Victory tune becomes Mascalzone's cup swansong

By CHRIS RATTUE

The women of Mascalzone Latino were trying to sing the right number. Clumped together on their syndicate's chase boat, they had been composing a song for all of 10 minutes.

After a couple of run-throughs, they phoned a supporter on another boat and let rip.

"When you see Mascalzone, you will live on emotion," the translation went.

"If your heart beats, Mascalzone will win for us."

For a Kiwi listener, coming from a country whose only sports jingle may be the one-note "Black, black, black," which even struggles for air time these days, this was rousing stuff.

The Louis Vuitton Cup race against France's Le Defi Areva had just begun on Saturday morning, and this small group of crew wives and girlfriends - who only arrived in Auckland during the last week or so - were full of optimism.

"They only sing when they're happy," said another of the chase boat passengers, Vittorio Bellati, whose friend is a crew member.

But an hour or so later, there were no bands on deck.

Mascalzone had lost by more than a minute. It meant that after dismantling their base over the coming days, the sailors and supporters will head home - the first syndicate eliminated from this America's Cup - while the French stay for the challenger quarter-finals.

Not that it surprised Bellati, a refrigeration company owner from the northern Italian city of Milan.

Bellati has spent the past five years as a dedicated "gentleman sailor" cruising the Mediterranean on his 10m boat or crossing the world's oceans on friends' larger vessels.

He did not quite use this language, but basically - in his experienced view - the Mascalzone boat was a tub. In the F1 of yacht racing, it was more of a raft than a craft, mainly because it could not sail into the wind.

Well before Mascalzone's girl group had launched into song and told a television interviewer they were extremely confident about beating the French, Bellati had quietly suggested something quite different.

Was he confident? A pursing of the lips and a wiggle of the hand indicated no.

Mascalzone may be a finely tuned racing organisation, having won a couple of world titles, but they were America's Cup one-boat novices on a no-frills budget of less than $70 million.

Their mission was to learn, and bleak racing prospects never dampened their good nature - which according to Bellati is a trait of people from Naples in the south where the roots of this syndicate lie.

They have been the friendly crew in Auckland. On Saturday, with everything at stake, their hospitality was low key but remarkably generous, even to a media stranger toddling about on their little chase boat.

Mascalzone have even formed a friendship with village neighbours OneWorld who clapped the Italians into port after they had beaten the French in the first round-robin race, their only triumph.

And these underdog Italians seemed quite unfazed by the prospect of elimination, as they lulled around their common room on race-day morning, eating scrambled eggs and Parma ham.

One of their seven sailmakers, Brazilian Ed Vieytes, did not think anyone would be too nervous. Still waters were needed, not flapping sailors.

Vieytes has already suffered maybe his greatest sailing disappointment, missing competing in the 49ers class at the Sydney Olympics two years ago after ripping back muscles while weightlifting.

"That's sailing," he said when asked about the prospect of an early departure from Auckland. Minutes later, we headed out to sea.

As the race and chase boats came together, the distinctive figure of grinder Carlo Castellano was among the crew who danced and sang to their chase boat mates. The lyrics suggested: "We will win."

Mascalzone's supporters included a flotilla protesting at the French team's sponsorship by Areva - a nuclear energy company.

Old seafarer Bellati found plenty of irony in the situation. Italy gets a lot of its power from France, and a lot of France's power is nuclear generated, he explained.

"We'd be stuffed without electricity."

And Bellati, with cigarette in hand, also believed the Mascalzone syndicate he adores is stuffed without a decent boat.

But after the race, the stubble-headed Castellano was loathe to only blame the boat.

"We went out there with a 50/50 chance," he said. "Usually I have found in these situations between two close boats that if you win the first one you lose the second.

"We were a team with no experience at all with this type of sailing. There were lots of parts that led to this, and we didn't even have any luck. There were races we should have won. I hope we will be back. I think we will, yes."

Castellano could only see his experience in Auckland as "great. We did our best."

There was a full range of emotions on display after the race. Attempts at reforming the girls group had petered out aboard the chase boat, replaced by a hug here, a photograph there as Bellati's tub was towed back to shore.

"I feel very, very bad, and this is a bad day for us," syndicate boss and skipper Vincenzo Onorato said.

Back at base, a couple of team members sobbed, heads in hands. Others were teary-eyed. Many simply got on with their jobs. Those like the philosophical Castellano saw a brighter America's Cup future.

Bellati was a touch sad, but resigned to defeat anyway. Maybe it was money saved on a lost cause and while the French may have survived for now, they did not have a hope. And New Zealand did not win first pop.

It was time to think of the future. Bellati and friends will take a camper van tour of the South Island before he heads home on a cargo ship.

The heart still beats.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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