March CC Meeting

Reminder that the Challenger Commission will next meet on Tuesday-Wednesday, March 7-8 at the Valencia Holiday Inn beginning at 0900 both days. Earlier this morning CC Assistant Michael ten Bokum circulated by email the draft agenda with several attachments.

The day before the CC meeting (Monday 6 March), the NOR Working Party will meet at 1400 for most of the afternoon to review the draft NOR for the Louis Vuitton Cup prepared by the drafting group chaired by Luis Saenz (Luna Rossa) which will be circulated shortly by email to all Challengers. In addition to NOR Working Party members, each Challenger is welcome to send a delegate to this meeting at which, it is hoped, most issues can be discussed and agreed in advance of the CC meeting.

Reminder, too, that Louis Vuitton has kindly offered a dinner for CC delegates on Monday evening 6 March. A formal invitation is enclosed with Michael's email. Please be sure to RSVP ASAP as time is short.

And as usual, an informal dinner for the CC has also been organized for Tuesday evening at Lambrusqueria (aka "The Docks"), 31 Conde Altea, Valencia, beginning at 2100.

A revised CC Directory has been posted which, as always, is password-protected for CC delegates. Please note the new email address for Alessandra Pandarese (Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team).

Valencia Crónica #38

Bridget Baker's Valencia Crónica #38 (23 February issue) is now available.

As always it is password-protected to help assure the privacy of email and telephone numbers. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for each week's Valencia Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz.

A reminder that Valencia Crónica is not intended for general consumption, but for use by team members in Valencia and their partners/families. VC contains very little information of interest to, or use by, the general public.

Works Update

Speaking of the Port America's Cup works, here is the Friday evening update from ACM....

Dear all,

Please find attached [below] the latest plan of the works on Port America's Cup, which will be effective as of Monday and for a duration of a week.

The access to the South bases will have to be done as indicated by the red arrows on the plan. The zones in yellow, orange and red on the map indicate where works will be taking place.

We thank you all for your patience and collaboration,

Kind regards,


T&A
-----------------------------------------
Tamara Martyn & Anne Soulié
Team Relations



Click on the image to enlarge.

Port America's Cup Works

(No pun intended.) These days here in Valencia those working in and around the Port America's Cup find ourselves, to put it politely, in a 24/7 zona en construcción.

The conditions are challenging for all concerned, especially the teams' base managers and the ACM infrastructure managers. To a large degree, all are at the mercy of the local host consórcio called Valencia 2007 ("V07" in Cup parlance). As the works progress, the local logistical situation changes daily, sometimes hourly. Regular and rapid communication are key, and in recent days this has gotten a lot better.

On behalf of the Challengers we want to express our appreciation to ACM's Jean-Brice Saint-Martin and Jose Manuel Idáñez, and, as always, to ACM's teams liaison Tamara Martyn and her assistant Anne Soulié for trying to keep us all posted and on the same page. (Tamara and Anne sign their emails "T&A" which, sometime down the road, could be the subject of a fun post here on the CC Blog.)

Speaking of which, here is the latest just received from J & J, and T & A....


On behalf of the Infrastructure department:

Dear all,

To finish the works on Port America's Cup before the Acts, the rythm and number of workers will increase. In order to allow you to work in the best conditions, we have asked the Consorcio Valencia 2007 to guarantee the access to your base at any time for cars and for delivery trucks (under 3.500 kg of weight). For the other vehicles we need a 48 hour notice. Please advise by sending an e-mail to Jean Brice and Jose Manuel, to make it possible, and try to program it for after 3 p.m. We will send you a layout with a map to describe the entrance you have to use until the works finish (it may change for a few days while they are working on your entrance).

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Jean-Brice Saint-Martin,
Infrastructure



An "instant" (well, almost) temporary driveway being built yesterday for trucks waiting to make a delivery into one of the team bases.

91 to Alinghi

Alinghi has announced that ACC sail number 91 was indeed allocated to them late last week by ACC Technical Director Ken McAlpine. That leaves 87 and 90 as the two sail numbers allocated by the TD but as yet unannounced by teams.

Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team and BMW ORACLE Racing have previously announced they have new boats under construction, but have yet to announce their allocated sail numbers.

PI 17

The Technical Director has issued Public Interpretation no. 17, which clarifies ACC rule 36.14 in respect of stored energy.

Devoti Devotion

Congrats to +39 team manager Luca Devoti (ITA) who was honored this week, along with other recent Italian Olympic medalists, during the Winter Games at Torino.

Luca, a longtime Olympic-class sailor (that's his new Star that has been sailing of late out of the +39 Team Base) won the silver medal in the Finn Class at Sydney in 2000. That might also help explain why there are an unusually large number of Olympic medalists on the +39 team, including helmsman Ian Percy (GBR) who was the 2000 Finn gold medalist, and two-time silver medalist Ian Walker (GBR) who is +39's tactician.



Luca Devoti in Torino last week with a, well, interesting-looking award.



Ian Percy dominating the Finn
Class at Sydney in 2000.

Swiss "Challenger Friendly" Site

There is a new Swiss "match racing portal" called MatchRace.ch which has written to say they were inspired to develop their own blog by some of the other successful sailing blogs, including ours. We have provided a permanent link to their site on our sidebar along with the other challenger-friendly sites.

You might wonder why the CCB would get connected to a Swiss site given that is the home country of the Defender. No worries, mate. We all have friends on the Alinghi team, and as Challengers we applaud what they have done to popularize match racing in Switzerland. Moreover, there are a number of Swiss sailors and sponsors, to say nothing of other team personnel, who are allied with various Challengers. We can also think of a number of people connected with Challengers who are members of Swiss yacht clubs, and hence the Swiss Yachting Federation.

Best wishes to MatchRace.ch for success, and we appreciate their interest and support.

Search Me

To make it easier and faster to find information here on the CC Blog (and the web for that matter), you will notice a new Google toolbar has been added at the top of our main page.

Type in a search term and then click one of the radio buttons to choose a normal internet search ("WWW") or a search of just our site ("CC Blog").

Of course, putting the search term in quotes (e.g., "Valencia Plan") will further narrow the search to posts only where the quoted words appear together.

Sail No. 91 Allocated

This morning the Technical Director reported that ACC sail no. 91 has been allocated.

Click here for our previous post and summary (when 90 was allotted) concerning this not-so-weighty issue -- but one that, nonetheless, receives a lot of media attention.

As with 87 and 90, we are not aware that the team to which 91 has been allocated has made it public. By agreement with the teams, the TD only announces that a number has been allocated (after the first skin is layed up in or on the tool), not the name of the team. This is left to the respective teams to announce as and when they choose.

Valencia Crónica #37

Bridget Baker's Valencia Crónica #37 (16 February issue) is now available.

As always it is password-protected to help assure the privacy of email and telephone numbers. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for each week's Valencia Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz.

A reminder that Valencia Crónica is not intended for general consumption, but for use by team members in Valencia and their partners/families. VC contains very little information of interest to, or use by, the general public.

Revolutionary

Our January post entitled Evolutionary ended with: "Question now confronting those involved in shaping, or hoping to shape, AC 33 -- revolution, or more evolution?"

The post, and question, generated a number of thoughtful comments.

Perhaps it is best to re-read that post before looking at the revolutionary video below. Obviously, there is something to be said for both schools of thought about the future of the America's Cup Class. (Mind your computer speakers -- there's audio with the video.)


Former Cup challenger (and defender) Paul Cayard and his team's VO 70 "Pirates of the Carribean" en route Melbourne to Wellington earlier this week.

We would appreciate any responsible comments. Email them to: blog [at] tfehman [dot] com.

Speaking of Acts...

...is this possibly, finally, hopefully, the last act of AC 31? Here is the Judgement of the Court, New Zealand Court of Appeals, in Reeves v One World Challenge LLC [2005] NZCA 314 (8 December 2005).

Act 11 Notice of Race

The Regatta Director has now issued the Notice of Race for Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 11, the fleet racing regatta in May immediately following the match racing Act 10.

Bird Flu

Several governments are now advising their citizens that it is a matter of when, not if, the avian flu arrives in Spain -- with the spring migration of birds from Africa. The following websites are said to have up-to-date information:

www.pandemicflu.gov
www.who.int

GOBO Meeting

The Get on Board Organization (GOBO) was created to mobilize the partners of AC personnel -- team members, ACM, and other AC support organizations -- to use their skills, talents, and energy to have a positive impact on the city they live in during the America's Cup, either social or environmental.

The project specific to Valencia is called Agua Limpia. The objective of Agua Limpia ("Clean Water") is to reduce litter and improve the marine water quality in Valencia, specifically Malvarossa Beach. This will be accomplished through clean up events, a school outreach program and scholarship fund. Membership fees will be allocated to support under privileged schools in Valencia, allowing them to participate in the educational program at the Oceanographico.

The first GOBO meeting of the year is this coming Wednesday 15 Feb beginning at 1100, at Paseo Alameda #48 (bottom of the building, a red brick-coloured building facing the park by la Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias).

For more information please visit their website.

Act 10 Notice of Race

Last evening Regatta Director Dyer Jones issued the Notice of Race for Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 10. It was emailed to the usual team contacts and is available as a .pdf file here.

We are pleased to note that, with one or two minor exceptions, the recommendations adopted by the Challenger Commission at its December meeting in San Francisco have been incorporated in this latest Notice of Race.

The Act 10 NOR is very similar those for last year's Acts 4, 6 and 8. Among the few changes of note:

+ Pumping will be permitted on legs 2 and 4 (continuing the relaxation adopted in Trapani).

+ Teams may race a different yacht in Act 11 than in Act 10. (Acts 10 and 11 are back-to-back match and fleet racing regattas, respectively, with the same format as the 2005 Act "pairs." Swapping of yachts between Acts at a given venue in 2005 was not permitted.)

+ If a team's yacht is so damaged as to be unable to continue racing in the regatta, the team may substitute in another eligible yacht provided the team will be penalized one point (unless, of course, the damage was caused by another vessel which was required to keep clear and, accordingly, the jury grants redress -- as in the past, such substitution would be permitted without penalty).

+ Races, including individual legs, will not be shortened. The per-leg time limit will be proportional to the length of the leg (instead of a standard 40 minutes as in previous Acts). The new formula is 30 minutes for a leg of two nautical miles (or less), plus 1 minute for each additional tenth of a mile. Accordingly, the time limit for a 3.0nm leg will be 40 minutes.

A draft NOR for Act 11 is under consideration now by the Defender and the CC's racing rules task force, and Dyer expects to have the final draft out toward the end of this coming week.

Valencia Crónica #36

Bridget Baker's Valencia Crónica #36 (9 February issue) is now available.

As always it is password-protected to help assure the privacy of email and telephone numbers. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for each week's Valencia Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz.

A reminder that Valencia Crónica is not intended for general consumption, but for use by team members in Valencia and their partners/families. VC contains very little information of interest to, or use by, the general public.

Peter Harrison Centre

Nice ink today for Mr Peter Harrison (GBR) who was head of the the GBR Challenge for the 2003 America's Cup, from the Yachting Monthly website:

Former America's Cup contender Peter Harrison has donated £3 million to building a new 120-seat planetarium at Greenwich - as part of the Royal Observatory. The Peter Harrison centre, which opens in 2007, will give visitors a view of the night sky and then take them on a journey into space.

His generous move comes as Madame Tussauds announced the replacement of the old Baker Street planetarium with a celebrity show.

One grateful schoolgirl, Amy McKenzie, 16, said: 'Madame Tussauds are dummies allowing themselves to be in thrall to so-called celebrities. It's unlikely they'll boil up any wax to honour Harrison - a person who really should be celebrated.'

The UK's Peter Harrison.

Valencia Plan

Just a reminder that the final, signed copy of the "Valencia Plan" (the format/scoring agreement for the Challenger Selection Series, a.k.a. the "Louis Vuitton Cup") was posted last June here on the CC Blog, and remains available by clicking on:

http://www.challengercommission.com/dox/VP6eSigned.pdf

A final, clean but unsigned copy of the document (as an MS Word .doc file) is also available here.

Valencia Crónica #35

After a well-deserved holiday break, Bridget Baker's Valencia Crónica #35 (2 February 06 edition) is now available.

As always it is password-protected to help assure the privacy of email and telephone numbers. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for each week's Valencia Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz.

A reminder that Valencia Crónica is not intended for general consumption, but for use by team members in Valencia and their partners/families. VC contains very little information of interest to, or use by, the general public.

The Curmudgeon

The dictionary defines a Curmudgeon as "an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions" or "a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas."

Why Tom Leweck adopted "The Curmudgeon" as his nom de plume is not exactly clear, given that he is none of the above -- or if he is, he hides it well.

Mr Leweck, of course, is the editor of "Scuttlebutt," the popular sailing newsletter distributed free via email five days a week. Founded by Tom in 1997, today he runs it jointly his son, Craig, and enjoys a daily readership of something north of 30,000. Click here for a nice piece on Scuttlebutt and the Curmudgeon recently run by Sailing Magazine.

Free to subscribe at www.sailingscuttlebutt.com, Scuttlebutt is the one daily "must-read" for America's Cup teams and fans alike.

Recently, both Scuttlebutt and The Curmdugeon have passed milestones (as opposed to mild stones?) -- Scuttlebutt issue number 2,000 was published, and Tom celebrated his 75th birthday. Earlier this week we caught up with Tom and his wife, Barbara, in Marina del Rey (Los Angeles) for a belated celebration of both.



Still going strong at age 75 and after 2,000 issues of 'Butt. On behalf of all the Challengers, our best wishes to The Curmudgeon for many more of both!

Triskaidekaphobia

This welcome (unless, one supposes, you share a superstition about the number 13) notice yesterday from ACM's teams liaison Tamara Martyn:

After much debate whether the 13th Act will be known as Act 13 or Act 14, it has been officially decided to the contrary of what we have communicated in the past (press packs, scoring format etc.) that it will be ACT 13. We are currently updating all our official documents on our website, it will be effective in the next couple of days. On our ACM home page you can read a brief anecdote to the story behind Act 13! Thank you for updating this in your records.