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Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton - Source: Photosport -
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How to impress the money-man: A yachties'
guide.
Step 1: Invite him to be a guest on board for a
race in the champions' league of sailing
Step 2: Win the race.
It's a simple lesson and one followed to the letter by Emirates
Team New Zealand at the MedCup regatta in Barcelona.
The money man is question is Lorenzo Fluxa, President of Camper,
the Spanish shoe company founded on the island of Majorca in
1877.
It's an iconic brand allied to another in Emirates Team New
Zealand, both names and their livery stamped all over the Volvo 70
that will race around the world next year.
Camper is also a sponsor of the Audi MedCup regatta in Barcelona
where the company opened the first of its 320 stores spread across
42 countries.
So it was a highly appropriate venue at which to announce the
latest recruit to the Emirates Team New Zealand campaign, a Spanish
sailor known throughout the yachting world by his childhood
nickname Chuny.
Even Grant Dalton, who has known and raced against Chuny for years,
admitted that he didn't know the Spaniard's real name until he was
drawing up the Volvo contract.
Chuny - Roberto Bermudez de Castro - has sailed in four round the
world races, most recently as skipper of Team Delta Lloyd in the
last Volvo. An industrial engineer with three children, Chuny has
also competed for Spain at the Olympics and sailed with the Spanish
America's Cup team in San Diego and Auckland.
Dalton was at pains to point out that there was no pressure from
the sponsors to have a Spaniard in the crew but Chuny's talents
were widely acknowledged and he was much in demand.
"All the teams wanted him on board and so we put a deal to him and
it took forever because the other teams were countering it, but we
got him on board," said Dalton.
"So not a pre-requisite to have a Spanish crew member - who was
actually a skipper in the last race - but really pleased to have
nailed him because I think in a straight line up we would have
taken him anyway."
So how does Chuny get on with New Zealanders?
"It's a challenge too for sure and we are different people," he
said. "But I think we have no problems working together. We have to
try as best as possible and as I told you try to win the
race."
Also centre stage in Barcelona as a guest on NZL380, was the boss
of Team New Zealand's main Volvo backer - Camper. The Spanish shoe
company is also a sponsor for this MedCup regatta and has global
ambitions which it hopes the Kiwi Volvo boat will deliver
"We were joking the first time we met Grant because in one moment
of the conversation we were taking about Camper brand and awareness
and the image and so on and Grant says Team New
Zealand only sailed to win. So I like that," said the splendidly
named Lorenzo Fluxa.
Adding to the positive chemistry, Lorenzo Fluxa was on board for
the first race of the regatta which the Kiwis won
comfortably&always a good tactic with the bank-roller
watching.
