“I think it’ll be one hell of an iconic event,” said ORACLE Racing skipper Jimmy Spithill on racing in Venice “With the wingsails and the canals in the background, it’ll be a little bit like a Monaco GP.”

“At each event every team has improved. We’re expecting Luna Rossa, with two teams, to be very, very competitive. Although the AC World Series is new for them, some of their sailors have been competing on other teams and other boats (in the Extreme Sailing Series), so they have great, talented sailors and we expect them to be among the top boats. We also can’t forget about Energy Team who sailed so well in San Diego and obviously Emirates Team New Zealand and Artemis Racing are both solid teams. Every team has improved, it’s just a matter of how much compared to everyone else.” -John Kostecki, ORACLE Racing Spithill”