15 America's Cup yachts training simultaneously in Valencia

As far as we remember this has taken place just a handful of times in Valencia and hardly ever during a "dead" period in the middle of October.

Despite being October 9, Valencia's most important holiday and with the city enjoying a three-day weekend, all teams with a racing yacht took advantage of the nice weather and trained this afternoon.

Our on-the-spot reporter and photographer, German journalist Heike Schwab, sent today's report from the Malvarosa beach, together with a couple of pictures. What was extraordinary on Monday was that one didn't have to wander in the seas off Valencia's coast to spy on the teams but sitting on the beach was enough. Actually, all photos were taken from the rooftop terrace of a sea-front apartment.

According to Heike, today's afternoon weather was characterized by a light breeze of around 8 knots, giving all teams present in Valencia the opportunity to train off the Malvarossa beach:

Luna Rossa: 2 boats (ITA-86 and ITA-74), as there is no rest for James Spithill and the rest of crew.

BMW Oracle: 2 boats (USA-87 and USA-76). It is worth mentioning that the Challenger of Record never puts a sailnumber on the yacht racing with USA-87.

Alinghi: 2 boats (SUI-64 and SUI-91), far away from the others to take any pictures.

Victory Challenge: 2 boats (SWE-63 and SWE-73). After announcing today the recruit of yet another sailor, the Swedish team are going ahead with their two-boat training program at full speed.

Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team: 2 boats (ITA-77 and ITA-90)

United Internet Team Germany - Areva Challenge: The German and French team were match racing against each other this afternoon, aboard GER-72 and FRA-60, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, the brand new German boat GER-89 is inside the team base undergoing modifications.

Desafio Español: 1 boat (ESP-88), although the Spanish America's Cup challenger usually use their two boats to train, when they are not racing other teams, such as BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa last week.

Team Shosholoza: 1 boat (RSA-83).

China Team: 1 boat (CHN-69). Monday was the first time since a couple of months the Chinese trained with their America's Cup yacht in Valencia.

+39 Challenge: The third Italian challenger were not training today, but the important news is that their brand new boat, ITA-85, being fitted out inside their base will be launched most probably before the end of this week.

BMW Oracle carrying internal match races with USA-87 and USA-76. Valencia, 9 October 2006. Photo copyright: Heike Schwab

Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team training with ITA-77 and ITA-90 while GER-72 goes back to Port America's Cup after a day of racing against Areva Challenge's FRA-60. Valencia, 9 October 2006. Photo copyright: Heike Schwab