A new Luna Rossa web series: behind the scenes with the challenger team
The calendar for the 36th America's Cup may have been disrupted but the build-up for the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team hasn't vastly changed. The squad continues to work incessantly with just one aim: winning the Cup. It's a long and difficult mission that involves 100 people for 1000 days. But now you can share it with the Italian team via a new web series, with the first four episodes released already.
The series takes place over two seasons, with four episodes covering each, which features all the highs and lows of preparing for the world's greatest sailing race. From the adrenaline-filled training sessions, to the technical development of the hull and hydrofoils, to the tense moments when the mast comes down, right up to the thrilling sea trials. Viewers will be able to peek behind the scenes on both land and sea, thanks to previously unseen exclusive footage. Telling this captivating tale are the crew members themselves, from their unique perspective on the inside of the project.
“It's an obsession.” Those are the first words you hear in the opening episode that introduces the team and explains how all the right elements are selected to take on a challenge that will last more than three years non-stop.
So what are the secrets behind this incredible yacht, which seems to fly over the waves? The designers deliver all the inside knowledge in their own words during the second episode.
Episode three is all about the unknowns and imponderables that hide behind the millimetre-perfect calculations, forcing the team to take stock, and occasionally start again from scratch. This is an extreme environment where competitors constantly have to go over the limits just to find out where they are. The margins for error are tiny, and time – the constant enemy in the America's Cup – is never sufficient.
Will the team be able to overcome some of the most unpredictable obstacles on the high seas? We find out in episode four.
Max Sirena (Skipper & Team Director): “Being challengers is what reminds us every day of our goal and pushes us to strive more and more to achieve it. This web series is a project our team really cares about, it is the story of the long journey behind a challenge as complex as the America's Cup.”
“Challengers for Now”, produced in collaboration with the team's creative partner MC Saatchi, will continue the story with a second season to be released after the summer that takes the team through to their departure for Auckland, where the Prada Cup takes place in February 2021. This regatta between the challengers will decide who takes on defending champions Emirates Team New Zealand at the main America's Cup in March 2021.
