Victory Challenge uses SWE-73 for corporate hospitality

Given the impasse the 33rd America's Cup has found itself, everybody, except BMW Oracle and Alinghi, has to improvise and find alternatives to the lack of activity in order to keep the team alive and, most importantly, find sponsors that will guarantee its survival.

Desafío, having guaranteed 60 million euros from Iberdrola, is not in a dire situation but the rest of potential challengers are in a much more delicate financial state and have either shut down completely or scaled down considerably. A clear example of that situation is Victory Challenge, the 32nd America's Cup challenger from Sweden, that has now reappeared in Port America's Cup.

The Swedes have secured a deal with Volkswagen Financial Services for a week long package of sailing activities and motivational speaking, taking place here in Valencia. As the photos clearly show, the team's older-generation America's Cup yacht SWE-73 has been painted to the German car group's livery and will be used in order to entertain its guests.

We witnessed the first outing of the yacht, earlier this morning in Valencia. It was for sure a strange feeling to take pictures of this yacht under these conditions, considering the fact that one or two years ago they were the pinnacle of sailing technology. Now they are chartered by the week for corporate hospitality....

As the CEO of the team, Johan Stenman clearly puts it in their press release, "the current project is a completely separate operation to our long-term America’s Cup intentions and should be considered as a simple and effective way of getting some value from our assets that are unfortunately not being used for Americas’s Cup racing at the moment".

The rebranded SWE-73 ready leave the Victory Challenge for a day of corporate hospitality. My apologies for the poor lighting conditions but weather in Valencia has been awful for more than a week. Valencia, 27 May 2008. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Kazuhiko Sofuku, bowman of BMW Oracle until last year. Valencia, 27 May 2008. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

The rebranded SWE-73 leaves the Victory Challenge for a day of corporate hospitality. My apologies for the poor lighting conditions but weather in Valencia has been awful for more than a week. Valencia, 27 May 2008. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

It's been a long time since I last photographed an ACC yacht being towed out. Valencia, 27 May 2008. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing