: Do I get a sense that you guys are aiming to just get through this event, to use it as a stepping stone on to AC39 – because that's where the real focus is?
DE: Our strategy is certainly longer term, in that we know what's coming with the budget caps. We've got 14 months to go in this campaign – I don't think I've ever had this little time to prepare for an America's Cup – and we do have our fair share of hurdles to get over the next couple of months with regard to the AC75.
It’s been sailing’s worst kept secret for the past several months, but it has now been formally confirmed that Australia is returning to the America’s Cup for the first time in 26 years.
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