* Vincenzo Onorato- another former J/24 and J/39 sailor from Italy
(and leader of the famous MOBY Lines providing ferry service to the
islands of Elba, Corsica and Sardinia)- is now the leader of the
MASCALZONE LATINO AC34 Challenge. Vincenzo was a good sailor when he
was racing his J/24 and J/39 and was always an honorable and fun-loving
person that loved the sport of sailing and, most importantly, included
many of his friends and family. Recently he wrote Michele Tognozzi,
editor of FareVela (a leading Italian sailing publication): "Dear
Michele, I read Fare Vela Online with interest, every day. I have also
read the criticism leveled at my club, seen as a sleeping partner of the
Defender rather than a Challenger of Record worthy of its name. I
partly feel responsible for these opinions as a direct result of our
scant communication on the work we are carrying out. Oracle and
Mascalzone, and their respective yachts clubs, inherited a disastrous
Cup in terms of image, a result of the long and, I point out, legitimate
litigation with Bertarelli. Russell and I meet almost every week and
our teams are in daily contact.
All decisions taken are thoroughly
discussed and thought through. It is also true we are going through an
international economic environment, to say the least disastrous, and
this is a further incentive to act with utmost care and caution. My
silence doesn't mean I'm not doing anything, but that we are humbly
working, among other things, on carrying water to our mill. I'm Italian
and my mill is called Italy, I would like to take to our country a
series of events of the next Cup, just like I did last summer in La
Maddalena. A Jesuit priest that taught me in school used to say: Look
at the substance of things, not their form. That's what I'm doing. Your
faithful and devoted reader, Vincenzo Onorato". Full story can be read on Scuttlebutt USA here.
