by Event Media
The MedCup Circuit´s Technical Director, Nacho Postigo, sat down in one of his rare quiet moments during the Portugal Trophy in Portimao and provided an insight into how he sees the 2007 season so far, and his vision for the future. Where is the Breitling MedCup Circuit going? What has worked this season? Are we making progress towards a stand alone F1 Grand Prix circuit? Is that the vision?
First up, Postigo concludes that wind, as we had at the beginning of Portimao, has not been such a rarity this season, although it has tended more to the extremes:
"We have not had that many races with just ten knots of wind. I can remember one windier day at Breitling Regatta, one day at Copa del Rey and in Alicante when we have not seen very "Med" conditions.
"The truth is that we had some stronger winds in Alicante, in Copa del Rey, in Breitling. The coastal race in Alicante we had 20 knots. We did two windward leewards with light winds but then we had wind. We missed a day because it was too light, but really this season we have not had so much of what you would call ´typical Med conditions´ of around eight knots of wind."
He considers the overall view of how the circuit has stepped up another level this season, and reinforces the news that several America's Cup teams are now expected to field TP52's on next season's MedCup Circuit, including Larry Ellison:
"This season you can see in different areas that the racing teams have seen more professionalism and a higher level. There are more and more teams with a chance to win. More and more big names, more and more people coming into the circuit from the America's Cup since 2005. I think that next year, in that direction, the circuit wll be even stronger, because America's Cup will not give many chances for racing and practising. So it will be a good way to build an America's Cup team, getting one or maybe two TP52's. I would expect this to happen, for sure. If I were running an America's Cup team and couldn't do two boat testing, couldn't do many things then I would spend my time on the match racing circuit and doing TP52 racing.
"With Mascalzone we were immediately considering the options, and straight away it was like 'you cannot do this, you cannot do that´, so you look at doing the world match racing tour and the MedCup. Then you have one developing match race skills and you keep your speed development skills up."
And the TP52 box rule is keeping designs tight year on year?
"Truthfully you don't see huge changes in design this year. The box rule is really quite tight and so you don't see big changes in design and the fact that the box rule is quite tight can be proved by the likes of Balearia which is a 2005 boat which has done well, been ahead of the fleet and scored good points. But at the end, in the first event it was a mix of new boats and older boats, in the top six, seven boats but the more the season goes on, the more new boats emerge at the top again. The crews with the new designs are usually the better ones and rise to the top.
"In Portimao we saw a great show from Mean Machine with a two year old boat. And at the beginning of the season everyone was saying that it was not very competitive, and the new boats are much faster, but in Portimao we saw Mean Machine sailing around at the front of the fleet, so I think the evolution is not that dramatic. It depends much more on how the crews are sailing."
"And that, of course that is good for the value of the boats."
"I wish we could do more to help owners move on second hand boats and get more owners into the circuit with these boats, but it is not easy. I don't think we will see fleets build independently of the circuit in the Med at the moment. I think the boats are good under IRC and will continue to go that way. But they are good for any kind of offshore racing, for the Middle Sea Race, the Giraglia, despite the fact that people think they have become too much of inshore boats but that is something that you can fix. You can have systems going on the deck and making the boat more seaworthy, for example. Structurally the boats are good, and they are strong and can sail. Probably not for long upwind in 40 knots of wind, but apart from that they are good for anything else.
" I think we will see people start to buy boats to do the other events now, though. Copa del Rey will not be part of the circuit, the Trofeo de Reina, or maybe Sardinia Cup, to give it a run and see how they like it, before moving on to the circuit, seeing first how the other teams and they are doing, maybe chartering the boat.
" We are having more and more Formula 1 style hospitality. I don't think it has worked so well this season yet, simply because it is a new thing, but we have proven that the infrastructure is there. We have faith that it will work and it is important for the way that the sponsors work. That is the way it will go in the future, it a very good idea. And we tried Virtual Spectator this year which is another way of helping understand the racing, for the people in the VIP hospitality areas, and the VIP and hospitality boats as well as on the internet. These are the things that we have to develop.
"More and more we follow some of the evolution that America's Cup has defined. That is good with regards to the event.
"On the water I don't think we need to change too much. We are happy with the events. Even the types and number of races we are generally happy with.
"I liked very much the venues where we have brought the circuit into the cities like, Alicante - it worked there. We organised, for example, poster signing with Vasco (Vascotto) and though maybe some people did not know who he was, there was long queues at 6pm. Many did not know who Vasco was, what the MedCup circuit was, or what sailing really is, but there was a long queue and a great atmosphere. And that has to be developed for next year. The sponsored boats need to do much more promotional activities to build their profile next year.
"Palma was very good in that respect but we have a little bit of an issue with security. It was rather like Fort Knox in the end, which was not so good as people were a bit scared, or put off getting close to the boats. The concept is right, though, putting the boats in the middle of the city.
"Portals was very, very good. As the Royal Family had just arrived in Mallorca for the summer all the tourists came. The place has lots of glamour and it is always busy, and we had some good hospitality for the guests.
"Portimao has been the perfect combination between good racing, good onshore events and good hospitality. Even if you said there was not many people around, you would be surprised at the quality albeit they were low profile.
"I hope that we will see the circuit moving towards grand prix, but we will also a very national involvement, but it is pretty much going in that direction and that is what we have been trying to do since Day One. Trying to do for our sport, what other sports are doing. Bringing it to a formula that is understandable to the public, they know that we are coming from a previous event, they know that there is an overall leader, there is a winner from the last event, the first boat going around the windward mark is leading and the first boat across the finish line wins.
"Things have developed over our expectations in terms of the number and quality of boats. Onshore we were never expected, when we started with this is 2004, to see such a ´circus´.
"The whole thing though is not something that you just build in two days. The more the you have this set up well, the easier it will be to bring politicians, and sponsors, people coming here and seeing what this is and understanding it. It is also a question of budget. In the America's Cup the budgets are 300 or 30,000 times what we have here.
"I think that is the way we are going.
"In three to five years I hope to see better TV coverage, easier to follow for VIPs,virtual viewing, a great atmosphere and stability among the fleet and the same high quality racing. We will always lose and gain some boats but a fleet of 20-25 boats is ideal. It really is as much as is manageable in the harbours and cities we visit and it is would be quite hard to find harbours in the Mediterranean for 30 of these boats - but I would not mind to have that problem!
"Viewing it from the perspective of the professional sailor, knowing there is a circuit every year and you are going to be able to find a team and that you have 50-60 days of sailing every year is a great thing. And that is what I would like to achieve, consistency and stability every year. Same profile, same level, same good people involved."
And the arrival of America's Cup teams in full force? Will that put existing owners off:
"I hope it will not put people off. They are going to feel a little bit like 'mmm'. The problem is that you can spend double what the other guys are spending, but the benefits that you do get are very, very small. You can only build 25 sails. Maybe you could build 50 and choose the best 25 but is there going to be a significant huge difference between a good light genoa, say, and the next light genoa?
"Remember that last year we saw some teams who have spent lots of money and did not do so well, and I am thinking about Atalanti Lexus, and Pinta where they had a huge onshore infrastructure. It was rumoured that Pinta had up to 50 people working on the team and the results were not good. So, as we are saying, you can spend as much money as you want, but it is not going to guarantee you the result.
"People this year are probably not spending less, but they are spending in a different way. There are not teams moving 50 people around with a sail loft, and things like that. That is not happening. There is a natural ceiling, if you like. We have seen boats with ideas, and we have seen one boat with a SailVision system. The question is do we have the time when we sail these boats to really develop and benefit from these kind of tools or is it a waste of money?"
Breitling MedCup 2007
Tactician on the Mean Machine Valle Romano TP 52, Ray Davies, was impressed with the boat’s performance: “We’ve been able to plan our race from the position of a good start. There’s no magic formula to explain the team’s performance, and everyone’s worked really hard. We’ve really studied the pros and cons of the new generation boats, and as they’re faster, we’ve tried to make changes to Mean Machine to optimise her performance. The shore crew have done a great job, and Pedro das Neves, ‘our man from Portugal’ has been a great help.”