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Andrea Emone, «Lady Data»

15/12/2022

Updated at 6:10 p.m.

When she was able to experience the 2007 Copa América in her native Valencia, Andrea Emone was a girl. But it was in the rare edition of the Deed of Gift three years later that she felt a fatal attraction to this competition. Andrea Emone in 2010 was already sailing windsurfing, and she was impressed by the importance of the importance that she had design so different from the gigantic multihulls. She is currently a data analysis specialist, making her debut in the America’s Cup with the Swiss team.

—How did the Copa América catch you?

—As a Valencian, I supported the Swiss team and I felt very frustrated, and I felt it was a victory for the American design team. She upset me and changed the way I see it, for the first time I understood that there was a design team behind it. I started to see everything differently, to see the importance of design to have more speed. I became interested in science, engineering, and constantly asked questions. I considered studying Naval Engineering, but when I saw the subjects I thought that something did not add up, until someone told me that my answers were in aerospace engineering and I decided what I wanted to study.

How were the studies?

—It was difficult for me to enter the university because they demanded a very high grade. A good result in a European Techno Plus allowed me to enter a program for elite young athletes, and the facilities to study allowed me to access the University of Valencia and continue sailing. But it was very difficult because I switched to the RSX class which required a lot more training and the race required a lot of studying. The situation overwhelmed me and I decided to stop browsing. I was 18 years old and I thought that I had given up on my sports career, an “everything is over”. Soon after, in the third year, I decided that I had to start working.

-And so?

—I looked for companies related to sailing in the Valencia area and found KND dedicated to the analysis of data and CCD of high competition boats. I sent them my resume and they hired me. There I learned everything I know about data analysis, I discovered an exciting world. I thought that then this area was beginning and I saw very clearly that the path was infinite. In addition to the TP 52s, we also work with some IMOCAs, and while I was discovering the professional world of sailing, meeting sailors and even working with some of my “idols” from the 2007 America’s Cup. do you think? she had to rub my eyes.

—And suddenly the Copa América…

—The Alinghi team called me and I did not doubt it for a moment, because even before your call it was the 37 AC team that I would like to work for. It was an impressive surprise. At first I was scared and I didn’t know if my very personal way of working would fit. Also, with much faster boats data analysis is more important and sailors have to trust the data more. When a ship flies the problem increases and the solution is more complex. Data analysis has gone from a single dedicated person to a group of people.

—Have you found in an AC team what you supposed a priori?

—It is very different, the imagination always interprets and here I am discovering what an AC team is. In many ways it does resemble what I imagined, but obviously reality always surpasses fiction and this time it has also surpassed it (laughs).

—What do you think of the interaction between the many areas that exist in the team?

—I have been struck by the difference in cultures, how each of them interprets a problem. The different ways of thinking, how differently each of us communicates. The inertia of the whole project has also surprised me, I couldn’t imagine it. It is a very ambitious project, two years ahead and in which many people are involved.

How is a day in your office?

—If it’s a day of water, I usually have a previous meeting to prepare the day, then go to check that all the tools that I need work. Later we go out in the tender and I see everything that is monitored. I pay special attention and measure the data that we have previously agreed for that day. With the feeling of the coach and sailors we are solving enigmas in the water, and what we can’t is analyzed later in the office. When the ship is not sailing, I dedicate myself to answering the entire list of questions about data that had been requested, comparing historical data, etc. It is a job that has no end.

—Who do you interact with more, the sports team or the design team?

-Half and half. On paper I belong to the design team, but I am an external factor to them. It is interesting to be outside of both nuclei, because otherwise you can easily let yourself be influenced. If you previously know where the trends are going, although the numbers are always what they are, you could make some interpretation conditioned by previous information. Sometimes it comes as a surprise to me to find out what they were looking for.

—Would you see yourself sailing in the Women’s Cup?

—Obviously, not in this edition. But what I would like much more is to sail an AC 75 with an America’s Cup team. Enter a selection process where they evaluate all the people, and if I am the best for that position, they choose me.

“Is it more desire than, do you think it’s feasible?”

—I think that the AC 75 is learned by sailing it and getting to know it, not by coming from Olympic classes or other categories of boats. I think I have ambition and a lot of perseverance, I am very stubborn, nobody beats me to work and I think that these boats demand a lot of work capacity from the sailors. The experience of this edition will allow me to know these boats very well, and if in the future I have the opportunity to jump on board it will be very useful. I think it might fit the foilcontroller.


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