Sunday, February 07, 2010

33rd America's Cup - Just one day to go

Greetings from Valencia less than 24 hours before the start of the 1st race of the 33rd America's Cup. It personally seems incredible that after 950 days of litigations, court hearings, affidavits and dozens of letters between the commodores of the two yacht clubs, a day would come that we would see the world's most extreme multihulls racing on the waters of Valencia.

Both BMW Oracle's USA and Alinghi 5 are currently training, probably making the last checks and test in view of tomorrow's race. According to the latest information (2pm Valencia time) USA is sailing some 15-20 miles south of Valencia while Alinghi 5 is almost at the opposite side of the immense race area, 15 miles to the north east of the 33rd America's Cup venue.

Wind conditions have been very light throughout the day, not more than 5-6 knots. It also seems that tomorrow's conditions as well will be quite similar, favoring Alinghi according to conventional wisdom. The forecast calls for a southwestern breeze, between 6 and 10 knots. Still, this is extremely vague, given the immense dimensions of the race course. I'll try to have something more precise later on.

The draw for the entry side was favorable to BMW Oracle. The Americans will enter from the starboard side and Alinghi from port.

There was a sight that caught my attention and took the picture. A couple of workers were rebranding the former +39 Challenge base to Green Comm Challenge. According to the rumor mill, the italian team lead by Francesco de Leo might become the Challenger of Record if Alinghi wins these races, so it makes sense to have the base rebranded quickly, in case it's over on Wednesday.

The +39 Challenge base being rebranded to Green Comm Challenge. Valencia, 7 February 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

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10 Comments:

At 3:10 PM, Blogger WetHog said...

Ah Green Comm to be Alinghi's new COR if they win? Italian version of CNEV? Guess EB hasn't learned a lot from the last 2+ years after all.

 
At 5:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

WH
Dumbass. Do you really think EB would go another CNEV route? Green Comm is perfectly legit, so go post your rubbish somewhere else.

 
At 6:53 PM, Blogger sailboatracer said...

Hi WetHog and Anonymous,
Green Comm is a team. The NY courts have confirmed that the COR must be an established sailing club. eg The current COR is GGYC and the sailing team is BOR.

Hence Green Comm cannot be the next COR.

 
At 7:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

SNG defender, CVG challenger: two "lakers" controlling AC34? The DoG was modified in 1882 to avoid these clubs to challenge.
Such a wise man was George Schuyler!

 
At 9:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

George Schuyler wasn't smart, he banned lake racers because he had a personal vendetta against a guy who wanted to challenge out of Chicago. I fail to see how we should ban these racers because some rich New York toff had an argument with a lake racer 100+ years ago.

Green Comm meet all the criteria, including holding regattas on the sea through their legal yacht club. Deal with it.

 
At 4:29 AM, Blogger WetHog said...

"Do you really think EB would go another CNEV route?"

Yes I do. Then again it probably won't even matter. The BOFD case that is ongoing might make Green Con...,I mean Comm, an after thought just like CNEV. We shall see.

 
At 6:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here we go again, armchair admirals, gotta love em!

 
At 10:54 AM, Blogger Norby said...

to 9:33 pm anon: if you have a problem with "some rich New York toff" don't go race the america's cup. it is that simple.

 
At 5:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bring out the old AC boats and get racing.

 
At 6:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If these two teams don't want to race then maybe the rest of the teams that have been deprived of the 33rd AC must just go out and start their own AC racing. Screw the 2 rich guys.

 

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