Modified America's Cup yachts in Valencia

Taking advantage of the good weather in Valencia and probably the last opportunities to have the entire America's Cup fleet on parade in Port Americ'as Cup, we publish a couple of photos of the yachts that have been recently modified and had not shown earlier.

There is nothing new or extraordinary in the photos, they were simply long overdue and we had received quite a number of requests from our readers to publish the usual high resolution photos of these yachts being towed inside the canal.

Similar to yesterday, today as well almost all teams went out training, taking advantage of the last days of nice weather. Nevertheless, wind conditions are not excellent and the breeze seems to be switched on at around 2pm, giving teams 3 to 4 hours to train. The main difference with yesterday was Desafío Español, the Spanish America's Cup challenger, who took the mast off ESP-88, as seen on the photo here below.

The shore crew of Desafío Español taking the mast off ESP-88. Valencia, 10 October 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Luna Rossa

Luna Rossa, the Italian America's Cup challenger, two months ago finished modifying both their boats, ITA-74 and ITA-86. Most the changes are obviously hidden from the untrained eye but the substantially modified bow of ITA-86 is easy to identify when compared to the original one.

ITA-86 of Luna Rossa being towed out of Port America's Cup. Valencia, 10 October 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

ITA-86 of Luna Rossa being towed out of Port America's Cup. Valencia, 10 October 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

ITA-86 of Luna Rossa being towed out of Port America's Cup. Valencia, 10 October 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

The original hull of ITA-86 a few days after her official launch. Valencia, 20 April 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing