CC Meetings in Progresss

Working parties (sub-committees) on notices of race/rules, television and ACPI ("America's Cup Properties, Inc." -- trademarks and IP) met here in Valencia on Monday. Reports and recommendations from these groups are being presented to the full Challenger Commission today, which is meeting with a wide-ranging agenda that includes those topics plus finances, the rules governing the unveiling of yachts on 1 April, sail-handling amendments to the ACC rule, the umpire signaling system and security. A report on the main decisions and points of discussion will be posted ASAP after the meetings conclude tomorrow (Wednesday).



A light moment during Monday's Notice of Race working party meeting at the Holiday Inn Valencia after Katie Pettibone (USA, foreground right) of AREVA Challenge made a witty remark. To Katie's right are AREVA Challenge colleagues Dawn Riley (USA) and George Clyde (USA). Foreground left is Wolf Dietz (GER) of United Internet Team Germany.



Once again Louis Vuitton very kindly hosted the Challenger reps to a relaxing and enjoyable dinner at the Foredeck Club Monday evening. Here, LV's Christine Belanger (FRA, front and center) gathers with some of the late-stayers. CC Chair Alessandra Pandarese (ITA, red dress next to Christine) presented Christine with a framed poster of her "cover girl" appearance on a recent edition of BusinessF1 magazine. The January issue has a 48-page insert on the AC 32. Behind Christine is her longtime LV colleague, and former AC helmsman, Bruno Trouble (FRA). On Bruno's left is Commodore Dyer Jones (USA), AC 32 Regatta Director.



During today's CC meeting, a rather more serious-looking group around the table studying the paperwork projected on the screen. Foreground right is Bruno Finzi (ITA) of Luna Rossa.



Foreground, left is Chair Alessandra Pandarese (ITA) of Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, CC Assistant Michael ten Bokum (NED/ESP) and Stefano Feltrin (ITA) of +39.




Ross Blackman (NZL) of Emirates Team New Zealand.



Katie Pettibone (USA) of AREVA Challenge. One of the few female crew members in AC32, Katie is also (congrats!) a newly-minted lawyer recently admitted to the California Bar.



Michael Scheeren (GER) and Wolf Dietz (GER) of United Internet Team Germany.



Gillian Williams (NZL) of BMW ORACLE Racing.

Red Bull in the Emirates

Why post this photo? Your Ed. just likes the shot. Hopefully Hugo Stenbeck's Victory Challenge is keeping a close eye on Alinghi during "winter training" in Dubai. And maybe this is a backdrop we will see more of in future AC racing? Photo courtesy of Victory Challenge (SWE).

More Non-Stops to VLC

This good news for our European friends and fans, from today's Valencia Life email newsletter....

MORE FLIGHTS

Lufthansa and Swiss airlines announced yesterday that as from next March, they would be offering three direct flights a week to Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Geneva, to coincide with the start of the activities around the Americas Cup. The Spanish representatives of these two airlines, who gave a press conference in Valencia yesterday to outline the new flights, also started that apart from the Americas Cup, another of the main reasons for these flights was that economic and tourist increases that Valencia has recently been undertaking. Jose Luis Lopez of Swiss, one of the sponsors of the Alinghi syndicate also added that the continuation of these route after the Cup races had taken place would depend on the commercial success they had achieved, whilst Thomas Mittelbach of Lufthansa stated that the company ‘was very interested’ in offering more flights from Valencia. Mr. Mittelbach also stated that fares on the three flights a week that the company would be operating would be priced at 90 Euros return plus commission charges. These two new routes are on top of those that the company already flies between Valencia and Munich in collaboration with Spanair.

Revised CC Directory

The CC Directory was updated before Christmas and previously circulated by our CC Assistant, Michael ten Bokum.

Belatedly, it is now available here as well by clicking on "CC Directory" under "Kiosk" in the right-side margin here on the CC Blog. As always, it is passworded to protect the confidential contact information of CC reps and other AC officials.

A Short History of Sailing

Our friend and Alinghi "external affairs"colleague, Hamish Ross, has a favorite (American) author named Bill Bryson. This we know because he has commended Bryson's books to your Ed., who has now read a number of them, including the renowned "A Short History of Nearly Everything" -- a good read for anyone of any age.

While I do not recall Bryson mentioning sailing at any length, let alone the America's Cup, recently we did come across this snippet on the Australian Olympic Committee site which lends the Cup, and our passionate pursuit of it, a Brysonian perspective:

Sailing has been used as a means of transport since ancient times. As a pastime, sailing gained considerable popularity in Holland about 400 years ago. Shortly after the restoration of the monarchy in the United Kingdom in 1660, King Charles II introduced sailing as a sport. He had seen the Dutch love of sailing during his travels in exile in Europe. The first yacht club in the world was formed in Cork, Ireland in 1720. International yachting began in 1851 when the schooner America, from the New York Yacht Club, defeated fifteen British yachts in a race around the Isle of Wight in what became the first race of the America’s Cup series.

It is yet another reminder that the Cup is about challenging, that it was first won by the Challenger, that it was won by the Challenger the last time the Cup was raced for in Europe, and of the privilege of having even a small part in the current edition of the world's oldest international sporting trophy.

¡Viva los desafiantes!

Valencia Crónica #64

Issue #64 of Valencia Crónica is now available here. This is the first edition for 2007.

The usual fine print.... 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 password-protected to ensure 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.

Those of you with the password can access:

+ recent back issues, by clicking on the label "Cronica" at the bottom of this post; and

+ all back issues by searching on "Cronica" in the search box at the top of the Blog (and be sure the "Search CC Blog" button is selected).

Nice Ink: African Debutants

Nice article running on the Reuters wire this week and being picked up in papers and on websites around the world:


African debutants aim high in America's Cup Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:25 PM ET

By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Africa's first America's Cup hopefuls Team Shosholoza started out with the aim of winning a race or two.

Now, despite having the oldest boat in the challengers' series, the South African team have raised their sights and are determined to make this year's semi-finals.

"At the beginning of last year we were taking it as it came and hoping to win a few races but now we're in a position where to come fourth, to make the semi-finals, is something in our minds," said skipper Mark Sadler.

"It's going to be bloody hard and difficult to get that right but it is a possibility and that's where we're aiming.

"It started off as an adventure...but after winning a few races we are a fully fledged America's Cup team. We've achieved more than we expected to already and whatever more we take away is a bonus," Sadler said as the team prepared to travel to Valencia in Spain where the Louis Vuitton Cup -- the challengers' elimination series -- will be held.

The team hope to do justice to their name -- "Shosholoza" is a Zulu word which means to go forward -- when they tackle the last of the pre-qualifying rounds against the world's best sailing teams in April.

SUPERSTITIOUS SAILOR

Team Shosholoza have been focusing on the April competition since March 2004 when a group of relatively inexperienced club sailors were brought together by Italian sailor Salvatore Sarno, the managing director of a shipping company in South Africa.

"Everything is in the hands of the team. They have to work together, sail together as much as possible. The crew has to be synchronised just like a machine," said Sarno, a superstitious sailor who ensures the boat always has a red chili on board to ward off "evil spirits".

Sadler said major modifications to the boat were made in December to try to coax more speed from what will be the oldest boat in the competition.

"The boat's been upgraded and refitted so it's got some new gear. It's a slightly different shape. It's things that we've learned over the last year that we think will make the boat a little faster," he said.

Principal designer Jason Ker, speaking from Valencia, said the team decided not to build a second boat as most others had done, but rather to modify and improve the existing craft.

"We've made changes to the bow, stern and appendages to get more speed through the water," he said.

OCEAN FERRARIS

Speed is vital and milliseconds could open the door to a place on the winner's podium, with the top three teams -- Oracle, Prada and Team New Zealand -- considered to be the Ferraris of the open ocean race.

Just like Ferrari they were also beatable, suggested Sarno.

Full story on Reuters

98 Claimed, Leaving Only 100

UPDATE 0730 Thu 11 Jan -- Last evening Alinghi confirmed that, indeed, they have been allocated sail number 100.


Today BMW ORACLE Racing confirmed what many had come to suspect once Luna Rossa announced, some weeks ago, that they had been allocated sail number 94 -- that 98 is, indeed, the American team's second (and final) new sail number for AC 32.

That leaves only number 100 allocated but unclaimed. Most of our readers will have long since deduced that it likely belongs to the Defender and joins SUI-91 as the other Swiss sail number for this AC cycle.

And with there not being enough lead time now to start and reasonably finish a new ACC yacht, it can be safely assumed (as we long ago projected here on the CCB) that for AC 32 we will get to sail number 100, just. When you think about it, that is some major achievement for an expensive, high-tech class that has been around only since 1990.

Most would agree the ACC continues to serve the America's Cup well. Many believe, including your Ed., that racing in the forthcoming LVC and Match will likely be the best in the long and storied history of the America's Cup -- in large part to the maturity now of the Class Rule, and the wisdom of those who penned the current "Version 5".

So here is the latest, and probably our last (for this Cup) update on the status of new-for-AC 32 ACC yachts, to the best of your Ed.'s knowledge, and with appreciation to Pierre Orphanidis of Valencia Sailing for his always helpful input....


RSA 83 -- Shosholoza, launched early 2005.
NZL 84 -- Emirates Team NZ, launched late 2005.
ITA 85 -- Plus 39, launched Q4 of 2006, sailed briefly.
ITA 86 -- Luna Rossa, launched in Q2 of 2006, raced in Acts 10-12, already been extensively modified and sailing again.
USA 87 -- BMW ORACLE Racing, launched in Q2 of 2006, raced in Acts 10-12.
ESP 88 -- Desafio Espanol, launched in Q2 of 2006, raced in Act 12.
GER 89 -- United Internet Team Germany, launched at Kiel in Q2 of 2006, now sailing in Valencia.
ITA 90 -- Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, launched in Q2 and sailing in VLC.
SUI 91 -- Alinghi, launched in Q2 and sailed (not raced) in VLC; now sailing in Dubai with 64. 75 remained in VLC.
NZL 92 -- Emirates Team New Zealand, launched (Auckland) in Q4 of 2006, sailing now in NZL; said to be arriving VLC by plane from AKL in late February.
FRA 93 -- Areva Challenge, arrived at their base in VLC in late November and has been sailing in VLC since early December.
ITA 94 -- Luna Rossa's second boat was shipped from Italy to their base in VLC just before Christmas, where it is being fitted out for sailing in January.
CHN 95 -- China Team, was shipped from China to VLC in December, where it is now being fitted out for sailing in February.
SWE 96 -- allocated on 10 October to Victory Challenge; was unveiled in Sweden last week. Victory announced this afternoon that 96 is now en route (by ship and truck) to VLC. Following fitting out she should be ready to sail when the team returns from Dubai. Speaking of which, last week the team began training in Dubai alongside Alinghi with their AC 31 boats SWE 63 and SWE 73.
ESP 97 -- also allocated on 10 October, to Desafio Espanol; yacht in the final finishing out phase and expected to be sailing in VLC shortly.
USA 98 -- allocated on 13 October; built in Anacortes, Washington and shipped (by ship) over the year-end holidays to New Zealand where it arrived at BMW ORACLE's temporary "winter training" base this morning. 98 will tune against USA 71 in Auckland for an undisclosed number of weeks before being shipped (flown?) to VLC.
ITA 99 -- Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, construction well along in Italy; to be launched in VLC in Q1 of 2007.
100 -- allocated on 27 November; as yet unclaimed. There can be little doubt that it belongs to Alinghi, who say they have a yacht under construction in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been rumoured that the deck is actually being constructed in Valencia at Alinghi's original, temporary base at the RCNV. Expected to be sailing in VLC in March.



Il Moro di Venezia I -- ITA 1 -- sailing in San Francisco Bay in 2003. The first of nearly 100 ACC yachts to be built (no. 13 was skipped and one or two others were allocated sail numbers but not completed), she was launched in Venice on 11 March 1990.



ITA 1 sailing upwind in SF Bay in 2003. Compared to today's increasingly narrow ACC yachts, do the words "aircraft carrier" come to mind?



The latest ACC yacht to be launched, AREVA Challenge's FRA 93, sailing upwind in Valencia during December. Photo: Frank Socha/AREVA Challenge.

Countdown to the Cup II

To help put this new for AC 32, compressed racing schedule into perspective, three months from today Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13 will be ending. Only four months from today, the Round Robin phase of the Louis Vuitton Cup will be over.

So there is only a month between the end of Act 13 and the end of the Rounds Robin.

More importantly, only four months from today seven of the eleven Challengers are, as the NYYC used to say to their unsuccessful defense candidates, "excused from further participation".

ORIGIN Announcement

From the new ORIGIN team website....

Sir Keith Mills launches ground-breaking British bid for the oldest trophy in international sport

Sir Keith Mills, the British businessman who ran London’s victorious bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, today announced he is to create a new British America’s Cup sailing team. The team, to be named ORIGIN, will comprise some of the world’s leading sailors and boat designers from the UK and beyond with the aim of winning the America’s Cup and bringing the world’s longest running sporting event back to British shores for the first time since its inception over 150 years ago.

At today’s announcement at the Design Museum in London, Sir Keith Mills revealed that ORIGIN will participate in at least two America’s Cup campaigns, likely to take place in 2009 and 2011 respectively. ORIGIN’s crew members, boat designers and management teams will be recruited over the next six months, and will be announced following the completion of the current 32nd America’s Cup event taking place in Valencia from 23rd June to 7th July 2007.

Full story

GBR Originates a Challenge

In a few minutes' time up in London, the ORIGIN Challenge for AC 33 representing the United Kingdom of Great Britian will be announced.

We have it on good authority that those pictured below, most of whom are well known in British sailing circles if not to most of us currently involved in the America's Cup, are the key people in this very welcome addition to the Cup community.



From left, Leslie Ryan (communications), RYA Chief Executive Rod Carr (advisor), 2012 London Olympic Bid head Sir Keith Mills (team principal), former Alinghi marketeer Nick Masson (commercial), and Andy Green (sailing logistics).

London AC Press Conference Tomorrow

This afternoon the following media alert was received by various media outlets, general and specialist (sailing):


MEDIA ALERT

***Major British Sporting Announcement***

What: Announcement of a new British America’s Cup Team

Who: Key figures from the British sports industry, including Rod Carr, Chief Executive of the RYA, and the Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport

When: 11.00am Thursday 4th January 2007

Where: Design Museum, Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD (directions attached)

You may find our 20 November post here on the CCB is relevant.

Act 13 and LVC Notices of Race

As previously reported, on New Year's Eve AC 32 Regatta Director Dyer Jones published the Notices of Race for Act 13 and for the Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selection Series). Both are now available to download as Adobe .pdf documents here:

Act 13

Louis Vuitton Cup

We are receiving many requests for a simple summary of the 2007 racing program, to wit:

Act 13 -- Tuesday through Friday 3-6 April, Act 13 is the final AC 32 "pre-regatta," and the last time the Challengers and Defender will race together until the AC 32 Match in June. Fleet racing, seven races scheduled over the four days, nominally two races per day except the final day, with one Reserve Day (7 April) in case all seven races have not been completed by 6 April. For Challenger Ranking points under the Valencia Plan, Act 13 is a "times three" regatta (2006 Acts were "times two" and 2005 "times one"), meaning the top Act 13 Challenger will score 11 x 3 or 33 Challenger Ranking Points, the second Challenger 10 x 3 or 30 points, and so on. The current Challenger Ranking Points leaderboard is here.

(In accordance with the Valencia Plan, at the end of Act 13 the Challenger with the most Challenger Ranking Points is given four bonus points to carry into the Rounds Robin, and the remaining Challengers are broken into three groups with three, two and one bonus point(s) each. Results from the Acts can also figure into tie breaking during the LVC rounds robin phase.)

LVC -- The Round Robin phase begins Monday 16 April (though there is continuing discussion about some Challengers racing their first matches on Sunday 15 April for promotional purposes -- this will be resolved at the CC meeting at the end of January). There will be two full Rounds Robin. RR1 is two races per day; RR2, one race per day. During each RR a Challenger races each of the other ten Challengers once, meaning 10 races per RR for a total of 20 races over the two RRs. Two points for each RR win. Therefore, a maximum of 40 points possible if you win all 20 of your RR races, and a maximum of 44 points total if you are the lead Challenger and carry four bonus points into the RRs.

(The reason each win in the RRs scores two points, instead of one point, is so the max Valencia Plan bonus points would only be about 10% -- 9.09% to be more precise -- of the total possible points in the LVC Rounds Robin. Had we used one point per win, we would have needed to use partial bonus points, and that would have been confusing for the media and fans to say nothing of the rest of us.)

On or about 6 May, RR2 will be over. The four Challengers with the top scores advance to the Semis. The other seven are "excused from further participation" as NYYC used to say. First place among the four gets to choose which of the other three it will race in its Semi.

The Semis begin 14 May and are head-to-head (knock out) series, first-to-win-five races. Winners advance to the Finals; losers go home.

The Finals begin 1 June, again first-to-win-five races. Winner goes to the AC 32 Match; loser goes home.

AC 32 Match -- The Match begins Saturday 23 June and is also first-to-win five. It should all be over, except possibly the shouting/celebrating, by the 4th of July.

Countdown to the Cup

Just three months from today, on 1 April 2007, all Challengers and the Defender are required to "unveil" and thereafter may no longer use "skirts" or "shrouds" to hide the underbodies of their ACC yachts.

Australia II, during the 1983 Cup at Newport, was the first yacht to skirt (at least in the modern era). Following the 1992 Cup in San Diego, rules were established to require the two AC finalists to unveil prior to the Match. This proved popular and the unveiling date was moved earlier in Auckland for the 2000 and 2003 Cups, to just before the start of the LVC finals. For AC 32, the Defender and Challenger of Record agreed in the Protocol to move the unveiling date even earlier, to just before the start of Act 13. This we think will be a popular move with the sponsors, media and fans, to say nothing of the sailors who are not fond of grappling with the wet, often slimy skirts at the start and end of each day's sailing. (There is a sequence of photos showing what a pain this is over on the BMW ORACLE Racing blog.)

The framework of the unveiling procedure for Sunday 1 April (which, coincidentally, is April Fools' Day in the USA among other places) has been agreed by ACM, the Challenger Commission and the Defender along the following lines, which we are in the process of formalizing into a proper tri-party agreement:


KEY DATES

Sat 31 Mar 07 -- Declaration Day.

Sun 1 Apr -- Unveiling Day.

Mon 2 Apr -- Act 13 "No Change Period" begins 24 hours before the first race.

Tue 3 Apr -- Act 13 Races 1 & 2, as previously published.


UNVEILING DAY SCHEDULE

The approximate Sun 1 Apr schedule:

0900-0930: ACM kick-off event of some sort; may be as simple as a cannon at 0930 signalling the start of the "no skirting period."

From 0930: Skirting no longer permitted through the end of AC 32; and each team's one or two declared yachts must be available for viewing as follows....

0930-1130: The forecourt of each team base shall be open to ACM accredited media and other media invited by that team, and to bona fide members of other teams. The one or two declared yachts of each team shall be on display in the forecourt with a full set of appendages, mast/boom optional, with 360 degree viewing (unless the Regatta Director decides that space at a team's base does not permit, in which case with at least 180 degree viewing from bow-on to stern-on of each yacht), and from a distance of no further than three metres back from the sheerline verticals ("drip lines"). Normal still and video cameras permitted without restriction; no banners, personnel or otherwise may be used by a team to obstruct a clear view of the hulls and appendages. Yachts may be hung from travel lifts or placed in cradles. Teams are requested not to have any formal presentations or ceremonies involving the boat during this time in deference to the media and other team members being able to freely visit the other 11 teams without time pressure or schedules to keep (however, refreshments, interviews, etc., are of course permitted). For the avoidance of doubt, yachts must be and remain unveiled/unskirted from 0930. Teams, of course, may do their own private unveiling or other ceremonies, with or without media, at any time or on any day prior to or after this two-hour period on 1 April, though teams that do media work the day before involving an unveiling are asked to embargo the photos until after the 0930-1130 session Sun morning.

1130-1400: The forecourts of each team base shall be open to the general public, and continue open to other teams and media. Teams may reasonably limit, for safety purposes, the total number of persons in their forecourts at any one time, with viewing continuing on the same basis as during the 0930-1130 period.

Beginning at 1330: Teams may also make ready and launch their boats in preparation for afternoon sailing.

After 1400: Teams may do as they wish -- extend the public viewing period, close their base and prepare to go sailing, close their base and leave for the day, close their base to prepare for private and/or other team functions, etc. For the avoidance of doubt, teams may not dock-out for afternoon sailing until 1400.

Later that afternoon: ACM plans to invite all the teams to an informal reception at the Foredeck Club.


OTHER PROVISIONS

Protocol 16.1 requires that yachts still under construction must be declared though they are not required to be unveiled until later. Some definition needs to be agreed on as to when a yacht is still under construction, with enforcement as and if necessary by the Regatta Director with the advice of the Measurement Committee, so that teams do not attempt to avoid unveiling under the guise of still being "under construction." Declared yachts in VLC must be unveiled.

Yachts "under repair" must be unveiled except in extraordinary circumstances akin to major re-construction, and only with the prior approval of the Regatta Director with the advice of the Measurement Committee.

ACM (and teams for that matter) may use boats to tour media and other special guests through the Port America's Cup during the period 0930-1330; accordingly, teams shall not obstruct the normal waterside view of their bases and declared yachts that are on display.

Teams shall cooperate with each other to allow members of other teams to arrive by chase boat during the 0930-1130 viewing period.

Failure to comply with this procedure may result in a protest by a team or the Regatta Director, with the jury having available the usual full range of penalties including ordering a team to do another, proper unveiling on another day.

We will address media rights to this Unveiling Day, and it is intended to allow film and photos to be used for promotional use by all teams, but (as always) not by their sponsors without prior approval of the depicted team. ACM will of course have usual full media rights, but (like teams) not have sponsor use of individual team images without approval.

Each team will have a sign near each yacht (not affixed to or obscuring the yacht) identifying its sail number, and optionally with information about designers, builders, date of launch, etc.



Australia II started it with her infamous green
"modesty skirt" at Newport during the 1983 Cup.

Challenging Crossword Puzzle

In case you have too much time on your hands during this holiday break (as obviously your Ed. does), we are proud to unveil the CCB's first-ever, interactive Crossword Puzzle. It's entitled, simply, "Challenging." Click here.

We will publish the name of the first person to send us a screen-capture of the puzzle completed correctly, and we have a suitable prize for you.

Come on, give it a try. Should not be that difficult for anyone who is a keen observer of the passing AC scene. I can hear Hamish Ross clicking away even now. ;)

The 2007 Challenge

Nice graphic today on the popular CupInfo site, which pretty well lays out what's ahead for the Challengers in '07. Courtesy of CupInfo's "Editor Bob."