“Challengers for Now”, the web series dedicated to the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team challenge, is now online

Cagliari, 9th June 2020 - A challenge without equal. 1000 days, 100 professionals, 1 obsession: winning the America’s Cup and winning it for Italy. The America’s Cup is the oldest trophy in the sporting world and since 1851 the most talented sailors in the world have been competing against each other to claim it. It is a competition between teams representing their countries in terms of sports, design, technology and culture. “Where winning is almost impossible, but not quite”. For this reason, it represents one of the most sought-after trophies, and claiming it is a challenge filled with difficulties. The web series consists of two seasons, with four episodes each, detailing the events that have defined the past year: from adrenalin-fuelled training sessions, to hull and foil development, from tense moments during a dismasting, to the return to training on the water. Viewers will be able to follow the backstage activities on shore and at sea, through exclusive imagines available to the public for the first time. The story of this tricky and arduous journey will be told by the sailors and team members themselves.

“It’s an obsession”: this is the opening of the first episode introducing the team. It shows how the team members are selected, and what it takes for a sailor to face a challenge that will see him committed nonstop for over than three years. And what are the secrets behind a “flying boat”? The design team reveals them in the second chapter. The third episode narrates the unexpected, the immeasurable, the occurrences that happen despite the most precise calculations, and that force you to stop and repair the damage done. These are undertakings where every day you push your limits in order to understand them, considering that the margin for error is almost zero and that time, the real enemy in an America’s Cup campaign, is never enough. Will the team be able to overcome the more unforeseeable obstacles? We will find out in the fourth episode.

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.”

Shannon Falcone (sailing team member): “In an America’s Cup campaign you don’t know what can happen until the end; the only sure thing is that the winning teams are the ones who work together to overcome the daily challenges. I hope this web series will show the public the story behind the long and exhausting preparation for the America’s Cup.”

Romano Battisti (new generation - sailing team member): “The big sporting challenges, as an America’s Cup campaign or Olympic Games, in which I have competed twice, convey strong emotions. I hope these images will be able to inspire future generations to get involved in the world of sports and to achieve their dreams, as happened to me twenty years ago.”

“Challengers for Now”, created in collaboration with the team’s creative partner M&C Saatchi, will continue the story with a second season, to be released after the summer, following the team up to its departure for Auckland. Between January and February 2021 the Prada Cup will be held in New Zealand: this competition between challengers will elect the team that will compete against defender Emirates Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup races of March 2021.

The webseries is available on this link: https://bit.ly/3dNiIFR