Örn (SWE63) arrives in Valencia

The first boat of the Swedish syndicate Victory Challenge arrived in Valencia's Darsena yesterday afternoon. Örn, as she's called, has now reached her new home at the team's base in the Darsena, together with the masts.

She will be prepared by the base team during the following days and it is expected to put her into the water on Friday or Saturday.

Unfortunately, Valencia Sailing was not able to be present but thanks to the friendly collaboration of the team's press officer, Bert Willborg, we have the opportunity to view excellent photos from yet another yacht arrival in the Darsena.

Enjoy the photos and stay tuned for more coverage of the activities in the world's sailing capital

Like all other boats that arrived in Valencia, SWE63 came atop a heavy-duty truck. The Darsena will get extremely busy during the next two weeks as more boats are expected to arrive

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

A very close picture of the boat's bow and the logo of the Swedish syndicate.

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

One of the two masts of the boat on its truck

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

SWE63 has now been lifted

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

Örn (SWE63) is about to touch the Valencian ground. The shore crew will now take over and prepare her for launch on Friday, or Saturday

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

One of the masts is being placed in its position at the team's base

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

A front view of the Victory challenge base in Valencia's port, seen from above.

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

Today's final picture, a very nice view of the boat. The first of the Swedish syndicate's two yachts is now at her new home in Valencia, promising exciting sailing in just two weeks.

Photo provided by Victory Challenge

Bird's eye view update

There has been a very important update in the hotel section of our unique offer of satellite views from Valencia. Just click on the "Hotels" link in the right-hand column and you will be able to check 25 hotels in and around Valencia.

Remember that by using the links provided by Valencia Sailing in conjuction with the Keyhole program (www.keyhole.com) you will be able to see the EXACT location of each hotel. Not just an approximate simplified map of the area, but the actual view of the building of the hotel. Using the program you can then zoom in or zoom out, assess the hotel's location in relation to the rest of the Valencia area, its swimming pool or its proximity to the town center or the Darsena. All links are dynamic, meaning that each time the satellite database is updated so will the view of the hotel (or any other site).

With only two weeks left till the regattas you can see your hotel as if you were in Valencia. Obviously, we cannot list ALL hotels of the area, but instead chose the majority of 3-star to 5-star hotels. If you think we missed the one where you will be staying, just email us and we will add it to the list.

We have also updated the view of Valencia's beaches, marinas as well as its golf courses. We are in the process of updating the views of sites of general tourist interest.

Disclaimer: Hotels, marinas and golf courses are presented in a strictly alphabetical order. No claim whatsoever is made about their quality, price, availability or suitability for any particular purpose. Valencia Sailing is not an online travel agency and shall not be held responsible for any problems arising from the use of these establishments. All lists are for information purposes only.

Quick update

We post a quick update on all the action going on in Valencia. As far as construction is concerned, the only clearly visible change has been the rapid coverage of the BMWOracle base. The American syndicate did not follow its Italian and South African neighbors and chose a clearly different color for its base, setting for a much darker shade of grey.

On the southern side of the Darsena, the great novelty has been the arrival of the Swedish syndicate that chose to set its temporary base in a white tent.

The piers in front of the bases have been cemented and look definitely more like a venue for the world's most prestigious race than a construction site. Nevertheless, time is flying, as we only have two weeks left till the next regattas.

A partial view of the south bases. The Spanish armada is at shore. There has been a change this weekend, the white tent between the Desafio and K-Challenge bases. The Swedish Victory Challenge has already set up its temporary base

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The superyacht pier has now reached its final width, while the construction team is working round the clock to build the provisional Foredeck club for the June regattas.

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The Shosholoza (left) and +39 (right) bases. If all goes according to plan, the Shosholoza team plans to sail with RSA83 for the first time ever, today Sunday 29 May.

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The impressive BMWOracle base is being covered at a rapid pace.

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Final picture for today, the back side of the BMWOracle base

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Trapani

We continue with the second article on the cities that will have the honor to be at the center of attention of the worldwide sailing community in 2005.

Today's city is Trapani, located on the westernmost coast of Sicily and capital of the province of the same name. We have found a quite complete site with both sailing and tourist information, called Trapani 2005. Unfortunately, it is only in Italian and we ignore whether it's an official website or a private iniative.

The Region of Sicily has a tourist info website located here, in Italian, English, French and German. The province of Trapani has its own tourist info website here, but it is only in Italian. Both sites offer a wide range of services, such as getting there, moving around, what to see, where to stay. Unfortunately, visitors of the sites not fluent in Italian will probably be disadvantaged.

The Provincial tourist website has a very beautiful panoramic photo of the city of Trapani with the Egadi islands on the background, here (we always believe that a picture is worth a thousand words). This also corresponds more or less to the actual racing area.

You can of course "fly" to the city of Trapani and the surrounding area, using Keyhole and our link, located here. Unfortunately, satellite photos are of lesser quality than the ones for Valencia and Malmö, but they are enough to get an idea of the area.

In our opinion, a visit to Trapani is not worth without a visit to the Egadi islands, especially Marettimo. The latter is probably one of the last unspoiled "paradises" left in Europe. If the weather is nice, as it should be in late September, you must absolutely visit and swim in the magnificent caves!! If in addition, you have the possibility to own or charter a yacht, you have no excuse to miss such a great chance.

Historic agreement?

There is a new post on the Challenger Commission blogsite that caught our attention today. It says that an agreement has been reached on the Challenger Selection Series format (Valencia Plan VI(c)).

We will skip all the procedural details and focus on the part qualifying the aforementioned agreement as "historic". It then goes on stating that it will be formally announced next Tuesday, May 31st.

We can't wait till the press conference in a few days in order to discover all the details of this "historic" agreement.

You can read the complete press statement here.

Malmö

Since this northern European city will also be in the center of interest of the world's sailing community, we might as well provide a very brief background and great views from the observing satellite.

The city of Malmö has a complete multilingual website at www.malmo.se while the region of Skåne, whose capital is Malmö, has an equally good one at www.skane.com. Both websites have separate sections dedicated to the upcoming Louis Vuitton Acts, the most complete being Skåne's at www.skane.com/sailingregion. One can find all information required in these two excellent websites.

For an excellent high-resolution satellite coverage of the Malmö harbor you can donwload the Keyhole placement file, called "Malmo Harbor", here. The camera has been set right over the venue of the events at an altitude of 1,000 meters. The photo was taken last year and although the latest changes will not appear, one gets an extremely precise feel of the area. You can of course zoom out and navigate over the city or to the Race Area.

In the Challenger Commission website you can find the coordinates of the Race Area here and trace them on the satellite photo. It extends all the way north to the Swedish town of Landskrona and to the south to the Salthoml island (Denmark) and almost Copenhagen!!! In fact it is split by the Swedish-Danish border, but fortunately sailors will not have to carry their passports each time they cross the borders.

Tomorrow or on Saturday we will give all related information concerning Trapani, but unfortunately, the satellite photos of the western tip of Sicily are not of the same high resolution. Stay tuned.

Bird's eye view (Part II)

Valencia Sailing is not the only institution taking detailed pictures of Valencia and its surroundings. The American observation satellite EarthSat is also scanning the globe, providing some extraordinary footage of our planet. Obtaining such photos was only for the privileged few until Keyhole and Google made it possible to access these detailed photos with just a computer, an internet connection and a small program.

Offering its readers another world exclusive, Valencia Sailing now provides access to these spectacular snapshots of the world's sailing capital, Valencia, using Keyhole. We have set up a collection of important sites in and around Valencia, in various categories.

All you have to do is go to Keyhole's website (www.keyhole.com), download the program Keyhole 2LT and install it. You can have a 7-day free trial or buy one year's subscription at US$29.95. Believe us, these could be the best-spent 30 dollars for the next 2 years. You have the ability to zoom in on an area with a spectacular resolution, up to the point of recognizing the cars on the roads.

Once you have installed the program and opened it, you can literally fly to all locations using the links from the new section on the right-hand bar called "Valencia Satellite Views". Let's say you want to see where the Malvarossa beach is and what it looks like. Go to the "Beaches" section and save the link "Playa Malvarossa" on your disk. You can then open it through Keyhole and fly to Malvarossa beach at an altitude of 1,000 meters. Of course, you are then free to zoom in, looking for your cousin swiming there, or zoom out and locate the beach relative to the rest of the city.

Are you an avid golf player? Save the "Golf El Saler" link and see the course exactly as it is. You can verify that if you hit the ball hard you may reach the yachts training at El Saler.

Will you be staying at the "Neptuno" hotel? Save its coresponding file and see whether it is as close to the Darsena as you have been told.

We will be constantly adding locations in and around Valencia. If you are interested in a particular site just email us and we'll put the corresponding link.

Note: All pictures of Valencia's area were taken a year ago and as a result you will not be able to see the latest changes. Nevertheless, all Keyhole links are dynamic, meaning that when the satellite passes again over Valencia (or any other place on earth) and the image database is updated, you will be able to access the latest snapshot. This undoubtedly is much preferable to a static picture on our website.

Bird's eye view

I took some quick pictures this midday from Valencia's most privileged location. This time with a much better camera the results have substantially improved.

I also coincided with two teams training close to the harbor and the Malvarossa beach, Desafío Español 2007 and LunnaRossa. I myself was surprised to see how close they were and how easily they could be seen from the balcony. This holds also true from the beach.

In three weeks time you'll be able to enjoy the best pictures available not only from the Darsena but also in actual racing action. Stay tuned.

An overall view of Valencia's interior harbor. In just three weeks Valencia Sailing will give you the best footage ever of all the activity. As our technical resources improve you'll be able to enjoy better pictures

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A front view of the Shosholoza (left) and +39 (right) base. The shore team of the South African syndicate is working round the clock to have their new boat ready for sailing

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A front view of the immense BMWOracle base. The most obvious change today is that it is being covered. I suppose the biggest of the bases will be ready by the end of the year and teams will make partial use of them at different stages

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A closer view of the Desafío Español 2007 base. This boat is ESP51. The Spanish team's two new boats, ESP65 and ESP67, were actually at sea the moment of the photo

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A closeup of the superyacht pier. The construction of the foredeck club will shortly begin. Notice in the back the white bridge. Each day around 2pm it comes down in order to allow the passage of trains

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

This is the outer part of the south pier. The small building under construction behind the passing truck is the "House of the Cup"

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A view of the south bases. All three buildings are advancing rapidly, the whole area has been cemented while the foundation of the future Emirates Team NZ is complete. The Spanish team has ESP51 in front of its base while ESP65 and ESP67 are out in the sea

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Where else can you sit on a balcony and watch two America's Cup teams training? In this particular case we have LunaRossa and the Desafío Español 2007. I just have one thing to add: Come to Valencia next month!!

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The same LunaRossa boats that could be seen from the balcony can also very well be seen from Malvarossa, Valencia's main beach. The gentleman enjoying his afternoon has one of the most privileged spots in world sports.

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Last picture for today, one of LunaRossa's boats as seen from the beach. Just imagine that in three weeks one will be able to sunbathe in Valencia's beach and watch 12 America's Cup yachts racing. Who could ask for anything more?

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

ESP67 sailing in Valencia

The second of the new boats of the Desafío Español 2007 has now been successfully sailing in Valencian waters. The Spanish syndicate is making the final adjustments on ESP67 and plans to start using it for training during the next week.

While the technical team was sailing and working on ESP67, the sailing team was training hard with ESP65. Enjoy the photo of the two boats side by side, courtesy of the Spanish challenger.

ESP65 and ESP 67 sailing side by side in Valencia

Photo provided by Desafío Español 2007

Official launch of RSA83 in Valencia

Thirsday was an exceptional day in Valencia. Under the blue sunny sky and with warm spring temperatures, the South African syndicate presented the world's first all-new version 5 ACC yacht.

According to team Shosholoza, RSA83 has a deeper keel, larger sail surface area and less weight, making all the difference to boats that competed in the last America’s Cup, in 2003. The new RSA 83 boat is 26 metres long, 4.5 metres wide and weighs 24 tons, while the mast’s height is 35 metres.

According to Captain Sarno, Managing Director of the first ever America's Cup team from the African continent, two persons played a key role in this very important achievement. Jason Ker, the chief designer, and Tony Evans, the build manager.

We would like to focus on some other important details given by Captain Sarno during his press conference. The total budget of the syndicate is 25 million euros, while the cost of construction of RSA83 reached 1.5 million euros. It was Captain Sarno's personal decision to go ahead with a totally new construction despite the substantially lower cost of converting the old boat, calculated at nearly 800 thousand euros. It is expected that within a week, Shosholoza's sailors will start training with the brand new boat.

Concerning the future boat for the South Afican team, RSA96, it is already being designed, aided by the alliance with T-Systems, the IT systems branch of the Deutsche Telekom group. Shosholoza can already take advantage of the German group's supercomputer power and will shortly have dedicated computers for all its design needs in its Valencia base. According to Captain Sarno, the actual construction of the boat will begin in March 2006 and is expected to end around November 2006.

Given his Italian origins, Captain Sarno should be better called Leonardo da Vinci, as almost all aspects of the South African syndicate are fruits of the Italian captain's passion. The name, the design, the management, the logo, even the translation of the Shosholoza song into Spanish all stem from Sarno's ideas.

Enjoy the photos of another Valencia Sailing exclusive.

The Shosholoza base with RSA83 in preparation for the official launch

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

This is it. RSA83, the first all-new version 5 yacht, being prepared for her official launch in Valencia

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Final preparations before the launch

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

An impressive view from behind

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

From the opposite angle

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

An overall view from the back

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A closeup from the back

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The boat starts now her final trip on the travelift

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Slowly backing up

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The travelift has now reached its final position and will start lowering the boat

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The RSA83 seconds before the travelift lowers her in Valencian waters

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The world's first all-new version 5 America's Cup Class yacht is immersed for the first time ever.

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A couple of feet left before reaching her final position

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A view from the back of the boat, after it reached its final position for the christening

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A detail of the grinders

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Final adjustments before the official launch

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

From left to right, Francisco Camps (president of the Valencian Region), Captain Sarno and Rita Barbera (mayoress of Valencia)

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

RSA83 ready, in her final position

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

RSA83 awaiting her christening

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Rita Barbera, mayoress of Valencia, about to break the bottle

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The boat has now been officially launched and Captain Sarno pours the champaign

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Spectacular fireworks followed the christening of RSA83

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

A nice detail of the boat

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

The boat's impressive mast

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

Proudly South African

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing

RSA83 up close

Photo taken by Valencia Sailing