SWE-63 and SWE-73 at Victory Challenge's temporary base in Dubai

[Source: Victory Challenge] Just outside is the Palm Jumeirah, one of the most spectacular islands ever created by man. Opposite are a number of skyscrapers and even more are under construction. This is where Örn (SWE 63) and Orm (SWE 73) have arrived for Victory Challenge’s winter training in Dubai.

“It is looking good, but we’ve got a tough schedule in order to get the boats ready to sail,” says Sam Murch, Victory Challenge’s shore manager, who has arrived just as the keels and masts are to be put back on the boats after their transport on the two Antonov planes.

The temporary base of Victory Challenge. Dubai, 17 December 2006. Photo copyright David Renkwitz / Victory Challenge

Sam Murch will only have three days in the United Arab Emirates before he flies to Göteborg and Lindholmen Science Park, where boatbuilding manager Killian Bushe and more than 25 boat builders are in the final phase of SWE 96, the boat that Victory Challenge is building for next year’s challengers’ series, the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Site manager for operations in Dubai is the America’s Cup veteran, Scott McAllister. He has been in the United Arab Emirates a while, to establish Victory Challenge’s temporary base with a sail loft, office, meeting room etc.

“We have water and electricity, can shower and go to the toilet, and soon we will have the Internet too. With boats, masts and the tender boat in place we are beginning to get ready for the winter training,” says the Australian who was part of the historic victory in 1983, when the Royal Perth Yacht Club and Australia II took the world’s most prestigious sailing trophy, the America’s Cup, from the New York Yacht Club who had then held it for 132 years.

Scott McAllister, Sam Murch and a number of the sailing and shore team members are in Dubai where it is 23-24 degrees Celsius and they have been able to return to the clothes they are used to wearing during most of the year in Valencia (but not the last few weeks): shorts and t-shirts.

The temporary base of Victory Challenge. Dubai, 17 December 2006. Photo copyright David Renkwitz / Victory Challenge

For Victory Challenge, the winter training in Dubai is an important part of the preparations for the decisive phase of the 32nd America’s Cup. Or, as Magnus Holmberg, skipper and helmsman, expressed it when announcing the Dubai operation: “We have been given a unique opportunity to site our winter training there. Bearing in mind that the sailing conditions in Dubai are equivalent to Valencia in April and May, we calculate on having considerably more high quality training days on the water.

It is not only a unique opportunity, it has also been a great challenge to transport the team, boats, containers and other equipment from Valencia to Dubai.

Everything has been carried out according to plan, without a single upset.

Almost 70 people from Victory Challenge’s team will be there for the winter training in the United Arab Emirates.

The historic weather data is unequivocal; In Valencia, an America’s Cup team can only count on a few training days on the water during the winter - whilst conditions in Dubai are equivalent to those in Valencia during spring and early summer.

These are important extra training days for Victory Challenge, as only three and a half months remain until the final pre-regattas of the 32nd America’s Cup will take place in Valencia.

The temporary base of Victory Challenge. Dubai, 17 December 2006. Photo copyright David Renkwitz / Victory Challenge