Quote - Unquote

From yesterday's Valencia Life newsletter:

BONNEFOUS OPENS VALENCIA SUMMIT
Michel Bonnefous, the President of the Americas Cup management committee yesterday officially opened the Valencia Summit Conference on sport and development. In his speech, he stated that Valencia ‘has a great opportunity by being the headquarters of the 32nd Americas Cup’ and praised the City for what it offered. He also added that the enormous financial effort involved ever since Valencia was chosen for the races in 2003, ‘that has also allowed the City to proudly sit on the world stage as a major event organizer’. As far as 2009 is concerned, Mr Bonnefous stated that Valencia ‘has every opportunity’ to stage the races again ‘but we must sit down and discuss what we will do in the future’. He also stated that the City ‘was absolutely perfect for us’ and praised the high amount of collaboration and enthusiasm he had received from the Valencian Government as well as from Valencia Town Hall.

Sail No. 99 Allocated

Yesterday ACC Technical Director Ken McAlpine notified the teams that sail number 99 has been issued. Our most recent post on the subject is here. ACM has a nice summary of AC 32 sail numbers issued to date here.

Teams have yet publicly to lay claim to previously allocated numbers 94, 98 and 99. Teams that have announced they are building, or are about to build, new boats: Alinghi, Luna Rossa, BMW ORACLE Racing, Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team. Some say Victory Challenge (recently announced that they had 96) could also be building a second boat.

99 is, of course, the ninth repdigit. Previous double-ups include:

+ ESP 88 (Desafio Espanol's first AC 32 yacht; their second is 97).
+ ITA 77 (One of Mascalzone's AC 32 training boats -- previously Dennis Conner's USA 77).
+ ITA 66 (One of Mascalzone's AC 32 training boats -- previously DC's USA 66).

Of note, 99 is also:

+ the number of Hershey's Kisses in a pound, according to the official Hershey's website.
+ the number of names of God, according to the Koran.
+ another name for the 99 Flake, a popular kind of ice cream cone.
+ the atomic number of einsteinium, an actinide.

From the foregoing, could a genius like Einstein deduce which team may have held out for 99?

Quote - Unquote

No joke, the other day a reporter here in Spain asked your Ed. if the Challenger Commission was composed of intellectuals. "No," I said, "mostly lawyers."

In the meantime a friend sent the quote below, so maybe I had it wrong....

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex. -- Aldous Huxley

Valencia Crónica #59

Issue #59 of Valencia Crónica is now available here. Editor Bridget Baker issues VC approximately every other week, and it is intended solely for AC 32 team members and their families. Accordingly, VC is passworded to protect the privacy of contributors' contact info. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz. Over 500 families are now receiving VC by email.

Update: Sail Numbers

[UPDATE 0530 Sat 14 Oct -- Mr McAlpine emailed the teams on Friday saying he had allocated sail number 98 on Wednesday.]

[UPDATE 1800 Thu 12 Oct -- In Stockholm this afternoon, Victory Challenge announced that the team has been allocated sail number 96 for the new boat that is being built for the 32nd America’s Cup. SWE 96 has been designed by Mani Frers and his father, German Frers, and their team at the design office in Milan. The boat is being built at Lindholmen Science Park in Göteborg, under the management of Killian Bushe, boatbuilding manager for the winning boats in the two last Volvo Ocean Races.]


Yesterday the ACC Technical Director, Ken McAlpine, notified the teams that two new sail numbers had been issued -- 96 and 97. Last evening China Team and Desafío Español layed claim to, via posts on their websites, numbers 95 (issued last Friday) and 97 respectively.

The teams allocated nos. 94 and 96 have yet to publicly acknowledge them. As previously reported here on the CCB, the Technical Director only confirms that numbers been issued, not to whom.

Keen observers of the AC scene here in VLC still expect at least three more sail numbers to be allocated before the end of AC 32. This because there are five teams expected to build new boats which, so far, have not announced sail numbers: Alinghi, BMW ORACLE Racing, Luna Rossa, Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, and Victory Challenge. Presumably 94 and 96 belong to two of those five, hence three more numbers to come -- getting us to 100 -- unless of course one of the teams that was expected to build only one new boat will, in fact, build two (e.g., +39, China Team, Shosholoza, United Internet Team Germany or Victory Challenge). That would take us beyond 100 for this Cup.

In the meantime, this tidbit appeared in this morning's Scuttlebutt Europe email newsletter:

The first Class America ever built in China will carry the number 95. The building of the hull was completed in Dong Guan and validated by the technical director, Ken MacAlpine. CHN95 will be delivered directly to Valencia from Hong Kong and is expected to arrive mid-December. Chinese Numerology: the number 95 as interpreted by Leo, translator-interpretor of China Team:

"The number 5 represents the five essential elements: fire, wood, earth, gold and water. These are the founding elements because they enabled the Chinese Gods to create our world. When 9 is added to 5, it adds another, highly symbolic dimension. When you write nine and five in Chinese characters, it signifies 45, or the multiplication of the two figures. The number 45 is full of meaning and very important symbolically because it once represented the age a Chinese man could become king. There is of course a proverb that expresses this idea: "jiu wu zhi zun," which translates as "at 45 man reaches his peak, the height of his powers and his strengths!"

Editor [David McCreary]: Nonsense! I'm 51, The Curmudgeon [Tom Leweck, editor emeritus of Scuttlebutt USA] is in his late 70s, Olin Stephens is in his 90s, and The Fish [longtime AC journalist Bob Fisher] has to be nearly 200 by now....

Challengers in the News

[UPDATED 0830 Mon 09 Oct]

Currently there is an unusually large and welcome amount of news worldwide in the general press about Challengers and persons associated with our teams, including:

Tutu ensures Shosholoza enjoys hotline to Him

America's Cup challenge unites South Africans

China has long-term plans for America's Cup

New Zealand reveals latest America's Cup yacht

BMW ORACLE Racing's Carl Williams Wins Star Worlds with Hamish Pepper

Victory Challenge's Dave Perry Wins US Match Racing Championship



Nice ink, indeed.

Sail No. 95 Allocated

This morning ACC Technical Director Ken McAlpine (AUS) informed the teams via email that he has allocated sail number 95, meaning that yet another team has "officially" commenced construction of a new yacht. The Technical Director only reports numbers allocated, not to which team.

The AC Class Rule that governs the allocation of sail numbers:

35.6 A new sail number shal be allotted by the Technical Director...when construction of the yacht is commenced. Construction is deemed to commence upon lamination of the first skin of the hull. The first skin shall be the inner skin of a hull constructed on a male mold or, alternatively, the outer skin on a female mold. Where the hull is built in sections it shall be the first skin on any hull component exceeding 25% of the hull area....

What is auspicious about number 95? Of course it is the atomic number of americium, an actinide.

A Google search reveals -- and Alinghi may be particularly interested in this tidbit -- that a familiar use of americium is in household smoke detectors.

We note, too, that "Windows 95" was the infamous initial version of Microsoft's graphical user interface operating system introduced in 1995. That also was the year an ACC yacht, One Australia, broke and sunk in the deep Pacific Ocean waters off San Diego during a race in the Louis Vuitton Cup -- a dubious Cup first if ever there was one.

Since no. 94 was allocated on 15 September, to our knowledge no team has fessed up to obtaining it. Teams which have publicized that they have yachts under construction include China Team (CHN), Desafio Espanol (ESP) and Victory Challenge (SWE).

Click here for our CC Blog post on 15 Sep when no. 94 was issued, which summarizes the numbers issued to date and expectations for reaching at least no. 100 during AC 32.



A vidcap from the TV footage of One Australia sinking on Sunday 5 March 1995 during Round Robin 4 of the AC 29 Louis Vuitton Cup. More....

Milano: Day 3

By all accounts, today's session among team reps gathered in Milano to review AC 32 and exchange ideas on AC 33 was highly positive and productive. It was agreed by those assembled that no further comment was necessary or appropriate at this time.

Our thanks to CC chair Alessandra Pandarese (ITA, Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team) for doing the lion's share of the organization for our fruitful meetings in her hometown these past three days; to Bruno Finzi (ITA, Luna Rossa) for the hospitality afforded to team reps of Challengers and the Defender in his Milano home last evening; and to Hamish Ross (NZL, Alinghi) for his help in preparing today's forum.

A report on the Challenger Commission proceedings will be forthcoming shortly here on the CCB.



Good Apples: John Cutler (NZL, Desafio Espanol) and his wife Caroline connect after the meetings today, before dashing to the aiport for the flight back to VLC.



Dawn Riley (USA, AREVA Challenge), Luis Saenz (ESP, Luna Rossa), Commodore W. H. Dyer Jones (USA, Regatta Director) and Russell Green (NZL, BMW ORACLE Racing) compare notes at lunch after today's successful session. Belated best wishes to Dyer whose birthday, we are reminded this evening, is today.



+39 sponsor-partner Sergio Tacchini's store at Milano's Malpensa airport.



New ad for China Team sponsor-partner Lladro, seen today in the arrivals area at the Valencia Airport.

Milano Meetings: Day 2

After a long day yesterday of sub-committees immersed in a line-by-line review (30 pages!) of the latest draft of the all-important Notice of Race for next year's Louis Vuitton Cup, and reviewing the unsatisfactory AC television situation, today the full Challenger Commission is addressing a long agenda of sporting and commercial issues.

Representatives of ten of the eleven Challengers are present (Shosholoza sent their apologies). The proceedings are, as always, ably led by chair Alessandra Pandarese (ITA, Masclazone Latino Capitalia Team).

Issues under consideration in addition to the LVC NOR and television include:

+ Usual CC finance and administrative issues.

+ Appointment of additional Jury members.

+ Future possible agreements with the Defender and ACM to continue and to enhance marketing and promotional cooperation.

+ AC Village situation, and how ACM can improve its attractiveness.

+ Rules and procedure governing "Unveiling Day" on 1 April 2007, after when all ACC yachts must be and remain unskirted.

+ Starting times for racing in 2007 (Act 13, LVC and Match).

+ Anti-doping rules and procedures.

+ Recommendations from the Jury/Umpires on various rules interpretations and umpire "calls."

A full report on this week's CC proceedings will be posted here on the CC Blog later this week (yes, we promise!). Below are quick snaps of those joining our meetings since yesterday's photo (preceding post).



Wolf Dietz (GER, United Internet Team Germany).



Stefano Feltrin (ITA, +39 Challenge).



Bjorn Ohde (SWE, Victory Challenge) and Jean Charles
Scale (FRA, China Team).

Milano CC Meetings In Progress

Three days of Challenger Commission meetings got underway this morning in Milano, Italy. Sub-committees on Racing Rules and on Television are meeting today. The full CC meets all day tomorrow. On Wednesday, the CC meets as a forum with representatives of the Defender to trade ideas all around on the structure, format and timing of the next (33rd) America's Cup.



An obviously pensive sub-committee working on the Notice of Race for next year's Challenger Selection Series for the Louis Vuitton Cup, which begins 16 April 2007. From left: John Cutler (Desafio Espanol), Jim Farmer (Emirates Team New Zealand), George Clyde and Dawn Riley (AREVA Challenge), Regatta Director Dyer Jones, CC Chair Alessandra Pandarese (Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team), CC Assistant Michael ten Bokum, Bruno Finzi and Luis Saenz (Luna Rossa). Not pictured: Tom Ehman (BMW ORACLE Racing.)

Valencia Crónica #58

Issue #58 of Valencia Crónica is now available here. Editor Bridget Baker issues VC approximately every other week, and it is intended solely for AC 32 team members and their families. Accordingly, VC is passworded to protect the privacy of contributors' contact info. To obtain the password, or to be added to the email distribution list for Crónica, please write Bridget at valenciacronicaspain [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz. Over 500 families are now receiving VC by email.