Karol Jablonski has become cautious. Too often it looked as if he could finally make it to the sailing Olympus of the America's Cup. At first there were promising signs that he could find sponsors in Poland for a start in 2007. An old cupper was sold and a training camp was set up in Gdansk. But negotiations with potential major sponsors failed.
Then came the dream offer from Italian entrepreneur Gualtiero Pantani, who wanted to compete for the Livorno Yacht Club. The budget of 90 million euros was already as good as secured. Jablonski had become match race world champion and was ranked number one in the world. 40 people were already on the payroll. "The idea is to build a team without the really big names," the six-time winner of the Championship of Champions told YACHT online at the time. "Pantani wants people who are still hungry. They are cheaper and have more potential. It's a great opportunity for me and my four men from the match race team, who are also signed up. But we have to work hard to come out on top."
Jablonski then even brought Markus Wieser on board to do the tactics for him. The new team won the first joint Grade 1 match race in Marseille with a clear victory. It was rumoured that Pantani had already bought the two Cuppers from Dennis Conner's Stars&Stripes syndicate and was in talks with the Conner designers Reichel/Pugh.
But then a major banking crash shook Italy and the main sponsors of Toscana Challenge, as the team was called, were affected. Further attempts to find potent sponsors failed.
But now Jablonski's run of bad luck could be coming to an end. Since January, he has been training with the Italian America's Cup challenger +39, which will be competing for the Gargnano Yacht Club in 2007. And he is already officially listed as helmsman on the team's website.
But Jablonski doesn't want to know anything about that yet. "My contract hasn't been signed yet. And nothing is official until then." He is also keeping quiet about the so-called 180-day rule, against which Russell Coutts is currently taking legal action. According to this rule, a professional sailor who works for a team for more than 180 days may no longer be employed by another syndicate.
"We are currently working on the details of the contract. It looks pretty good, but the contract is supposed to last three years. You have to consider a lot of things," says Jablonski. Among other things, he would like to see three members of his Polish match-racing crew signed up as well. "That's not a requirement, but it would help the whole Cup team." The training sessions at the +39 camp in Sicily have been very positive. He hopes to reach an agreement by the beginning of April.
+39 has been put together by the Finn dinghy silver medallist in Sydney, Luca Devoti. And it would appear that he has recruited the entire international Finn elite. The sailing team includes six current top single-handed sailors: the second, fourth and sixth from Athens - Rafael Trujillo (ESP), Karlo Kuret (CRO) and Anthony Nossiter (AUS) - as well as the two Brits Simpson and Brittle, who have each finished third at the World Championships, and the European vice-champion and three-time Olympian Michael Maier (CZE). The figurehead is Finn gold medallist Ian Percy (GBR) as coxswain, who has now successfully made the transition to the Star boat.
"But it's not just Finn sailors," says Jablonski. The team also includes some sailors with Cup experience, for example from Prada. The design team is led by Giovanni Ceccarelli, and the coach is the well-known Italian sailor Roberto Ferrarese.
