LVC07_0524_ReySt
The dust was flying around the Desafio Español compound on Thursday. But it wasn’t because of the wind. After bowing out of the race for the 32nd America’s Cup on Wednesday, the Spanish team held a private celebration. They may not have achieved the ultimate goal of every America’s Cup team, but the Spanish syndicate is very proud of what they accomplished in the Louis Vuitton Cup. According to tactician Tony Rey, it was far from a sad affair.”It was up to the standards that we’ve set so far in this America’s Cup,” he says. “It was definitely good. A lot of fun. It was just team members and a couple of the big sponsors. We all fit upstairs in a room; it was like a junior sailing awards banquet. There were speeches, a raffle; it was really cool. It was really a fitting end. Everyone’s in pretty good spirits, considering we lost, everyone came out of it pretty happy about how far we got. There’s a pretty good feeling among the guys.”Rey was a late addition to Desafio Español coming onboard in August of 2006. His role was as the tactician for the B-boat-ESP-88, or The Ocho, as it was known among those who sailed it regularly. It was Rey’s third America’s Cup effort. Despite sailing in just one race, the final race of Round Robin 2, after the team had already clinched a berth in the semifinal, and watching the other 26 from a chase boat, he says he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. So, we’ll start off with a tough one. What are you going to do with all those green and blue shirts? They weren’t exactly the most attractive pieces of crew gear we’ve ever seen.There’s been a movement this morning, it’s kind of cool, a bunch of guys are going to send their green gear in one of the containers going back to South Africa with Team Shosholoza and they’re giving it out through some foundation there to the local kids that go sailing. It appears that while only two teams could actually win in the semifinals, three came out of it fairly satisfied with their respective performances. Is that the case?I think there’s probably some truth to that, but in the end that’s just based on how the teams manage their expectations. Each team is in a unique position. Team New Zealand has a need to extract some vengeance for the last Cup, and they’re on a serious mission to get there. That’s going to be hard to stop. Luna Rossa is the perfect example of a team that’s peaking at the right time. They’ve done a really nice job managing their people and their equipment. Their package just gets better every time they go on the water. They’re going to be tough to beat in that regard. We came at it like we cant lose. So we were able to sail a little bit looser, with confidence but feeling a little bit light out there and we were able to surprise some people.For more from Tony Rey, click here.
