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This is your second season with Rusal Synergy and you are the only “foreigner” in a team that is otherwise composed only of Russian nationals. Tell us how this came about.
“It seems that, in order to move away from IMS orientated crew, the team wanted to try some changes before starting the 2007 MedCup Circuit, and amongst other things they changed the navigator. They contacted Andrea Casale, through Vladimir, the Belrussian mainsheet trimmer who has sailed in Italy and often part in the Giro d’Italia race around Italy”, thinking that Casale was a navigator…
"Casale was rather surprised at this offer and, after having explained that navigating was not his usual role, mentioned the names of possible candidates including myself. They invited me to the 2007 Acura Gran Prix in Miami, the experience was a positive one and so I remained with the team."
"However, while I am the only Italian sailor on the boat, there are other Italians in the organization: the sails are manufactured by Stefano Schiaffino's North Sails Italy designed by Gigio Russo and Guido Cavallazzi. (Luna Rossa's 1997 sail designer)”
In the course of year 2007, your first season with this team, apart from a couple of good shows in coastal races, the overall performance was disappointing. Have you introduce any changes for this season?
“ Last year it was our first experience with a top class highly professional racing event. We had a very good basic training, but this is not good enough in a Circuit where the other teams have more experience and more training.
At the start we did well, because we were fitter, but then we slowed down and did not pay attention to improving the boat, the sails and the organization.
What we lacked most was experience, that is the knowledge of what to do to grow fast, and that is what we have tried to improve this year.”
“So that is the aim this year. The skipper Sergey Pichugin was appointed project leader; he has great experience and personality, and knows very well how to create team spirit and to bind the crew together. Our new team manager is Oleg Gravilin: even if he can not stay on the boat all the time, he does a great job looking after the overall organization and liaising with sponsors and suppliers.”
“Our new coach is Alexandr Shpilko, with a great background experience in Flying Dutchman and as coach for the Olympic team; his feeling with Sergey is excellent and they are working hard together to improve the team.”
“At the moment we are busy looking for a tactician, we tested some candidates, but so far nobody had the experience or the desire to work with a team at the level requested in the MedCup fleet. In Marseille it might be Alexandr Ekimov (at the moment he is at the mainsail trimmer); he has proven himself a highly capable sailor during the first leg of the Circuit and is on the same wavelength as Pichugin.”
How far can this programme go?
“ You need to ask the sponsor. At any rate, our program is long term, and we don’t set ourselves any limit, provided it we can prove ourselves on the water and commercially. If properly managed, sailing is a great way of advertising at costs that are acceptable. The old Soviet Union produced great Olympic sportsmen, Sergey himself is such an example, and also our top national coach Valentin Mankin who won three different Olympic medals. If one can count on sufficient support, it is possible to reach any level even in the most technologically advanced Classes; it is just a matter of finding a way to adapt a winning strategy to a competition where same things have different weights. An example is all the attention required when designing a boat, its keel and rudder, mast and sails; this is so also in the case of Olympic Classes, but without a good physical training it is just a waste of time."
There is talk on the dock that you will have a new boat for next season?
“ In 2009, unless something happens, we shall have a new boat. It is still to be decided who will be the designer and where it will be built. Consistency has always positive effects, but sometimes a change is an incentive to people.
What is certain is that this time we shall play an active role at all the stages of boat design and construction, we are no longer to be just buyers ready only to take the finished and turn the key as it was the case with the first boat. The experience of two seasons thought us how to understand these boats better; the experience of the new sailors who joined us this year, together with the greater knowledge gained by the old ones, will help in making the quality jump we are aiming to. This is why the new boat was initially intended for this year, and then deferred to next year.”
In the past some non Russian was occasionally enrolled in your team. Take for example the American Dee Smith, tactician in some events of your winter seasons in USA. Do you think that in the future your team will become more international or you will rather keep it as it is?
“ This is already an international team… We call all them Russians, but they are actually Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian, which is really no different to a boat with Italians, Spaniards and Frenchmen on board. The goal is to build up a strong and capable team, composed of sailors from the old Soviet Union, but only going ‘abroad’ for those elements which are not available at home.”
“At the present moment these elements are navigator and manufacturers.”
“ There is no resistance to foreign sailors in the team, provided that similarly qualified people are not available at home.”
“ The reason for that is not, and can not be, pure parochialism, but is mainly due to communication problems.
“ The old Soviet Union was a world power covering 10 time zones!
As in the USA, not many people speak foreign languages (ask Americans or Englishmen how many foreign languages they speak …).”
“To our ears it may sound like the same language, but in reality there is between Russian and Ukrainian the same difference as between Italian and Spanish, the difference being that everybody must learn Russian at school."
At any rate their minds are not closed, and also under this respect they are trying to adjust to the sailing environment, into which they stepped only recently, and they are learning the ropes very quickly."
" Dee Smith is a great man; he faced with great courage and determination the deterioration of his physical health he went through, showing the strength of his character.”
“ When racing in America the role of tactician was marginal, he coached us and tried to teach us, and specially the beginners amongst us, all his experience with the aim to give us a method rather than just some good results.
Dee is a sailor with great technical skills, his approach can sometimes be a bit abrasive, which proved very successful at the beginning of the learning curve; I do not know how much this attitude will be valued also in the next phase of learning, but this is something for the team manager to ponder… The next goal is for some crewmembers to develop the skills they still lack for the MedCup level of competition.”
“ Time could help us, but it would be faster if we could rely on the experience of somebody else, therefore it quite possible that very soon we’ll see some new member, maybe only for the MedCup Circuit.”
Lorenza Priamo |
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