PAUL CAYARD MEETS THE PRESS

Less than a week after joining Desafío Español as its new Sports Director, Paul Cyarad talked to the Spanish media, together with the team’s general manager, Agustín Zulueta. The American legendary sailor talked about most aspects of his team but the most controversial ones (validity of the Challenger of Record, current litigation in New York, possible postponement of the America’s Cup) were developed to a much lesser extent.

Being a conference for the Spanish media, the interest was mainly focused on what Cayard could bring to the team, his goals and the level of Spanish participation in the sailing crew. In our opinion, there are three or four main points from the conference. First, Cayard will helm the new boat during the development phase but not necessarily during actual racing. Second, both

him and Desafío Español don’t want to have the event postponed till 2010 and hope a solution to the litigation can be found before Monday. Third, Cayard thinks Alinghi doesn’t have the 33rd America’s Cup in the pocket and BMW Oracle will be very difficult to beat, given their enormous financial, technical and human resources.

— Valencia Sailing, full report: http://tinyurl.com/yrpyp2