On location in Valencia, Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson interviewed Paul Cayard for CNN’s MainSail programme. For a glimpse of the Desafio Espanol base, the America’s Cup basin and Cayard’s views on who will win the America’s Cup, click on the following link: Video: MainSail interviews Paul Cayard*

A big day on the water in Valencia. The breeze was 7-9 knots so still on the light side. What is apparent after the first 9 flights is that there are 7 teams that can win any race. This is great for the spectators.

In the first Flight of the day, Victory beat Areva which was important for the Swedes who are trying to stay in the hunt for the fourth spot in the semi finals along with Mascalzone Latino and Desafio Espanol. The Swedes were penalized early in the race and the French were not slow. But in the end the Swedes got a big enough lead to make the penalty turn on the finish line and win the match.

Mascalzone and Shosholoza had a tough battle but in the end Mascalzone had the edge. Shosholoza continues to show very good upwind speed. They start well and usually get the correct side of the course. They will upset a few more tams before Round Robin 2 finishes. The first America’s Cup Team from South Africa has a lot to be proud of.

In the second flight Luna Rossa beat Team New Zealand. On their entry, Dean Barker made a mistake and immediately the Kiwis were down a penalty. Then near the top of the first beat, Team New Zealand tacked a bit too far away from the Italians who were able to live to windward on port and round the first mark first. Only at the end of the final run were the Kiwis able to get in front of Luna Rossa but then it was too little too late. This Kiwi team seems very beatable and the Italians have been the ones to expose that. Desafio beat Victory challenge in that all important match amongst rivals for the fourth semi final spot.

In the Mascalzone Latino-BMW Oracle Match, we saw a very aggressive team from the USA putting a lot of pressure on the Italians and a tight tacking duel up the first windward leg. Near the top of the beat, BMW Oracle protested several times and on one occasion Mascalzone did tack too close and was given a penalty. This changed the face of the match and shortly thereafter BMW passed the Italians and stretched to a comfortable win. I think BMW was a bit faster than Mascalzone.

Tomorrow the challengers should be able to finish up Round Robin one with some very exciting matches. All the matches in flight 10 and 11 will be fairly even as the pairing list was constructed in a way to pit the closest adversaries in the last flights. Luna Rossa vs. Mascalzone Latino for the Pride of Italy race, and the last match of the day, BMW Oracle vs. Team New Zealand.

Well we got one in today. Still very light wind and the forecast for tomorrow is a bit less than today…so marginal.

Today we had a NE gradient that was altered by the thermal heating on the land which pulled the wind right, closer to perpendicular to the coast line, and this made the wind speed drop. It was not a strong thermal because we are not getting the really high temperatures that we will see in June and July.

So we got one race in 8 knots, the right was favored on the first windward leg. In the first match of the day, Germany got the right side of the start and first leg against Luna Rossa and led for the first half of the first windward leg. Luna Rossa split off the line for 2 kilometers before heading right. That impressed me that they were willing to take such a large gamble against a team like Germany. Eventually Luna Rossa won fairly comfortably.

In the next match, Shosholoza led BMW Oracle for three quarters of the race. Shosholoza won the right side of the starting line and played the right to lead at the first mark comfortable. Down the run the boats seemed equal in speed. At the bottom of the first run, Shosholoza had some indecision on board as to which mark to round there are two no adays, they use a gate and they shrimped the kite (Dropped the spinnaker in the water) and had to cut it loose. Still they held the lead most of the way up the second windward leg and finally BMW Oracle over took them. Once they did, BMW Oracle quickly put 300 meter on Shosholoza. It was interesting to see how much having the correct side of the race course was worth to the slower boat.

Next we saw Victory beat the Chinese but again only after letting the Chinese lead for a while by winning the right.

Next we Team New Zealand taking command over +39 easily. Just a much faster boat for the Kiwis.

Finally, Desafio Espanol had a great start over Areva of France and led at the first windward mark by 80 meters. On the first gybe the Spanish broke the spinnaker pole and shortly thereafter the French boat passed them. The bad news was that the Spanish had no spare pole and no real repair kit so while the recovered a lot of distance on the second windward leg to round the second top mark just three boat lengths behind, they lost 300 meters on the final run having to sail without the pole again. A real shame for Desafio.

Mascalzone had a bye in that flight.

Tomorrow, the big match in the first flight is Desafio vs. Mascalzone. This could be a very important match for determining who goes to the semi finals. With Mascalzone getting a leg up by beating one of the big three last Friday (TNZ), and with Desafio suffering a loss to Areva, this is almost a must win race for Desafio.

In the second flight if we get that far, BMW Oracle will take on Luna Rossa who are both undefeated in this round and share the top of the leader board.

Forecast for the tomorrow is a bit less wind than today and for Tuesday is less wind than that. In fact, the forecast for the rest of the week is not that great.

On Tuesday, I am going back to San Francisco for a week or so to be with may family. I will come back to Valencia toward the end of Round Robin 2 to see the determinant matches to decide which seven of 11 will be going home and which four will be going onto the semi finals.

Two races on both race courses today. 7-10 knots from 100 degrees.

The big story of the day was Mascalzone Latino beating Team New Zealand in the first match of the day. It was a great race by the Italians who won the start, took the favored right side and led around every mark to win by 15 seconds. The beautiful thing about this win is that it wasn’t a fluke. No lucky shifts just a solid game plan and good execution. Mascalzone’s weather team picked the correct side, the helmsman got the side they wanted, the right side, the boat is fast and the crew executed perfectly. That is solid and they can count on that for the next few months.

In the second flight Mascalzone beat Areva of France to finish the day on two wins along with Luna Rosa and BMW Oracle. BMW Oracle has two rather easy races beating the Chinese and the Germans while Luna Rossa beat China and the Swedes.

Team New Zealand only raced in the first flight and had a bye in the second. The Spanish did not race in the first flight and won their only race of the day against +39, the third Italian team. Each team has a bye in each round robin as there are 11 teams therefore 5 matches in each flight.

The top of the leader board is Luna Rosa and BMW Oracle each with 7 points, Mascalzone is third with 6, Desafio is forth with 5, and Team New Zealand tied for 5th with Victory Challenge with 4 points.

Of course our job on Italian TV was made easier with the good results of the Italian Teams. The news of Mascalzone’s win of TNZ was huge in Italy. All the TV channels covered the story on their nightly news programs. La7, who I am working for, is the only one who has the rights to show the racing live.

For me, it was a great day. Lot’s of action, plenty of tactical situations to comment on, and I am feeling very comfortable in Italian. So far I have to say I am enjoying this new challenge.

Tomorrow’s forecast is not stellar. In fact, there isn’t much wind on the horizon for the next week. So it looks like we will be in some margin race conditions for a while.

Tomorrow morning there is a meeting of the challengers to decide how to proceed with the missed races and the one day of rest scheduled between Round Robin 1 and 2.

At least we have got this thing started.

Paul Cayard is a sailing legend. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup with Il Moro di Venezia in 1992, he won the Whitbread Round the World race 1997/1998 and has been involved with several successful sailing teams in a number of regattas. Prior to the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup he spent two months as a technical and sporting advisor for Desafío Español 2007.

What was you main role in Desafío Español 2007?

I mostly gave them ideas on what the priorities should be at this late stage in the competition. In the America’s Cup you make a plan two years before, and you also start a lot of projects. Research into special masts, special keels, rudders… Many projects are put in motion. And you get to the end and obviously these plans aren’t all finished. One mistake is to continue spending money, time and energy chasing something that isn’t going to give any fruit. With experience you know which ones to cut to save energy, time and money, and use it somewhere else, where you will see the results. That is really the important game in the end.

Besides the budget, what are the main differences between a winning team and a losing team?

The difference is when to make a decision. If a team has been chasing after something for a year and a half and still nothing has come from it then it must be forgotten. Whether it is a decision about the boat, the crew or whatever, there is often a tendency to keep discussing and worrying about something, wasting energy when you just have to make a decision. One of my philosophies is that if two things are so similar that it makes it hard to decide then you should just pick one, because it doesn’t matter. It is important not to waste any more time on it because there is probably something else that will make much more difference, where you really need the time. If you get it wrong in that case you can lose a lot, but if two things are going to have a similar outcome, it’s not worth wasting any more time on it, since in the end it will be the same anyway.

The Cup has got to a stage where all the teams are multicultural, what are the challenges they are facing?

One big challenge for the Desafío is not only the language but the culture, and I know it well because I worked with Il Moro di Venezia as an American. When you have multicultural teams I think everybody has to come to a common denominator that is not the language. So what is it? The professionalism, respect and solidarity: the fact that everyday at 8.00 we are all in the gym fighting together. When we lose the race, we lose together, and when we win the race we win together. It goes beyond the language and the culture. You have to go beyond that to find what it is that is keeping us together. And I hope that by just talking about it we made everybody think about it. But for sure that is going to be a challenge for Desafio. Every team will lose a race here with somebody that they thought they should beat. But the question is, when they lose that race, are they going to lose their solidarity as well? Or are they going to stay tight and come out for the next race again with 110% on the table?

What was a typical day like with Desafío?

8.00 Gym, 9.00 shower, 9.15 breakfast, 9.45 interviews, 10.15 head of departments meeting, crew meeting, then performance meeting. 12.30 out on the water. 5 or 6 dock, take sails off the boat, fold genoas in the loft. Short meeting for department heads to make a plan, performance analysis of the day. 8.00pm home.

Paco Tormo/AB