Fireworks Light Up Port America's Cup As The Festivities Heat Up (Photo by Gareth Evans)
“At the coin toss, SNG/Alinghi were asked to call heads or tails. They thought they had won and asked for the starboard entry into the start box. GGYC/BMW Oracle subsequently won the toss, and spoilt Alinghi’s plans by asking for starboard!” Gareth Reported.
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- Fireworks Light Up Port America’s Cup As The Festivities Heat Up (Photo by Gareth Evans)
Tens of thousands of visitors swarmed the signature Veles e Ventes building and the surrounding area of the America’s Cup Park to enjoy the festivities on an otherwise tranquil Sunday afternoon of mild temperatures.
Race director Harold Bennett (NZL) set the coin spinning in the air, watched by Pierre-Yves Firmench (SUI), commodore of the Société Nautique de Genève, the yacht club of the Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup and Marcus Young (USA), commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club of San Francisco.
The American team will therefore take what is commonly held to be the initial advantage, entering with right of way, on starboard tack.
Alinghi At Port America's Cup (Photo by Gareth Evans)
On the water there was scarcely enough wind to create ripples, but in the distance the lack of breeze was scarcely a worry for one of the giant multihulls, which with its towering rig still paced the horizon, making best use of the final hours of practice and tuning before racing is scheduled to begin tomorrow morning around 1000hrs
The opening festival was brought to a noisy crescendo with a barrage of mascleta, firecrackers which increased in size and noise.
Valencia's Mayor Rita Barbera Enjoys The Run Up To The America's Cup At Port America's Cup In Valencia (Photo by Gareth Evans)
Sunday 7th February sees the official opening ceremony of the 33rd America’s Cup, starting at 1300hrs in the heart of Port America’s Cup, by the Veles et Vents building.
The opening ceremony will include the draw for which side the competing yachts have to enter the start area for Race 1, with the time gun scheduled for 1000hrs Monday.
A huge crescendo is promised with a mascletá, a local celebration of firecrackers with the largest reckoned to be 750kilos of gunpowder.
The Cup Arrives In Valencia (Photo by Gareth Evans)
And from 1400hrs the America’s Cup will have the UN GRAIN for Hairt – the cooking of a giant paella with the proceeds all going to relieve suffering in Haiti.
Alinghi and BMW Oracle are set to sail their best-of-three match series from Monday, and the state-of-the-art boats are expected to run three times faster than the wind speed.
The Teams:
BMW ORACLE racing was brought together by the CEO and founder of ORACLE Corporation Larry Ellison in the Spring of 2000. Ellison has a long and distinguished sailing career inshore and offshore and has been a regular member of the sailing crew over the years of America’s Cup racing.
BMW Oracle In Training In Valencia (Photo Courtesy of BMW Oracle Racing)
At the 2003 America’s Cup challenger series in Auckland the team, which were then known as ORACLE BMW racing, reached the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup but were beaten by Alinghi, who went on to win the America’s Cup.
After being one of the dominant teams through the preceding America’s Cup seasons from 2004-2006, in 2007 in Valencia BMW ORACLE lost out in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
On the 13th of July 2007, the team presented a formal challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup to the Société Nautique Genève. Just under two weeks later, three times America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts (NZL) was announced as the team’s CEO and skipper.
The team has a strong international flavour and mix of backgrounds from America’s Cup, match racing ocean racing and multihull racing including round the world race winning skipper John Kostecki as tactician, match racer James Spithill as helmsman.
BMW ORACLE sail under the flag of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, San Francisco
Alinghi 5 Docked At Port America's Cup (Photos by Gareth Evans)
Alinghi is the Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup. The team is the culmination of Ernesto Bertarelli’s passion for sailing. The Swiss entrepreneur, former owner of biotech giant Serono and an integral part of the sailing crew, created the team in 2000 to participate in the America’s Cup.
In 2003, Alinghi defeated Oracle BMW Racing to win the Louis Vuitton Cup, and then won the 31st America’s Cup at its first attempt, sweeping Team New Zealand 5-0. With this victory, Alinghi became the first European winning team and brought the America’s Cup to Europe for the first time in 152 years.
The selection of Valencia as the venue for the 32nd America’s Cup and a new competition format, with preliminary Acts across Europe, opened a new era for sailing’s premier competition. The Swiss Defender –through AC Management– implemented its renewed vision for the America’s Cup positioning it at the level of the world’s most popular sports. The outstanding four-year event saw 12 teams from five continents competing for the trophy before 6.4 million spectators, contributed to the transformation of the host city and claimed the attention of over 4 billion television viewers worldwide.
Alinghi succeeded in defending the America’s Cup in Spain in 2007, in what was the closest America’s Cup Match of all time beating Emirates Team New Zealand in the 7th race by just one second. The Swiss team won the Match 5-2.
On the build up to the 33rd America’s Cup Match, the giant catamaran Alinghi 5 was launched on Lake Geneva, in Switzerland, on July 8th 2009. Six months later, the innovative Swiss multihull arrived to Valencia and on January 15th 2010, Alinghi 5 sailed in Valencia for the first time, with Bertarelli at the helm.
Alinghi flies the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, Switzerland. With over 100 team members from 20 nationalities, it stands for an innovative, professional, multi-cultural and passionate team.
Ernesto Bertarelli Speaking To The Media (Photo by Gareth Evans)
Article and Photos by Challenge and Adventure’s Gareth Evans
The Owners’ Press Conference held this afternoon was very well attended by the press – approximately 150 out of the 600+ accredited media personnel were there. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the team owners.
Whilst Ernesto Bertarelli arrived for the press conference, Larry Ellison failed to show. The compere explained (in response to a question from the audience), that there had been a misunderstanding within BMW Oracle. The event had been organised for the two Owners to have a head to head interview in front of the World’s press. They were informed that sending a substitute would not be acceptable – they took this to mean that other team members would not be welcome, and refused to attend. Due to the no show by Ellison, Bertarelli had offered the second seat to Brad Butterworth to field some of the questions – he offered to ask Brad to leave the stage if that was what the audience wanted. The response he received was that Brad could stay.
Ernesto Bertarelli and Brad Butterworth (Photo by Gareth Evans)
Some sound bites from Bertarelli:
· The Oracle rig is possibly an advantage.
· His contribution this time was very different. He has been more involved than before. He felt it very important that the owner should be on board steering (possibly a dig at Larry Ellison).
· Loick Peyron is like a very handy Swiss knife – he can do anything.
· There were a number of choices for helm. The boat is a copy of EB’s 1999 boat. He said that he is not the fastest helm in all conditions, but certainly is not the slowest. Loick Peyron is handy in manoeuvres.
· What does EB fear most – the boat or LE’s desperate will to win? “The Boat” (said with a grin).
· “There are two boats that will be on the start line on Monday. Let’s see who wins.”
· Why did the EB/LE friendship fall apart? EB: Today sums it up. I came here to shake his hand. I was determined to have this meeting today, but Larry did not turn up.
· The boats are sailing downwind at 2.5-3 times the wind speed. The reaches are exciting!
· It will be a war of the shore crews to keep the boats sailing at 100%
There is no doubt that Larry Ellison scored an own goal today (to use a soccer term!). EB had the world’s press at this press conference, with nobody there from BMW Oracle to offer their side of the story. And EB is a clever man who knows how to turn the situation to his advantage.
Article and Photos by Gareth Evans
Port America's Cup (Photo by Gareth Evans)
Alinghi At The Dock In Valencia (Photo by Gareth Evans)
