“We try to have crew members who've either done the Round the World or the America's Cup”


Being the boat owner of a Maxi is not the common thing, and certainly not being the owner of two of them. That's the case of New Zealander Neville Crichton, who is taking part in the 28 Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre with his just rebuilt Mini Maxi Alfa Romeo.


QUESTION: Neville, why did you decide to make your debut here, in the Copa del Rey Audi Mapfre?

ANSWER: We sailed here previously twice with a maxi, with a big boat, and we loved it, we loved the hospitality of the class, we enjoyed the sailing, and the racing on the bay. That's why we thought it was the perfect place, here we've got good competition, and timing wise it was good too.

Q: When was the boat put in the water?

A: The boat only came out of the shipyard two weeks ago, so there's a lot of work to do, and in each race we are getting better and better. There's a lot of development that needs to be done to achieve a better performance, and we are still using old sails -by the time we had to start there weren't any new ones-. The crew has done a very good job, so the boat is competitive, I don't think we have any advantage either over Bella Mente or Container, I think probably our crew work has been a little bit better.

Q: Which sensations does it deliver to sail with a Maxi? Why do you like them so much?

A: I love the big boats, I like the big maxis, it's fun, it's fast and exciting. But now there are very few other boats which will come out and sail against us, with the mini maxi the class is growing, and I see this class being very very big in Europe, so I thought that, if we wanted to be competitive this was the class to be in.

Q: Is there a pull of sailors you work with for the different regattas?

A: We know most of the good sailors in the world, and yes we have a pull of around thirty people we use in different regattas; this one has been a bit different because we've virtually sailed unsponsored and the money is coming out of my pocket, not sponsored, so we tried to pick crew who were actually in Europe to keep costs low. But normally, with a big boat, we have a crew of around 30 people and we pick out of that crew, and we try and keep consistency.

Q: Which experience must a Maxi crew member have?

A: We prefer people who've either done the Round the World or the AC; if you look at the crew on board in this regatta, they have all done one of them, and in most cases they've done both, so we are not taking people out from little boats.

Q:Which are your plans for the rest of the season?

A: The boat will get some work done, we'll get it out of the water and try to optimize the rating, because we didn't have the time to do it before this regatta, we'll do some modifications and then it will be sailed to Sardinia.