BMW Oracle (USA-17) will make debut in Marseille

No team in the world of professional sailing has more on at the moment than
the BMW Oracle Racing Team. Catamaran training and developing for the Deed of Gift 33rd America's Cup Cup Challenge may be the top priority, but the sailing team have been competing actively on the RC 44 Circuit as well as preparing their brand new Reichel/Pugh-designed TP52, USA-17, a sistership to Artemis.

The new boat was not ready for the Alicante leg of the Audi MedCup Circuit, so rather than rush and compromise finishing the boat, the team have consolidated and the boat was launched for the first time, in Valencia, just ten days ago. The sailing team have managed just two or three days tuning and testing before the majority headed to Austria to compete in an RC44 event that finishes today. USA-17 arrived was delivered to Marseille on Saturday and the team will arrive late on Sunday, the day before the practice race.

Navigator Michele Ivaldi explains:
"The preparation has been short because we have been finishing the boat
late last week and we have only had a couple of days sailing. The last month has been hard on all the sailing team. We have been working different shifts to get it done and everyone has been putting a big effort in and the result is pretty good. Now we hope to have a nice racing week in Marseille."

"We sailed three days last week and the shore team guys have been sailing this week while most of the racing crew have been in Austria for the RC44 regatta. The guys sailed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week and the boat arrived in Marseille Saturday morning."

"We have been sailing against Artemis in Valencia a couple of days and we had a short fun race, just to make sure all the systems were working. It was a big, offshore breeze, shifty winds so there is not much we can read into it."

"But the feeling is positive and we are hoping to have a good week in Marseille at the Audi MedCup. But the level of this circuit is pretty high and the level of the boats is high. We expect to be improving during the week and hopefully we will get to learn the boat more and more. But to be honest it would be presumptuous to arrive expecting to have a very competitive boat, because there are a lot of very good sailors out there and they have been sailing those boats for weeks and weeks. I expect them to have made big steps forward."

"As you will know Russell had an accident sailing catamarans last week and so the two days we sailed was right after he hurt himself, so he was not on the boat then. But he has been sailing in Austria. Out goal is just keep up racing outside of the America's Cup and the more we do in these different environments the better it is for us, just trying to keep our competitiveness up."