The crew of Luna Rossa completed their summer training session in Punta Ala last Saturday, 4 August. The team is now busy packing the boats up and de-mobilizing the operations base which shuts down as the activities relocate first to England for the America's Cup Jubilee (18-25 August) and then to Auckland, New Zealand, by the end of September.

Of the four IACC boats belonging to team Prada, Luna Rossa ITA 45 (winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup 2000) is now being shipped to Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, where she will join the celebrations and commemorative regattas of the America's Cup 150 anniversary. At the end of August she will leave directly from Cowes for her long voyage to New Zealand.

The shipping dates for Luna Rossa ITA 48 and the two black boats Young America USA 53 and 58, are yet to be finalized. Two Tom 28s, small one-designs used by the team for in-house match race practice, will also be shipped to Auckland.

Just over one year is to go before the start of the next Louis Vuitton Cup (commencing October 2002), and each hour of work, both at sea and on shore, is extremely valuable for the team in their mission to reach the goals that have been set.

The Prada design team has had a wonderful set of tools (an amazing four IACC boats) to work with over this period of training, with the aim of testing new solutions, materials and technologies. It will take a few more months before the building of the new hulls - two as allowed by the XXXI America's Cup rules - begins in Italy, and this is the critical phase when the so-called "wish list" for each new boat has to be finalized in great detail.

A good part of the crew's sailing program over the last two months has been devoted to testing and carrying out various technical evaluations. Thus, the team has had the possibility of putting the designers' ideas to the tough and severe test of sea, wind and waves. Each new modification on the hulls, rig and sails has been checked almost in real time. The crew alternated these long and tiring testing days with intense match race practice both on the big boats and on the small one-design yachts.

Francesco de Angelis wraps up this session: "We have just completed a very intense working period for all the team. In two months of sailing (June and July) we focused on many different projects related to hulls, masts and sails. We are satisfied with the results achieved. Thanks to an outstanding level of teamwork we have been able to use all of the four IACC yachts in our possession. This has enabled us to study and verify multiple solutions, both from a technical and a design point of view, in a very short time frame. Despite the huge amount of work on the America's Cup Class yachts we were able to fulfill our match race training program on smaller boats, both in Punta Ala and elsewhere".

"Three complete Prada crews - with Rod Davis, Gavin Brady and myself as skippers - switched on the international circuit in Italy and overseas, racing in a completely different environment from the one we are used to working with every day. The experience gained during the last campaign has enabled us to approach this project from a different perspective. We can now focus on details that we had no time to take into consideration in the past due to the different priorities".

An intense week to come for Team Prada, whose last day of sailing in Tuscan waters is scheduled for Saturday 4 August. Francesco de Angelis and his crew will be training on Luna Rossa ITA 48 and Young America.

Luna Rossa ITA 45 is being shipped over to Cowes, UK, where she will be competing in the America's Cup Jubilee (18-25 August).

From next Sunday the team will begin the demobilization work of the compound in Punta Ala which will be shut down as the team will relocate to Auckland, New Zealand, in September..

Team Prada confirms that the possibility of moving their Italian operations base from Punta Ala to Elba Island is being taken into consiferation.

The website www.joinelba.it published today the words of Mr Ruggero Barbetti, Mayor of Capoliveri, according to whom the team of Luna Rossa is probably going to relocate to Elba.

Team Prada is training once again in the Mediterranean Sea with the International America's Cup Class yachts, unloaded four days ago from the ship which brought them over to the northern hemisphere. It was only six weeks ago that Luna Rossa and Young America were sailing every day in the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand, at the opposite end of the world.

Sailing team, shore team, staff, boats and equipment are now back at "home" in the operations base in the secluded village of Punta Ala, in Tuscany. All is ready for intense training to commence once more. Over the next few months the team will focus on tests, technical evaluations and in-house racing. This period will be of great importance for the Prada design team who are working on the new boats that shall be launched in approximately one year's time.

Francesco de Angelis has had the difficult task of putting the boats together (the keel, bulb and mast are taken apart when shipped), rigging and fine tuning them with the help of the shore team and his crew. Early next week both Luna Rossa and Young America should be sailing together once again.

In the meantime the crew has kept in top shape with match race practice on small one design boats. Rod Davis and Gavin Brady yesterday finished racing in Split, Croatia, for the ACI Ronhill Cup included in the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour. Gavin, together with Alberto Barovier, Sean Clarkson, Steve Erickson and Lorenzo Mazza, finished second behind successful title defender Dean Barker (New Zealand) after a very intense series of round robins, semis and finals. Rod Davis, racing with Francesco Bruni, Thomas Burnham, David Blanchfield and Carter Perrin, finished sixth.

In August team Prada and Luna Rossa will be in Cowes, Great Britain, for the America's Cup Jubilee, the event organised by the Royal Yacht Squadron and the New York Yacht Club to celebrate the 150th "birthday" of the America's Cup.

With the partying over, team Prada will have to move "home" once again. From mid September boats, equipment and people will relocate to the operations base in Auckland for the southern hemisphere summer. .

Team Prada is back, once again, in their home waters off the coast of Tuscany. While the shore team is working hard to prepare the IACC boats and all the equipment, the sailing team practices match racing on the "small" Tom 28. The first sail with an IACC boat is scheduled for Monday 28 May.

Two crews left today from Punta Ala to compete in the ACI Cup in Split, Croatia (24-30 May), grade 1 match racing included in the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour. Rod Davis will team up with David "Rat" Blanchfield, Francesco "Checco" Bruni, Thomas Burham and Carter Perrin. Gavin Brady will race with Alberto "Albi" Barovier, Sean Clarkson, Steve Erickson and Lorenzo "Lo" Mazza.

All is ready, once again, for team Prada to commence training at their operation base in Punta Ala. All the crew is back home and in two weeks time they will be sailing again in the Mediterranean sea.

Rod Davis and his crew - Paolo Bassani, Gavin Brady, Sean Clarkson, Massimo Galli and Carter Perrin - have just returned from Long Beach, USA, where they competed in the Congressional Cup finishing fourth overall behind Peter Holmberg, winner of the event, Bertrand Pacé and Ken Read.

The next scheduled match race is for Francesco de Angelis who will be competing in Rimini, Italy, from 6 to 9 June for the grade 2 event "BluRimini".

For Team Prada this it was the last training week with Luna Rossa and Young America in the Hauraki Gulf before the departure to Italy for the summer session. At sea this week, italian IACC with Francesco de Angelis, Rod Davis and respective crews. Gavin Brady was back from the Australia Cup he finished second together with Sean Clarkson, Lorenzo Mazza, Steve Erickson and Alberto Barovier.

A series of low pressure systems has been storming through Auckland for the past three days. The wind is blowing at over 40 knots with violent rain squalls. The only time when the team can go out sailing is at sunrise as the wind eases during the night. After a few hours the wind starts blowing again.

From today everybody is busy packing up all the equipment which has to be shipped to Italy - boats, sails, tenders, rigs, etc... Five weeks are necessary for the cargo ship to reach the Mediterranean sea. Part of the team is still training at sea with in-house match racing sessions on the small MRXs. By mid April the operations base in Auckland will be shut down for the southern hemisphere winter season..