Mean Machine Valle Romano docks in Palma with 100% of her winning team
July 17, 2007 by Mean Machine Sailing Team | 0 comments
Peter de Ridder’s back in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) accompanied by the crew who took victory in the 2006 Breitling Regatta.
Peter de Ridder’s back in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) accompanied by the crew who took victory in the 2006 Breitling Regatta.
“We’re not the Dream Team, we’re the Mean Team”
Ray Davies is also back, along with five of his Team New Zealand teammates, to take Mean Machine Valle Romano forward in the prestigious Medcup Circuit.
Peter de Ridder’s team have landed in Palma with a full complement of 2006 Medcup winners. This team gained numerous victories in last year’s circuit, not least the famous ‘Golden Cap’, given to the winners of the Breitling Regatta, and of course the title of overall winners in the Breitling Medcup Circuit 2006.
True to the Mean Machine team ethos, Peter de Ridder’s brought together a team with a brilliant joint CV to race on the Mean Machine Valle Romano TP 52, as well as bringing back some familiar faces from the Mean Machine crews of the past few years.
The winners of the Louis Vuitton Cup have been a firm fixture in Peter de Ridder’s Mean Machine team since 1997.
Six of the Team New Zealand crew are back in the team after claiming the prestigious Louis Vuitton Cup as well as starring in one of the most spine-chilling finales in the history of the America’s Cup.
Ray Davies (tactician), Tom Dodson (strategist), Tony Rae and Jono Macbeth (grinders), Joe Allen (piano) and Stu Bettany (bowman) are all back on course in the Breitling Mecup with the team that knows how to win; Mean Machine Valle Romano.
Ray Davies, tactician on Mean Machine Valle Romano, seems very excited about getting back to grips with the Medcup: “We have a great team onboard once more. I’m really looking forward to sailing on the Mean Machine Valle Romano TP52 again. The fleet racing and level to which it is sailed at on the Breitling Med Cup circuit is the best around, and it’s also a lot of fun”.
The much-awaited arrival of the Kiwi contingent means Peter de Ridder now has his full crew with him, the same crew who sailed Mean Machine to victory in the Breitling Medcup 2006.
Peter de Ridder thinks the team have something really special going for them: “I’m really looking forward to getting the team back on board together to see whether we still have that ‘X-factor’ going. I know that the boys are looking forward to it as well. It takes me back to 10 years ago, when we were winning the ILC40 Worlds, and some of the same NZ guys on this team were with us then. I hope we can say, like we did then, “We’re not the Dream Team, we’re the Mean Team”
Yet again the successful Mean Machine Valle Romano line-up is ready to go, with round the world sailors Dirk de Ridder, Jules Salter (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Jono Swain (Movistar), as mainsail trimmer, navigator and trimmer respectively accompanying Peter de Ridder and the rest of the powerful Mean Machine squadron.
A sailing relationship that goes back ten years is testimony to the strength and cohesion at the Mean Machine core. This is something the team can be proud of as they step up to the Breitling Regatta, with the shape of the Golden Cap they won last year firmly etched on each and every one of their sights.
