MEDIA STATEMENT -- Valencia Plan: "The CSS Begins Next Thursday"

After 14 months of deliberations and negotiations, the Valencia Plan for the format and scoring of the Challenger Selection Series for the Louis Vuitton Cup is being announced jointly by ACM and the CC in Valencia today.

There have only been a handful of major changes to the game in the 154-year history of the America's Cup, and certainly the Valencia Plan is one of them.

The first significant development came after the 1st Match in 1870, in which the Defending yacht club's fleet of yachts met and defeated the sole Challenger, the English yacht Cambria, in a fleet race. Thereafter the Deed of Gift was re-written to require the Defender to meet the Challenger with only one yacht, and we have had "match racing" ever since.

The second came 100 years later, in 1970, when multiple challengers were accepted -- hence, the introduction of a "challenger selection series." In 1983 the CSS was formalized as an event in its own right when the Louis Vuitton Cup was awarded for the first time to the winning Challenger, and this has continued in the 20 years since.

The third is the Valencia Plan in 2005. In a soundbite, it expands the America's Cup from three months to three years. Challengers actually begin racing for challenger selection points next Thursday 16 June -- the start of Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 4 -- and will continue to do so through early June of 2007 when the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will be crowned.

The LVC winner will meet the Defender, Alinghi, in the 32nd America's Cup Match beginning 23 June 2007.

The Valencia Plan rationalizes, indeed legitimizes, the Louis Vuitton Acts. It brings Fleet Racing back into the Cup for the first time in 135 years. It promotes meaningful head-to-head racing between the Defender and all the Challengers for the next two years, not just the last two weeks of the America's Cup in 2007.

Moreover, it is "on strategy" for the modern America's Cup, the vision for which has been provided by Ernesto Bertarelli and Larry Ellison, by:

+ furthering "friendly comeptition between foreign countries" (from the 1887 Deed of Gift); and

+ providing a "competitive sporting regatta for all Competitors, to realise the sporting and commercial potential of the America's Cup, and to encourage world-wide growth and interest in the America's Cup as the premier event in the sport of sailing..." (from the Protocol Governing the 32nd America's Cup).

With ACM we are issuing detailed explanations this afternoon, which, of course, will be posted here as well following our noontime (CET) press conference.

In the meantime, the text of the final, signed version of the "Valencia Plan" is now available here (Adobe .pdf file). A clean copy of the final draft, unsigned, (MS Word .doc file) is posted here.

For an excellent online history of the America's Cup written by veteran Cup racer Halsey Herreshoff, who is also President of the America's Cup Hall of Fame, please click here.