GIOVANNI CECCARELLI
 - Principal designer +39 -

Giovanni Ceccarelli sign the new yachts for +39 , the new  Italian challenge for the America’s cup 2007 in Valencia .

The 24th of may in Gargnano  in a fantastic Italian day , sunny and windy , has been presented the new Italian challenge for the America’s cup in Valencia 2007  the team +39 .

The team  will race with the  flag of  Circolo Velico Gargnano, president of the club and of the team is mr. Lorenzo Rizzardi .
Giovanni Ceccarelli  is the principal designer of the team, he’ll sign the two new hull  for Valencia 2007 .

Answer from Giovanni Ceccarelli Principal designer of +39 challenge  to Andrew  Hurst Seahorse Magazine . 

1.Is this your first experience of ACC design?       
I worked for the most recent challenge  in New Zealand  In the role of Principal Designer  for Mascalzone Latino , I designed  for them  ITA- 72 now  GER- 72.         This summer this old  boat  showed  interesting speed specially in light air  winning different races.          Now I have the same role as Principal Designer  in + 39 challenge  from the beginning of 2004 ;  time that  I started to create the design team.

2.How good are your design and build resources this time around – is it enough to make you believe you are competitive?     
I am confident that we have done a good job  from the research and design point of view ;   we are on the correct way , with appropriate time and human resources in the team involved.      The  design team is working principally from Ravenna office,    under my direction  together  from July 2004 at full speed , now we have the first  boat under a good stage of  construction  to be in the water  for  spring 2006 ,   in Palermo. 

3.Where is build the boat?          
Actually the boat is in good stage of construction in a  shop  in the suburb of  Ravenna ; city where is  located my office , so we could have a daily check to the progress from the design team , they build the moulds and plugs. The boat will be completed in Palermo in  Dan Naval e Sicilcraft Cantieri Navali Srl ;  the Sicilian partner chosen for the construction of the yacht.

4.How did you divide your own research between the tank, CFD, hand work ?           
Every my  design start from  some basic ideas and evolves from it, and them  are principally  generated by the man not from the machine.            In every area of  design there  are different type of approach  and  technology involved  the level of  technology it  is always high.  For  the naval architecture still I work in a “traditional way” staring with  the hand made design  with a fairing tool  and after  a first validation with CFD with  panel code Splash  and Vpp output  in house  and I go to a more refined validation with Rans  that are run  in a super computer  in US.         Finally the best hulls ; that in this case  was  four  with the same appendages we tested in tank test in Marin facility in Holland  during 2005 .             I still  think that the tank test are important in a process of research like this   for an IACC  boat .      That was the process that I did on more than one hundred hulls to arrive to found the final hull.  But  this  job is not finish because , I am  working to  the next generation  hull  and optimizations .     For structures and engineering we are working with  different tools of calculation  FEM module  for calculation of the laminations , all the design  process of hull and appendages  is integrated in Pro Enginner .

5.Who else are you working with in the design work ?      
I  have with me ten  colleagues  working with me in +39 design team, with experiences in previous IACC campaign ,  mostly are based in Ravenna and the others  outside with monthly meetings  and daily update with the web .
 That are  divided for category of job :
CFD calculation and research .
Tank testing and Vpp  research.
Design of  structures and calculation .
Deck fitting and engineering of detail .
Sail  design.
Mast design .
Project Management

Foto Fabio Taccola

6.Do you believe that the change to Version 5 – tightening the box – is good or bad for the smaller teams?      And why ?      
I think that the technical director Ken Mc Alpine did a very good job with the  final version V of the rule.     We saw the results during the races last  summer from light to strong wind   with the boat for the first time in their life really surfing in the waves in Trapani at 20 knots.          
I think that’s a rule that’s fair, that  don’t give advantage to the big  nor to the small teams  in term of performances.

7.Your old “Briand”  designed canoe has had a ‘wild history’. How much work did your  design team do to get ITA 59 sailing and improve her speed ?            
We worked  beginning  hard on the boat, first of all  during the winter in Sicily to try to understand, after to modify to arrive to have a version V hull.          We focused on the appendages and the trim and balance of the boat, we did not modifications to the hull shape because was already a boat with a extra large LBG.

8.And about sail design  this year ?        
One of our Sail program goals for last  year, was to be able to speed up ITA-59  under version-5 and come up with fast sail designs and at the same time validate and test a lot  of the sail information to completely integrate it into the new boat design loop.     This part of the job was done by the design team and particularly by our sail designer  that did a great job and  our cfd department in conjunction with the sailing team. 

9.Is it true that when you got the ITA 59 it had been full of sand and on display ashore?          
No, Team Alinghi is really a  fantastic  team  and also the boat delivered  was  not so in bad conditions, but it was the oldest and probably the heaviest  hull on the market that time  due to the many modifications done during his life  starting from a  hull with  two bulbs boat  at the beginning!

10.Which areas have you concentrated on the most in your own design development  for the new boat ?         
In America’s Cup if you want to arrive at the top every area must be optimized! For the smaller team that is more  difficult than for the big team  to arrive with the resources to cover each single area.      We gave the maximum of the effort in the research of hull and appendages  shapes and in the engineering of the boat to be strong and stiff .

11.Which is the  sail number ?        The first yacht of +39 challenge will race next season with ITA 85 sail number.

12.How much has the sailing team been involved in the design process ?   
There is a good  way to work between the design team and the sailors of +39 challenge.          I do the principal technical strategy, in agreement with Luca Devoti ,   that do also  the connection with  the sailors.    At the same time,   as for the sailing team we have a coach driven program ,  all the technical aspects are driven by the principal designer.

13.Will other teams next year get closer to Alinghi ?
The Swiss team has an incredible ability to move efficiently from height to footing and back – do other teams fully understand yet how they do this?     I am confident, if all the in the proper way ,   that next year the gap between us and Alinghi will be closer.      We are confident that our new design will be faster in our target conditions,   than the top was this year, but we don’t know where the other team are going to be next year.

14.Will the construction of your new boat be conventional?   
No like all the other aspetcts of the boat also for the structures , there are a few tricks being employed in the overall philosophy of the structure to ensure the stiffest boat for its weight is achieved within the Rule.

15.Will you use a female mould?        
Yes,  we  build them in carbon fibre pre preg, in this way we suppose to have a lighter and stronger boat   and faster to  duplicate or modify.

16.How much an improvement in the latest boats will come from better construction methods, newer materials, and why?    Attention to detail is imperative - the design must be all encompassing realising all elements and accounting for them in the structural design.         Material choices have been tightened slightly this time emphasizing the need for innovative solutions to loose weight yet retain stiffness and strength as required.

17.How do you think the shell weights will compare to 2003-generation designs? And how did they compare to the 2000-generation ?    
I believe that thorough testing will ensure that where appropriate the minimum panel weights will be more closely achieved, this is aided by the reduced variance in material weights from the pre-preg and core suppliers and better core bonding films.

18. How much advantage is available in terms of construction if you are a team with a really huge budget, Oracle etc? Is it significant or not ?  
Every avenue has been considered on its technical merits first, and budgetary second. Our construction decisions and choices would remain the same even if our construction budget was increased dramatically – we have not needed to sacrifice in any area of the boat construction for financial reasons.    

19.How do you think the shell weights will compare to 2003-generation designs ? And how did they compare to the 2000-generation ?    
I  think  a saving around a 10 to 15 %  of  the  shell weights compared to the 2003 generations quite the same differences that there was between  the 2003 and the 2000 generations.     

20.How big are the advances that you expect to make with your own first boat in terms of performance?         
I cannot tell the  exact  numbers  of performances  but we expect to be minutes faster  than   ITA 59  was this summer  in the target conditions.

21.And how about sails and rigs, do you feel you were a long way behind this year with old equipment ?         
This summer we raced with an old Alinghi  millennium mast I thought was their first mast  done in millennium configuration that  we updated only with PBO rigging,  carbon foil, moveable jumper to suit the big head Genoa allowable with the version V, the big team  used all new rigs. With new rig  next year we think to improve a lot  in the combination of mast  and sails in term of performances.

22.Who will build your new rigs?       
Our new rigs for ITA 85 will be built by Marstroem in Sweden , that will supply also  the construction of the  new  rudders.

23.How different will your and other new boats be next year? Will we be able to visually choose between a V4 and V5 design next year ?  
The boat from outside looks similar, is the rule that block the  big differences, also the Formula 1 cars look  similar in the number but are very different from  the  eyes of the designers  the same will be for the next generation of  IACC.

24.Jason Ker’s first boat RSA 83 seemed very good for a first ACC design and with very little research time. Do you agree?   
 I don’t know the time spent in research and development  from the team of Salvatore Sarno  but they did a good job both from technical and human approach of the team  to the  America’s Cup .

25.When the racing starts to get serious later next year, do you believe that the smaller teams can continue to take races off the big teams. And why?            
The concept of big and small team  from now to 2007 I hope that  will be rescheduled.  Some that now are considered small will grow, we will be in that group.

26.The change to V5 should make the canoes much closer. So what percentage differences do you see on the water in the areas of sails, appendages, spars etc?          I don’t think the canoe will be closer next time ;   Ita 85 will be original for the canoe body shape .   I’ll be  surprise  if there will be  no differences  from boat to boat  and from the appendages side  in 2007. There will be an uniformity  more on the  sail plan measures.

27.Giovanni, we expect great things of your team next season, but which are the other smaller teams that you think will also show well ?    
I don’ t know from the others I believe in our  group , we are working hard  and have the right people to do well  on the sea   and a fantastic helmsman Iain Percy !

28.Finally, we know that the Cup is not just about money but how you use it. Some teams make better use of their funds than others, how do you rank the teams technically in terms of how you as a designer see them making progress compared to the resources that they have?     
Top of my list, +39 challenge!  Seriously, this is a tough call for anyone , having not seen but one v5 boat.  Sail and rig development was definitely more obvious on most teams in 2005.  You are right that wise spending is one of the keys to this game.  Like a learning curve, a team with unlimited funds can find themselves on the flat part of the "spending" curve. The new boats (and rigs) will really start to show who is making progress faster in 2006.