America's Cup: Talking with Azzurra's Franceso Bruni - Looking Ahead

9:29 AM Sat 27 Mar 2010 GMT

'Azzurra, Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland' Bob Greiser/Outside Images Click Here to view large photo

A year ago, Francesco Bruni came to the Congressional Cup as a last minute replacement following a successful debut at the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series with Damiani Italia. But with the future uncertain for Cup employment, his main focus at the time was the Joe Fly Farr 40 program.

What a difference a year makes.

Bruni finished second in the Con Cup in 2009 and then grew the Joe Fly program into the Azzurra team, while the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series morphed into the Louis Vuitton Trophy -- and Bruni's fledgling team took the Cup world by storm, winning the LVT in Nice and finishing third in the LVT in Auckland last week behind only ETNZ and Mascalzone Latino.

Not a bad showing for a skipper whose finish in last year's Con Cup was considered the surprise of the regatta.

Bruni returns to Long Beach this week with Azzura, including tactician Tom Burnham who joined Bruni at this event last year. Back then it was just a one-off from his gig with Quantum's TP52 team, but now it has become a regular ride with the Italian team. Both men are happy to say that Cup employment seems to be on the rise.

'We are happy that we can see some talk about the future,' said Bruni. 'We know that we will come to a solution very soon. At least there was a winner. The winner is going to make some rules, the loser hopefully will be a little quieter and not try to win it in the court! We see a little bit of a future in front of us.

'There are a lot of interrogative points -- the date, when, where, which boats, etc., but it's much better than it was a year ago when we didn't know if there would ever be an America's Cup again.'

Bruni confirmed that Azzura has indeed been consulted by BMW Oracle Racing in anticipation of the protocol for the next Cup.

'They know our opinion. Our opinion is there are three points that they have to consider: Not too big of a budget, because the economic times are not such that you can have a 200 million Euro program, it has to be between 40 and 60 million to be competitive.

'Second point is that it cannot be too early, but it cannot be too late. Some say they're talking about 2015, which is crazy, you can't ask a sponsor to be committed for five years. At the same time, you can't find the money tomorrow. So I think a date between 2012 and 2013 would be okay.

'Third point is, we would like match racing, and for match racing, the multhulls are not the solution. To have a good performing monohull is the solution. That's our position.'

Despite all the uncertainty in the America's Cup last year, Bruni kept busy on the World Match Racing Tour though sometimes it demanded adapting on short notice in order to seize the opportunities.

'We did a lot of match racing last year -- even if we were invited at the last moment -- which made it hard to get a consistent crew. But we did a good season overall with the match race circuit. This year we have a little bit more of an advantage because we have a card for the world tour, so we can plan a little bit better.

'But it was a very good year. We were fourth in Auckland [in 2009] and won in Nice, and just finished third [in the Louis Vuitton Trophy]. We also had a good result in the Farr 40 and the Melges 32 with Joe Fly, so it was a very good year overall for me, as a tactician and a helmsman. I hope every year is going to be like that!'

As the team goes forward, the Louis Vuitton Trophy is a main focus. For Bruni and Azzurra, it's a chance to work on a much more even playing field, and nowhere was that more obvious than in the level of competition Bruni saw in Auckland.

For the rest of this story click here

by Diane Swintal for CupInfo

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