America's Cup: Luna Rossa skipper Francesco Bruni insists foiling is here to stay

Team Luna Rossa skippered by Francesco Bruni celebrates during the award ceremony for 2013 America's Cup World Series. Photo/Getty Images

Foiling - yes please - but no more cycling on our America's Cup boats.

That's the view of Cup veteran Francesco Bruni, who has played a prominent part in the Luna Rossa syndicate, since it challenged Team New Zealand for the trophy in 2003.

Bruni was strategist on 2003 and 2007 campaigns, tactician in 2013 and was named skipper for this year's challenge, until the syndicate withdrew in protest of rule changes.

He was then enlisted as reserve helmsman for Artemis Racing and Nathan Outteridge.

After Team NZ re-captured the Auld Mug from Oracle Team USA last month, Luna Rossa became their challenge of record for the Kiwis' first defence, with the format of that regatta yet to be finalised.

But Bruni, who stands to play a prominent part in that event, insisted that foiling should be retained, when he spoke to the RC44 World Championship website.

"My personal opinion is that it is OK if it goes back to a monohull, provided it is high performance," he said. "Also we can't ignore foiling, because that has been such a great success across all of the sailing world.

"In fact, having foils is more important than whether it is a monohull or multihull. They improve performance a lot, so that means we could do a very fast monohull with foils - around 60-90 feet would be the right size potentially."

But Bruni was just as adamant about the role of pedal power in future America's Cup events.

"I think what happened with the cyclists on board was cool to see once, but it is not good in the long term - everyone agrees with that."

One of the key differences between Team NZ and their rivals this time was the presence of cyclists to maintain consistent power through the boat's steering, especially during tacks and gybes.

"Controlling everything via buttons is also no great, so maybe that should be limited.
"Having said that, innovation is good and we don't want to stop that. What we so want to see is more sailors back on board.

"It has also been straying a little too far away from the normal world. Like the wings ... I would be in favour of staying with multihulls, but going back to a normal mas and sails, because I really don't see the rest of the sailing world adopting wings.

"However, I do see foiling becoming more and more important, I see kids having a lot of fun foiling on monos and multihulls."