Cup designer sees sunny Spanish future
VALENCIA: Although Marcelino Botin may have helped eliminate his compatriots on Desafio Espanol from the America's Cup he still sees a bright future for Spanish sailing.
As designer for Team New Zealand, Botin is now channelling all his energy into helping the Kiwis wrest sailing's most coveted prize back from Swiss syndicate Alinghi.
"I was happy to see that they were doing well, although they were beating us sometimes which was not so nice," Botin told Reuters.
Team New Zealand knocked the home team with a 5-2 win in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final, the qualifying event for the America's Cup.
Botin said Desafio Espanol's performance was a tribute to the calibre of sailors in Spain.
"It's a great thing for the sport in Spain. It's been great to see Desafio getting into the semifinals," Botin said.
"They have done a great job. They have a very good team but I'm not surprised they did that well because there are a lot of good sailors in Spain. We've had a lot of good big boat sailors in the last 10 years."
Botin, whose family is from the best-known banking dynasty in Spain, runs a boat design business in the northern city of Santander and chose the career over finance for one reason:
"Sailing is much more interesting, isn't it?," he said.
However, the two do sometimes mix.
Santander, Spain's biggest bank, is run by relative Emilio Botin and is one of the principal sponsors of the Cup.
Botin is convinced that Valencia, which was selected by America's Cup defender Alinghi as the host city for the event, will continue to play a role in the America's Cup of the future, whoever wins the best-of-nine series.
There have been questions over whether Alinghi will stick with the Mediterranean port if they get the winner's choice of venue, while the Kiwis are expected to return it to Auckland.
"I think if Team New Zealand win, the America's Cup has to go to Auckland. That's the way it has to be because that is the whole objective of the America's Cup. That's what we are fighting for," he said.
Agencies
(China Daily 06/27/2007 page23)
