Desafio Espanol

Tim Jeffery talks to Luis Doreste

Alinghi: the home team? Not according to the Desafio Espanol who are the Spanish team, competing in their own country.

Try explaining this finer point to the non-sailing public that Alinghi are the Cup holders from Switzerland who are hosting the next America^s Cup in Valencia because Spain's third city won a bidding war against the likes of Lisbon, Marseilles, Naples and, dare you mention them, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.

This is what the Spanish team have to do, saying that they are just one of 11 challengers and have to fight for the right to sail in 32nd America^s Cup against Alinghi.

"Alinghi try and say they are the local team but I think the Spanish public see us as the home team. They support us," says Luis Doreste, Double Olympic Gold medallist and
sporting director of Desafio Espanol.

¨Alinghi only sail at the end but the public have to support us through the Louis Vuitton Cup," continues Doreste. ¨They are two different competitions and the public has to understand this. In Spain, there is not the knowledge about the Cup. Sailing is not a very popular sport and so they don't see the difference between the Louis Vuitton and the America's Cup. To them it is all the America^s Cup."



Not for nothing is the Spanish base one of the bigger ones in Valencia even though the team's budget is a mid-pack 55 million Euros. Lead sponsor, Iberdola, is a power generator pressing its green credentials with wind power. Hence the lime green branding of the America's Cup boats.

An old hull ESP 51 is touring Barcelona, Malaga, Madrid and Valencia to spread the word. A grinding game is tied into Boat Show visits. Some 60-70 schools in the Valencian Community are visiting the team base while Desafio Espanol is building its television audience through the local publicly owned Canal 9 station with extensive live news and features programming.

The national TVE station is undergoing major change but full coverage is planned for 2007. So you get the picture; the Spanish team is working assiduously to build support at home.

It is Doreste's job encourage this support with performances on the water.

"We have to explain that we are challenger, like ten other teams, and we have to qualify and as the local team and we win, the America's Cup will stay in Valencia. If Alinghi wins, I don^t what will happen to the Cup," he says.

The core team taking the sporting decisions are Doreste, Kiwi technical director John Cutler and British coach Eddie Owen. They decide who sails, which mast to test, what sails to build. Design decisions fall into Cutler's remit along with the designers John Reichel and Jim Pugh. But like Cutler, Doreste is also a vital afterguard member, playing the big-picture strategist foil to Cutler's shorter term tactician's role.

Understanding the hierarchy of the team is no easy matter to outsiders for Spanish syndicates are unusually top heavy.

"There are a lot of people at the top of the organisation. That's the way we are feeling in Spain. The big sponsors, the results, the media, that's why we have a lot of people at the top," explains Doreste.

Pedro Campos is an ever-present presence, just as he was in Spain's unfulfilled challenges of 1992, 1995 and 200 and just about every other major campaign eminating from Spain.

He is one of the syndicate's owners and sits on the board as does Doreste's brother, Jose-Luis. Syndicate boss is Agustin Zuleto. After Alinghi brought the Cup to Europe both Campos and Zulueta attempted to raise their own syndicates, with city set against city and region against region. It was intervention of HM King Juan Carlos that brought them under one roof with a challenge lodged not by a yacht club in the normal sense required by the Cup's Deed of Gift but by the Spanish national authority, the Real Federación Española de Vela.

The popular perception is that sailing in Spain is big: the Olympic record, especially in Barcelona in 1992 and recall Luis' two golds (470 1984 and FD 1992 as well as that of Jose-Luis (Finn 1988); the three previous Cup challenges; movistar's Volvo Ocean Race entry; and vigorous support of IOR, IMS and most recently TP 52 racing. Add in the constant support of the King and his family.

Distinguish, however, between big-time racing and ordinary recreational sailing urges Doreste. "There are a lot of IMS boats racing in Spain because of the King," he explains. "But not so many people sail the Olympic classes and if you go out and see how many boats that are sailing it is not so much. It's not like New Zealand or Australia or France where you see people sailing because they like to sail. In Spain it is much more for competition not enjoyment so the numbers are less. Yacht clubs in Spain are expensive and are more social than sporting."

Ask Doreste about the patronage of yachting by King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prince Felipe and Princess Christina and he draws a subtle line between popular and poplarist. "It is difficult to answer," he admits. "It is good for us, for our sponsors, for IMS campaigns, for the America's Cup, for Volvo because we have members of the Royal Family sailing. But at the same time, people can think that this is a sport for high-level people. So it's good for big boats."

Against this backdrop Desafio Espanol has become a much more international enterprise than the three previous Spanish challenges and one that is courting home country support assiduously.

Zulueta brought in Doreste last year at much the same time as he hired Karol Jablonski as helmsman. The perennially happy Pole is Y3K's regular skipper in Wally class racing, an ice boat world champion, past ISAF match race world champion and a path-finder in Auckland for a Polish challenge that never materialised. He joined the Spanish team after associations with the stillborn Toscana and Mascalzone Latino challenges from Italy.

"Choosing Karol was a difficult decision," admits Doreste. "I would have liked to helm the boat myself but I accept that do not have the experience to match race. So we knew we had to contract a more experienced sailor. A lot of teams were sailing already but Karol was a good choice. He's a very good match race sailor and big boat sailor."

As Sporting Director and tactician Doreste channels his competitive instincts into broader picture might have been possible had he been on the wheels. "As Sporting Director I have more than 30 people I am responsible for so it is good not to have to concentrate solely on helming. I can talk to them, listen to their problems and view things more than just the speed of the boat. Before when I have been involved in Olympic campaigns it has only involved two or three people, so a broader view because I am not helming is helpful to running a bigger group."

Since acquiring the former Laurie Davidson-designed OneWorld boats last year, the Spanish have been the most active of the late-starting teams. The original sticker prize was said to in the region of US$15 million. Doreste believes the purchase price was fair if not cheap. "The OneWorld boats were the best decision for us," he says. "We were starting from zero and the boats and masts are good. We also bought the database. We paid a lot of money but at the end, it was not expensive because we would have had to pay a lot to investigate the boats and make the data. This would probably have cost us even more."

ESP 88 was launched during May's Louis Vuitton Acts 10 & 11, giving the team the boost of the first new boat of their own.

Around the syndicate bases, there is an opinion that once you get past the big three challengers: BMW Oracle, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa - Desafio Espanol are the mid-pack team to watch out for.

"Sure I think one of the big three challengers could slip and a team from the middle pack could beat them," concurs Doreste. He thinks the Spanish can do it on their own merits and that there is every chance that one of the majors might haemorrhage.

"For many teams now this is a three year campaign, not a six month one, so if there are any problems inside a team they will be shown," muses Doreste. "The team is very important to the final result. I don't know if there are problems in other teams but I do know three years is very hard for a lot of people."

He senses that some of his rivals are finding their everyday Valencia experience demanding, whereas, Desafio Espanol really are sailing on home waters.

"We are living at home. We are with our families and we don't have to change our way of life," says Doreste. "If you had to live in New Zealand for three years without your family or friends it would be difficult, so it's much better for us. We can talk in our own language and eat our normal food.

"I think it is probably more difficult for the New Zealanders, Americans and Australians living in Spain than maybe it would be for us in New Zealand. I think it is easier for us to adapt than it is for them to live in our country. The food, the time we eat dinner, the sounds, the noise: Spain is very different!"

If Doreste could boost his team's budget nearer the level of the big three what we he spend it on? "More crew!" he says with a flashing smile. "At the moment we have to sail and work on the boat. It's tough. And we probably don't have enough afterguard, particularly when we have two boats sailing. And we'd spend it on more design investigation on the boat, mast and sails, but in reality now we don't have the time to do much more CFD or tank work."

Desafio Espanol plan to remain in the game after the 2007 Cup but just how good does Doreste believe his team can be in the coming 15 months?

"We hope our new boat is faster than the OneWorld boat. In the computer it is! vIf it is, we can beat anyone. We have no limits now. We will have only found our limits at the end!"

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