00:05Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:32I can't feel better. I mean, it's a great result. I would never expect that.
00:40You can't get any closer than this. That's exactly what we all want to see.
00:46What a performance by Alkido.
01:11Alkido and Vitamina are an exciting new TP52 team.
01:15A new name on the 52 Super Series, which sees the Italian flag flying proudly among the nations competing on
01:23the world's leading Grand Prix monohull circuit.
01:27Alkido joined the circuit to learn, seeing where they belong in the hierarchy of the toughest fleet in Grand Prix
01:35monohull racing.
01:37For a super experienced André Lacorte, successful in many smaller one design classes, this was not just another step in
01:46sailing.
01:47This was the ultimate step, the class he had looked up to for years and the very pinnacle of his
01:54ambition, as it is for so many Grand Prix sailing owners.
01:58The 52 Super Series has always been my dream since many years. So I'm finally here. So to me, it's
02:05like a dream. It's like, oh, I finally got there.
02:09This kind of boat are unbelievable. They are tremendously fast, tremendously responsive. It's like being on a dream and you
02:17finally wake up and say, oh, this is true.
02:20But Al-Qaeda was not built as a rookie team, a team of newcomers. It was not one group stepping
02:26into a new class altogether.
02:28In fact, it's a potent combination of Lacorte's historical, mainly Italian group, blended with the best core of an American
02:36flagged interlodge programme.
02:38It's a meeting of different cultures, of different temperaments, different philosophies, processes and ideas.
02:45The team is a team that's come from a lot of different experiences and other classes. There's been a bit
02:52of catamaran sailing, a bit of Swan 50 sailing, lots of different experiences in the team.
02:58And it's a team made up of half Italian and half Anglo-Saxon and American.
03:04But that kind of team, of course, can easily take time to reach optimum operational efficiency.
03:09There are different instincts, different habits, different ways of communicating.
03:14But very early on, Al-Qaeda found elements which really mattered much more than any nationality.
03:20They were chemistry and a real shared passion.
03:23It's funny for the Americans to see how the Italians are playing, not just on board, but also the funny
03:31stories after sailing that they can bring into the team.
03:35And they're just driving us into that mode. Very happy family, I would say.
03:42Brilliant. It's brilliant. It's fun. I mean, they're all great sailors.
03:45Oh, look at that. Big emotions on board Al-Qaeda. Great job by Appleton and his team.
03:51I always thought that the Kiwis were passionate, but I think the Italians are more and their skill set is
03:58off the chart.
03:59You know, they're great, great, great sailors.
04:03That passion gives us Al-Qaeda energy and impetus.
04:06But passion alone does not elevate the new team through a fleet of such a high calibre.
04:12It needs real shape and shared identifiable goals.
04:16It needs discipline. It needs a way of learning smart, fast tracking the knowledge and skills into results.
04:23The philosophy of the team is its big focus on everybody working together and coming together because that's the biggest
04:31skill set we have, is working together.
04:33We haven't got a lot of experience that some of the other teams have of multiple, multiple, multiple years of
04:39America's Cup.
04:40So what we've got to make sure of is we work well as a unit.
04:42And the other big thing that we've got to do is learn faster than everybody else.
04:59They still wake up in the night remembering the noises.
05:16People say when you crash with your car, you remember this noise of the glass breaking.
05:20This is what happens to me.
05:22This carbon fibre crake can still wake me up in the night.
05:27The mass lost before they even started training put the campaign suddenly on the back foot.
05:34Forced straight away into recovery mode, crisis management to the fore for a new project that could have halted momentum.
05:42For this Italian team, it was very much the opposite.
05:45Pressed the accelerator and it really gelled the team.
05:49It's been a great challenge for us.
05:51We've been evolving and really pushed and tested and stretched fairly far in that regard.
05:56But the team's just had a great positive attitude, a learning attitude.
05:59And we've just approached everything with what can we learn from each situation.
06:04It was something like a huge accelerator of the unity of the team.
06:08The team did an incredible job to find a new mass, put it together.
06:13Everybody was working on it.
06:15When we launched the boat, we were almost crying because we didn't believe that we were able to do it.
06:21But we did it.
06:33The first 52 Super Series regatta in Saint-Tropez was never really about achieving a result for Al-Qaeda.
06:39It was about a voyage of discovery, learning where the team fitted into the hierarchy, racing against teams which had
06:46sailed together for many, many years.
06:48How fast is the fleet actually?
06:50How precise, how unforgiving is it?
06:53Are there any room for errors?
06:57Welcome to the 2025 Super Series season.
07:01The first race of the regatta.
07:04And the very first race for our new team from Italy.
07:08La Corte's Al-Qaeda Vitamina.
07:11Saint-Tropez was the first event.
07:14It was tricky.
07:15We were finding our way.
07:16But the beginning part was a little bit of a struggle.
07:19A tough moment for the new team.
07:21They'll finish last here.
07:22A reminder of just how hard this fleet is.
07:25We finally understood what's the level of this class.
07:28It's a gigantically high level.
07:31We did not understand at all the tactician and where to be in the boat.
07:37And so, there are valuable first steps for any new team.
07:41Building confidence in each other.
07:43Achieving a shared clarity.
07:45To know where the level really is.
07:47And to know what actually has to be learned.
07:50What the successive steps are.
07:53But Saint-Tropez gave Al-Qaeda much more than just clarity.
07:57It gave them a firm belief that they could compete with the best.
08:01Al-Qaeda lead around the course here.
08:04Sled still right on the stern.
08:07No ring for a mistake now.
08:09Before a short week of light winds racing was over.
08:11The team had already won a race.
08:13And done something that nobody expected.
08:16The pressure is huge.
08:18But Al-Qaeda hold on.
08:19And the new team takes the win.
08:22What a great success for the young Italian team.
08:25We were probably happy because we were in a process of learning and understanding.
08:29And seeing how we actually matched up within the fleet.
08:31We could see the right sort of movement and understanding of where we needed to be with the group.
08:47The 52 Super Series season takes its next step to rugged Bayona in Galicia.
08:53The Royal Cup on the wild northwest Atlantic coast.
08:57Saint-Tropez had produced a tiny breakthrough.
09:00Bayona brought consistency.
09:14It feels really good because when you are a new team in such a high level fleet and winning a
09:20race
09:20and turning around and seeing like almost 10 kites behind you, massive kites, it feels good.
09:28Al-Qaeda wins race two here in Bayona.
09:31And so what could have been put down to early luck and good fortune in France was now becoming something
09:37more solid.
09:38The Italians are flying again.
09:40What a week this is becoming for the newcomers.
09:44They've got pace.
09:45They've got confidence.
09:46And they're right in the fight from the start.
09:51They win race seven.
09:54And now they're backing it up.
09:56Across the line in second.
09:58What a sensational day for LaCourte's team here at the Royal Cup in Galicia.
10:05Yeah, incredible.
10:07I mean, the guys on board doing a fantastic job just getting the boat going upwind.
10:11We've sort of exceeded our expectations of where we'd be and how we'd be performing.
10:15We're growing, we're learning, we're developing with each other.
10:19So right now, you know, we've checked a lot of boxes.
10:22We obviously would love to continue to check them into tomorrow.
10:25But to this point, we've sailed brilliantly.
10:28The secret is to have a fantastic team.
10:31Very good boat.
10:32Not expecting anything, so being relaxed, but always pushing 150%, all of us.
10:39We entered this class without expecting anything because this is the gotha, the temple of non-foiling sailing.
10:46But once we see that we have a nice team, we start pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing.
10:51So hard that we never quit, even if we are last at the first mark.
10:58Race wins command attention.
11:01An overall regatta podium in this fleet earns huge respect.
11:05What a regatta by Alkido.
11:07This team no longer looks like a newcomer.
11:10It looks like a serious contender for a podium finish.
11:14And suddenly, Alkido were not just the newbies, the new kids on the block.
11:18They were in the white heat of battle.
11:21On the scrap for the podium, they were competing with the very best.
11:30American Magic take the victory and Alkido are there to acknowledge it.
11:34But this has been Alkido's week as well.
11:37Congratulations, Alkido and Andrea Lacorte.
11:41What a huge surprise.
11:43I can't feel better.
11:45I mean, it's a great result.
11:46We would never expect that.
11:48We can do better because yesterday we did better than today.
11:52But the first two teams are all professional.
11:55So all so good.
11:59Best owner driver of the Royal Cup is Andrea Lacorte.
12:04A sensational result for him and for the entire team.
12:29If Bayona had brought self-belief and underlined the real podium potential,
12:34Portugal's breezy, wavy Rolex TP32 World Championship in Cascais
12:39brought a further proof.
12:41This was all different.
12:43It was all new.
12:45The biggest physical and mental challenge yet for the Alkido team.
12:48Coming up!
12:49Coming up!
12:50There was more wind, much more wind, big waves,
12:54more punishment for every little mistake.
12:57For the owner driver himself, Andrea Lacorte,
12:59it was new, unfamiliar waters, literally and figuratively.
13:03He had never driven a TP52 in such winds and in such big Atlantic waves.
13:09It's the first day in big waves of my life.
13:12So to me everything was new, difficult, very difficult because I'm new of the class,
13:17new of the boat, new of those waves.
13:21Welcome to the World Championship, big Atlantic conditions.
13:27This is a real test for Alkido.
13:30Not just speed, but control.
13:32Not just talent, but composure.
13:35Cascais, third event in the world, what a place, very challenging.
13:40The conditions were unreal.
13:42Oh, Cascais, we were not sleeping at night.
13:45We were very scared about this big sea state and big wind,
13:49but we were fast and we were having a lot of fun.
13:55But Cascais really was where Andrea Lacorte stopped looking like an outsider
13:59trying to make an impression.
14:01Lacorte started looking like he belonged in this fleet,
14:04competing on equal terms with the very best helmsman of the 52 Super Series.
14:10The challenges kept on coming at him and he kept on improving.
14:14I think I've improved pretty much, thanks also to my team.
14:18and a nice group of professionals, it's a long-lasting dream in coming through.
14:24They've stayed composed, they've stayed fast,
14:28and Alkido are going to win in style.
14:31In conditions that should have exposed them,
14:34they are finding another level.
14:36We pushed hard, we saw, well, we won some races,
14:39and now it's just sort of closing that consistency down,
14:42but overall really proud of what these guys did this week on board
14:47and the job that Andrea did.
14:49I mean, we pushed him as hard as we could
14:51in some really trying conditions.
15:10For the fourth event of the season,
15:12it's back to the Mediterranean sea breezes of Puerto Portales in Mallorca.
15:16Puerto Portales was a long testing event with the heat,
15:20but we went into the last race with an opportunity to finish on the podium.
15:27Alpha Plus have done it.
15:30The team from Hong Kong takes the podium ahead of Alkido.
15:34A fantastic week from them,
15:37just edging out the Italians at the end.
15:39The Alpha Plus probably had a slightly better strategy than what we chose
15:43and were able to top us in that race,
15:46and they deservedly got that position.
15:48But overall, we showed again that we were able to sort of come through at the end
15:52and get better as the week goes on.
15:55Portales didn't yield another podium,
15:57but Alkido were still in the fight.
15:59Even if the highs of Bayona and the challenges of Cascais were behind them,
16:03this young team kept putting itself into the mix.
16:07Third overall at this point in the season standings
16:10for a new team that was already an extraordinary debut season.
16:14We are probably too much ahead of schedule
16:16because if you make a picture to our current situation,
16:20I still not believe in that because that was by far too much.
16:24As a rookie of the class in third position
16:27and a first owner driver,
16:30I would never, never, never, ever expect something like that.
16:33I'm not expecting to maintain that.
16:35If we finish the season in this situation that we have right now,
16:39it can be something fantastic or almost unbelievable.
16:42But if we step down in classification of some points,
16:46it has been already a fantastic season for us.
16:49Already.
17:03Final event of the season here in Porta Cervo, Sardinia.
17:08There's a point in every season
17:09where the level of hopes and expectations
17:11start to really weigh a team down.
17:14Early success, no matter how it's achieved,
17:17create high hopes and great expectations.
17:19Home waters for Alkido.
17:21And they arrive right in the fight.
17:24Everything is still to play for.
17:27Porta Cervo in beautiful Sardinia.
17:29The final event of this season.
17:31The next best thing to home waters
17:33and all of Italy is watching.
17:34This really is a home pressure on Alkido.
18:06High level pressure on us because it's our first season
18:11This is where a full season starts to weigh on you.
18:14And Alkido are feeling that now.
18:16But they are still fighting.
18:18Still in the conversation.
18:21Still right there.
18:23In the end, Alkido did just fall short of the overall podium.
18:27Fourth in the championship for 2025.
18:30An extraordinary first season for a brand new team.
18:33And for Andrea Lacorte, best owner-driver of the year,
18:37is a major result in a fleet full of proven names.
18:42We won in a owner-driver is an incredible good feeling.
18:49The dream of beating the French guys,
18:52which we were overtaking since the beginning of the season,
18:55each other.
18:57It was a good challenge, but they deserve the third place.
19:00It's an honor for us to be in the top of this ranking.
19:07They came into the season wanting to learn and to improve together
19:10and finish up knowing the sky really is the limit for Alkido.
19:15I don't believe it.
19:16I mean, I was really not expecting that.
19:19And I'm so happy.
19:20Like, it was a surprise of my life.
19:22And this is just the beginning of a long season of seasons
19:26in the TP52 Super Series.
19:34Thank you.
