New CC Dox Password

Due to recent changes in Challenger personnel, the username and password to access protected CC documents here on the CCB has this morning been changed. The former username ("beat") and password ("alinghi") have been replaced.

CC Assistant Michael ten Bokum has been asked to email the new username and password to all Challenge Reps and Alts. Reminder that, as usual, they are case sensitive.

Happy Easter! (And, LOL, that's not the password.)

Incognito?

You never know who -- or what -- you might see in the Porto Pasta restaurant under Tinglado 2 just south of the Luna Rossa Base in the Port America's Cup. Porto Pasta has become the "in" luncheon spot for many involved with Cup teams and ACM.

The masked man was not travelling incognito, nor had he just returned from spying on Alinghi in Dubai. He did, however, have touch of the flu when this snap was taken as he bicycled by Porto Pasta at lunchtime last week.



Recognize this colorful and popular newcomer to the America's Cup scene? Hint: an Olympic medalist (Sydney, 2000), he is the sailing director of a Challenger.



After some gentle ribbing about his pink scarf ("It's my wife's, mate, and the only scarf in our apartment"), Luca Devoti (ITA, +39) was unveiled by another popular AC newcomer, Lars Boecking (GER), marketing director for Shosholoza.

P.S. There is a nice photo essay about +39's new ACC yacht, ITA-85, on the Valencia Sailing website.

Carrot Fibre Yachts?

According to recent press reports, scientists in Scotland have developed a revolutionary new material called CurranTM, made from microscopic fibres extracted from carrots. Similar to carbon fibre, it is lighter, stronger and can be moulded into almost any shape when it is combined with special resins.

Maybe this latest tech development is why the British have decided to Challenge for the next America's Cup? We are checking with Andy Green (GBR), but in the meantime....

Your Ed. has been copied on an email to ACC Technical Director Ken McAlpine asking if this new exotic fibre would be legal under Version 5 of the Class Rule. The email was from a senior (at least in terms of age if not also stature) member of the Challenger Commission, who wishes to remain anonymous so as not to embarrass his/her team give away any of his/her team's potential design developments.

Mr. McAlpine's terse reply said that he would take it up with the Measurement Committee. He did add that perhaps aging members of the Challenger Commission, including your Ed., should eat more carrots for the sake of their eyesight and lower tracts.

These carrot fibre press reports have also brought renewed attention to other low tech health benefits of this potentially high tech vegetable. Indeed, one hears ACM is considering opening up yet another restaurant in the Port America's Cup -- this one to specialize in dishes using Valencia's second-leading (only to oranges) agri-produce, arroz, which can be combined with the orange legume to make carrot-fibre treats.

Maybe this fibrous development will bring Andrew "Carrot Top" Johns (NZL, legal advisor to the 1988 Big Boat Challenge, and now a successful vegetable farmer) out of his AC retirement.

One thing seems certain -- America's Cup teams from countries with a rich agricultural industry will be rooting for this new material.

Behind the Scenes

Just to say the Challengers really do appreciate the team doing the heavy lifting behind the AC 32 scenes. "The ghost who walks will never die."

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

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.

Feliz "Dia de los Santos Inocentes"

Today is the "Day of the Innocent Saints" here in Spain and many Ibero-American countries.

The origin of the holiday is historical and deeply religious (Christian), the celebration of which dates to around AD 485.

These days 28 December in Spain is roughly equivalent to April Fools' Day in the USA -- a day for pranks. Prank victims are called inocentes, or alternatively, the pranksters are the innocents and the victims should not be angry at them, since they could not have committed any "sin." In some cultures it is said to be an unlucky day and no new project should be started.

It would appear the editor of one esteemed AC site was not taken in by what would otherwise appear to be an Alinghi prank. See Pierre's post this afternoon speculating that the image on Alinghi's website of a partially unveiled and new-looking ACC yacht is not a photo of their second new ACC yacht now under construction in Switzerland.

Indeed, one hears that Alinghi's new deck may be under construction here in Valencia at the RCNV.

So if you are in Spain enjoy yet another holiday (no doubt accompanied by fireworks tonight), and Feliz Dia de los Santos Inocentes.

I Spy With My Own Eye...

Alinghi's SUI 64 and SUI 91 trialing off Dubai, in a photo we found on their website today. Notice anything interesting? Photo by Th. Martinez/Alinghi.