¿Qué es esto?

Loch Ness monster comes to the waters off Valencia?

The photo below, courtesy of Luna Rossa's Luis Saenz, was apparently taken Saturday afternoon in the racing area. Luis is asking if the CC's blogger was working overtime trying to obtain, for our keen readers, the latest hot news on, and in, the water? We are flattered that he thinks the Ed. is so ambitious on a Saturday, but regret to say we have no idea who or what this is of, or is about....



Wouldn't be an Alinghi spy checking challenger keels -- the Protocol prohibits using divers or other for underwater recon. Valencia Sailing's Pierre Orphanidis trying to get a new angle on teams preparing for the upcoming Acts? Apparently not -- his site says he's out of town. ACM's hard-working COO, Michel Hodara, checking to be sure there are no underwater obstructions like the plastic cable-pipe that snagged a challenger keel a few weeks back? Nah, that was in the canal not in the racing area. Clever work by Luna Rossa to get their branding shown on the widely-read Challenger Commission Blog? Hmmm.... ;)

Valencia Crónica #47

Bridget Baker's Valencia Crónica #47 (28 April issue) is now available. As always VC is password-protected for privacy of email and telephone numbers.

Recently, at Bridget's request we changed the password to help keep the information in the hands of the partners/families of AC team members for whom it is intended. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for each week's Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz.

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

ESP 88 On the Move

Update to our previous story, courtesy of news from the ever-excellent Valencia Sailing blogsite edited by Pierre Orphanidis:

Saturday, April 29, will be a milestone in the history of the America's Cup and Valencia. ESP-88, the brand new boat of the Spanish America's Cup challenger Desafio Espanol 2007, will leave the King Marine boatyard in Alginet and head to the team's base in Port America's Cup.Unlike most of the other America's Cup teams that chose to bring their new boats under absolute secrecy and with hardly any previous notice, the first ever America's Cup yacht built in Valencia will parade in part of the city's important thoroughfares before entering the boat shed in Port America's Cup. More....

So tomorrow yet another new V5 ACC yacht will have seen the light of day. And what a nice promotion in Valencia for the Cup, and the Spanish team. Well done!

Desafio, to our knowledge, has not yet announced a christening date for ESP 88. Regardless, this would indicate that ESP 88 is moving out of the construction phase, and fitting out will be completed in the weeks ahead at their team base in the Port America's Cup.

We note, too, that the entry list for Acts 10 and 11 shows Desafio has entered ESP 65. However, under the rules a team has until roughly 24 hours before the first race to substitute its previously entered yacht with another eligible yacht -- meaning an ACC yacht that has a current measurement certificate and otherwise complies with the AC 32 Protocol and other rules.

Recent posts on the AC expert-fan site, 2007AC.com Forums, have asked why such a swap is permitted after the entry "deadline." The answer is that for planning purposes ACM needs to know well in advance how many teams will enter any yacht at all, and there are a number of other requirements that must be met by the entry "deadline" along with providing the sail number of an entered yacht. And the Measurement Committee needs to know which yacht it is to measure for that team.

Thereafter, provided the Measurement Committee has time to measure another yacht for that team, or the team already has another yacht with a valid measurement certificate, it is reasonable to permit the team to subsitute to such a yacht until just before the racing begins.

A team might elect to do this if the originally-entered yacht is damaged or otherwise found to be less competitive or unraceable, or was unable to be measured in, or if the the team simply decides for competitive (including psychological) reasons that they would rather race a different yacht than that originally entered.

UITG Christening

Congrats to United Internet Team Germany whose new yacht GER 89 was formally christened Germany I in Kiel earlier this week. It is the fifth new ACC yacht to see the light of day this year.

Here, to the best of our knowledge, is the status of all new ACC V5 yachts that have been built, or are under construction, since the end of AC 31:

RSA 83 (Shosholoza) - launched mid 2005.
NZL 84 (Emirates Team New Zealand) - launched late 2005.
ITA 85 (+39) - under construction.
ITA 86 (Luna Rossa) - launched early 2006.
USA 87 (BMW ORACLE Racing) - launched early 2006.
ESP 88 (Desafio Espanol) - under construction.
GER 89 (UITG) - christened this week, being fitted out in Kiel.
ITA 90 (Mascalzone Latino) - christened two weeks ago, being fitted out in Valencia.
SUI 91 (Alinghi) - being fitted out in Valencia.



GER 89 -- Feurwerke über Kiel.

Valencia Crónica #46

VC editor Bridget Baker has sent out this week's edition. As always Valencia Crónica is password-protected for privacy of email and telephone numbers. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for each week's Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz.

In Memoriam

This from Scuttlebutt today about the passing of a longtime friend of our sport and the America's Cup....


IN MEMORIAM
We lost a great friend Tuesday night, with Robert
G. Stone Jr. passing away from a stroke he
suffered a week ago. Stoney was a mentor, and a
benefactor to many causes and individuals. His
home was Marion, MA, where he had been a member
of New York Yacht Club since 1964 (Commodore
1981-1983), along with Cruising Club of America,
Beverly Yacht Club, and Storm Trysail Club. Bob
had participated in over 30 Newport-Bermuda Races
along with many Annapolis-Newport and Halifax
Races. Cruising in Maine was a passion whether on
a NYYC Cruise or on his own with friends and
family. He was involved in many America's Cup
syndicates, and had a tremendous impact on many
lives. He will be missed. - Thomas Hovey


Commodore Stone's leadership and exceptionally good judgement during the controversial 1983 Cup, and the dignity and grace with which he exercised his office, not only preserved the Cup as we know and love it, but helped launch the modern era. His influence was keenly felt in NYYC challenges beyond 1983 (particularly 1987, for which he led the fundraising). In 1988 Commodore Stone played a strong behind-the-scenes role in establishing the first "America's Cup Protocol" which has strengthened and stabilized the Cup ever since.

More...



Commodore Robert G Stone Jr, 1923-2006. "He had a tremendous
impact on many lives." Photo courtesy Dan Nerney and NYYC.

Revised CC Directory...

...is now posted here, as always passworded for CC members only to protect personal contact information -- even that of Defender liaison Hamish Ross. ;)

Reminder that there is a permanent link to the latest CC Directory under "Kiosk" near the top of the sidebar.

Valencia Crónica #45

This from VC editor Bridget Baker, with this week's edition....

Howdy team,

11 pages of information for you to read over the break! Thanks to all the contributors this week - you are great! Safe travels and Happy Easter,

Bridget

As always VC is password-protected for 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.

Valencia Crónica #44

This from VC editor Bridget Baker, with this week's edition....

Hi everyone,

Finally finished this weeks cronica.

It is exactly 1 year today the the first cronica went out! It went out to 30 people and now it is a couple off 400 on the mailout list!!! i will have one of my 'sin alcohol' beers to celebrate!!

I have mentioned at the start of the cronica that next week due to Easter Holiday's, I will only be putting one out if I get the information by Midday on Wednesday and the cronica will be put out that evening.

Have a great weekend and see some of you at the ACM - One Stop shop easter hunt on Sunday!

Congrats again to Bridget and all her contributors for the continuing success of Valencia Crónica.

As always VC is password-protected for 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.

Port America's Cup -- Map

Today ACM provided the helpful map, below, of the Port America's Cup and indicating the location, when completed later this year, of AC activities therein. The top of the map is roughly North.

The location of team bases (orange), clockwise from the lower left corner:

(lower group) China Team, Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team, United Internet Team Germany, Desafio Espanol, Victory Challenge, AREVA Challenge; Emirates Team New Zealand.

(upper group) Luna Rossa, BMW ORACLE Racing, Shosholoza, +39, Alinghi.

The Media Center (also the "IBC," which stands for "International Broadcast Center") will be located on shore immediately south of the Superyacht Dock.

As with most images here on the CCB, click on it to enlarge... and for ease of future reference we have added a permanent link to it on the sidebar under "Kiosk."



Valencia's Port America's Cup is rapidly taking shape. Most of the Bases not already completed should be done by Act 10 in May; likewise the Superyacht Marina, North Marina and much of the AC Park. The South Marina will be completed later this year.

Capitalia Congrats

Congratulations to Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team on the unique "re-launch" of their campaign here in Valencia Wednesday, that was also celebrated live in Milano via video link.

The other sites have carried the pictures of ITA-90 being christened along with the team photo taken here in front of their new team base. The CCB likes as much as possible to bring fresh perspective and insight, so we thought you might be interested to see how well it played in Milano....



At the concurrent Mascalzone function in Milano Wednesday, Pippo dalla Vecchia, Flavio Favini, Vincenzo Onorato and Matteo Arpe raise a glass to success in the 32nd Cup, joined in by the others at the large gathering in the Four Seasons' Hotel, including Mrs. Vincenzo Onorato (foreground, center)....



Cheers!

Arrival of Areva

Congrats to K-Challenge, who have signed up the French energy giant Areva as their title sponsor. A few minutes ago, to the surprise and delight of many in the Port America's Cup, an ACC yacht was towed into the Darsena which then docked at the K-Challenge Base -- sporting a new black and white livery with "Areva" displayed on the bow and boom and an Areva battle flag.

Nice going Stephane, Stephanie, Dawn, George and Co.



One of the AREVA Challenge (née K-Challenge) ACC yachts arriving in the Port America's Cup about 0945 this (Wednesday) morning.

Alinghi's Jumper-less Rig

Other websites are always bragging about world exclusives -- it's time the CC Blog had one....

And speaking of April Fools' Day, on Saturday Alinghi sailed with a new rig in one of their boats -- to the best of our knowledge the first rig in the history of the AC Class not to have jumper-struts.

With apologies for the lame quality of the photo below (no doubt Valencia Sailing will improve on it shortly), one can plainly see the difference between the two Alinghi masts. The one with the man at the masthead is the new rig. The red arrow points to the area where you would normally expect to see jumper struts. You can see them on the other mast (blue arrow).

The advantage, presumably, is less windage aloft. Note, however, that the mast section at the top appears rather larger than the mast with jumper-struts.

This mod is not something that can happen overnight. It is not a simple matter of taking off the jumper struts. The design/build cycle for a new mast, or modified old mast, that could support and control the mainsail loads at the masthead without jumpers would be many months, or so we are told.

In the days ahead, it will be interesting to see if Alinghi's new jumper-less rig is indeed stiff enough, and if they are able to control the top of the mainsail.

If it does work, why would you expose it this early in the Cup design/build cycle? Or could it be an(other) April Fools' joke?



Are jumper-less rigs the coming thing? Alinghi's new, or modified, mast
(red arrow) looks almost naked without jumper-struts.

Buon Giorno, Amici Italiani

Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team publishes a team blog called Mascalzoneblog. This single-sentence was posted there on Saturday: Che giorno è oggi? Se non lo ricordate cliccate qui.

Meaning "What day is today? If you don't remember, click here." The link was to the CC Blog's 1 April story entitled "Retaliation."

And click they did. Congrats to Mascalzone on what must be a large readership for their blog, as the CC Blog has had by far more visitors in the past 48 hours from that link than any other.

And to those few who still have not figured out what day it was (don't worry, we have deleted your emails to protect reputations), one hopes the graphic below will help.

Valencia Crónica #43

Bridget Baker's Valencia Crónica #43 (31 March issue) is now available. As always VC is password-protected for privacy of email and telephone numbers.

Last week, at Bridget's request, we changed the password to help keep the information in the hands of the partners/families of AC team members for whom it is intended. 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.

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

Retaliation

Scuttlebutt Europe, the popular email newsletter on sailing produced by boats.com Europe and edited by David McCreary (not to be confused with the original Scuttlebutt, N.A. newsletter edited by Tom and Craig Leweck) has just announced, with immediate effect, that it is ceasing publication.

According to Mr McCreary, the publication had been threatened with a joint lawsuit by the Vatican, the Italian government, the Swiss government, Serono SA (the Geneva-based biotech company whose CEO is Alinghi's Ernesto Bertarelli), Team Alinghi and ACM -- an unprecedented and almost immediate reaction to an article authored by Mr McCreary and published by Scuttlebutt Europe in today's 1 April edition.

"They had a choice," said Alinghi's General Counsel Hamish Ross (NZL). "Usually for a publication it is a matter of 'publish or perish.' In their case continuing to publish would have resulted in not only prosecution but persecution. Making fun of a urinating nun is simply not done."

The apocryphal Scuttlebutt Europe article suggested that Alinghi had not paid their entry fee for AC32, among other serious allegations.

The Challenger Commission was also prominently mentioned in the article. Asked why the CC had not joined in the threatened legal action, CC Chair Alessandra Pandarese (ITA, Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team) said with tongue firmly in cheek (whose cheek was not immediately clear), "When it comes to the Defender we often say during CC meetings, 'Don't get angry, get even.' Besides, we believe there was some truth to the article."

From Beijing where ACM and Louis Vuitton are promoting the 32nd America's Cup, ACM President and CEO Michel Bonnefous (SUI) issued an uncharacteristically terse, one-line statement through his traveling companion and new publicist, Bruno Trouble (FRA): "With the America's Cup and Louis Vuitton Cup now in China for the first time, we are reminded of the old Chinese proverb: 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.'"

Former CC Chairman George Clyde (USA, K-Challenge), in Paris at the request of French President Jacques Chirac to help negotiate an end to the student riots, said, "Abraham Lincoln once famously said, 'You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.'" It was unclear whether he was referring to the article in question or BMW ORACLE Racing's new bowsprit.

Luna Rossa's general counsel, Luis Saenz (ESP), issued a formal statement that quoted an old Spanish proverb, saying "It is better to weep with wise men than to laugh with fools." Asked what that meant in the context of the article in question and threatened lawsuit, Sr Saenz said, "I'm not sure; like the paint on our new ITA 86, it's not exactly clear." He added, "Besides, it's a Spanish quote, so why don't you ask someone from Desafio Espanol." Reached on his wife's mobile phone in a tapas bar in the Gran Via area of Valencia this afternoon, Desafio's CC Rep, John Cutler (NZL), said in passable Kiwi-Spanglish, "Lo siento, mi espanol no es muy bueno, pero es un joke, mate; mas vino tinto, por favor, y ¡vamos a la playa!"

Quoted in the Scuttlebutt article was the CC's founding chairman, Tom Ehman (USA, BMW ORACLE Racing). Reached at home near Valencia today where he was writing an April Fools' Day blog post, he laughed the entire matter off with a quote from the poet Edgar Allen Poe: "I have great faith in fools - self-confidence, my friends call it."



Alinghi general counsel, noted AC
historian, and budding poet (see
quote above), Hamish Ross. Photo
courtesy of WADA.