Today Alinghi continued their winning ways with two walkovers, beating China Team and United Internet Team Germany and lifting their record to 8-0.

The other three of the "big four," as the media call us (BMW ORACLE, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa), are all tied on 7-1. ETNZ had a shocker today, losing to the lowly but steadily improving +39.

Shosholoza were the toast of the town yesterday for notching their first-ever AC win, at the expense of local favorites Victory Challenge, the Swedish team. No doubt +39 are today, and will be the celebrating tonight. Full marks to skipper and Olympic gold medalist Iain Percy (GBR) and newly installed tactician Ian Walker (GBR), the double Olympic silver medalist and skipper last time of the GBR Challenge, for pulling off the upset so far of the regatta.

There were no dramas in our matches with China Team and Spain's Desafio Espanol, which our guys led wire to wire. Without putting too fine a point on it, Dicko, Gavin and co. did literally sail circles around Spain's new helmsman, the Pole Karol Jablonski, at the start of our match this afternoon. A real spanking and lesson in classic pre-start match racing tactics if ever there was one. Well done, guys.

And Dicko said it was not as easy at it may have looked, with big shifts and big holes -- the wind varying from 230 to 280 deg and from 3 to 17 knots, sometimes on the same leg -- keeping things interesting.

Tomorrow will be interesting -- Mascalzone Latino then ETNZ. No doubt Dean Barker, Terry Hutchinson and co. will be hurting a bit from their loss today to ETNZ, and come out "loaded for bear" as we used to say in my home state of Michigan. Not sure +39 did us any favors. Should be a great match up. Can't wait.

The other big match tomorrow is Luna Rossa vs. Alinghi. Then we race Luna Rossa on Tuesday.

Nice scheduling by Regatta Director Dyer Jones, which pits teams of equal levels (at least based on the ranking going into the regatta) against each other late in the regatta. A good climax is always nice.


From yesterday's race against Alinghi -- not a beauty of a race
for us, but one of the best "beauty shots" I have seen from the
regatta, courtesy of our celebrated team photog, Gilles
Martin-Raget.


Gilles Martin-Raget

Shosholoza skipper Geoff Meek (RSA) being congratulated by Peter
Harken (USA) for their first-ever AC win yesterday. "It's a huge learning
curve," Geoff said, "but we are slowly learning how to climb
it."


Shosho team members, favorites everywhere they go, helping
to put a friendly new face on the modern America's Cup. Members
of each of the twelve teams stopped by tonight for our barbecue --
over 500 people.


Sailing team member Sean Clarkson (NZL) with ACM's "challenger-
friendly" teams-liaison, Tamara Martyn (SUI). Who's that looking
over Sean's shoulder (LOL, it's only a mural).


ACC Measurement Committee member Guy Roland (SUI).


High-flying San Franciscan Jeff Glass (Larry's chief pilot) with
marketing team member, and Madrid native, Alejandra Mato (ESP).
Alex doubles as our morning show co-host in Valencia when we
have many Spanish-language guests.

It was a great racing day -- sunny, breezy but not overly so (12-18 knots), flat water, and many close, tough matches, especially ours with Alinghi.

But I don't care how good a spin you try to put on it, losing hurts.

As our veteran (his 12th Cup campaign) Operations Director Laurent Esquier (FRA/USA) said after the Alinghi race, "After the countless hours of preparation, and all the hard work by all concerned, it just hurts -- like a punch right between the eyes.

"It is especially tough when you win the start, and are ahead at the first cross. 80% of the time, or more, that boat goes on to win. Unfortunately for our side, not today. So, you pick yourself up, get over it, learn from it, make yourself better, and punch back next chance you get."

I don't hear anyone in the team tonight dwelling on the costly windshift, or a defective $25 halyard clip. No excuse to lose. Alinghi was better on the day, it was a well-deserved win for them, and we have to be better next time to beat the defending champions.

Full marks, too, to UITG. It was probably a wise decision by their senior management to sit out today's matches so they could check their equipment, and recover from the multiple injuries sustained by their crew the past two days in the heavy going. Day before yesterday their bowman and our old friend and former teammate, Geordie Shaver, injured his hand, and their midbowman was also hurt, when the spinnaker pole crashed to the deck and broke. Yesterday, as has been widely reported, their backup bowman Christian Buck, broke his jaw and was knocked unconscious while effecting repairs high up the mast. After spending the night in the hospital, welcome news this morning that Christian is okay and rapidly recovering. Hopefully Team Germany's white boat will be back out on the water tomorrow.

Tonight Dicko, Gavin and the rest of the sailing team are in good spirits, already looking forward to tomorrow's matches against China Team and the steadily improving Desafio Espanol. Conditions should be similar to today.

As I write this another of Laurent's "block party" BBQ's is underway in our base right outside my container/office. BMW ORACLE has invited everyone in the paddock (teams and organizers) for a low-key burger and beer. We did this in Marseille last year, and in Valencia this year. A nice gesture, and another example of the good, neighborly atmosphere among the teams in the paddock. A bit of a mission without our master BBQ chef Grant "Guthrie" Davidson who is back in VLC working on our new base.

Time for a glass of red wine.


The BBQ brewing outside my office window.


The famous French BBQ chef, Laurent "Leroy" Esquier, feeding the
hungry masses.

In the paddock today, Bruno's Buoy (see previous post) was spotted taking shape (literally) as it was being inflated and having branding applied -- presumably for use during the Malmo Louis Vuitton Act 7 Fleet Racing next Friday through Sunday.


Bruno's Buoy.

A noticeable pickup this morning, Saturday, in the number of punters standing outside the paddock fences looking in as the yachts are lifted from their cradles and lowered into the water by the four, huge shoreside cranes.

The number of VIPs already (08:00) in the paddock on this cool, breezy morning is up, too. More and more journos and others are referring to team bases area as "the paddock." It is a term we are borrowing from F1, which I believe they borrowed from horse racing. Regardless it seems appropriate, seeing these (forgive me) thoroughbred yachts lined up side-by-side.

And sorry to repeat, but the entire America's Cup should be set up to operationally more by way of the "paddock" we had in Marseille and have here in Malmo, and less like the way it has been with separate, fenced off bases since Freo (87 Cup, Perth, Western Australia). Have not talked with a person here who disagrees, including Scott Ferguson, Bruno Trouble, Tom Weaver, Salvatore Sarno, Christine Belanger, Hamish Ross, George Clyde, Dawn Riley, John Cutler, John Sweeney, Jean Charles Scale, Peter Harken, Paul Henderson and Luca Devoti to name but a few.

Herb McCormick, like Rich Roberts and others who have written recently of their reservations about the "new" America's Cup (as have I), need to experience the scene here first hand. Indeed, these roadshows, and the paddock, creates precisely the "the way it was" atmosphere about which they have written and still, understandably, yearn for.

Full marks to ACM and, especially, the local organizers here in Malmö-Skåne for the set-up here.

As to the racing today...

I lifted the picture below from this morning's ValenciaLife.net. Great shot. We'll credit the photog if someone can tell me who took it -- of Alinghi, during yesterday's racing, in the shadow of the "Twisted Torso" designed by Valenciano architect Santiago Calatrava. Indeed, the building will be dedicated today by Mr Calatrava, while we are racing Alinghi in the "match of the day." While it is another calm, routine day at the office, I also sense a little "let us at 'em" feeling in the air in the breakfast room and at our base this morning. Our second match is against United Internet Team Germany, and we can't be complacent about the Jesper Bank-led white boat which, while they had a tough day yesterday, at times here this week they have looked quite good.


"Twisted Torso" (the building, not
Alinghi's bowman).

Each day, in addition to everything else he has to do (requiring an 04:00 wake-up) Chris Bedford prepares a slide for the daily "morning show" we do for our VIP guests in the BMW ORACLE Team Hospitality suite at the Foredeck Club. Today's is below. Should be perfekt conditions for both races today. Still plenty of breeze, but not as much as yesterday.


"Weather porn."

Today's line-up:

Bow - Webb
Midbow - Jameson
Mast - Brooke
Pit - Gale
Port Grind - Monk
Starboard Grind - Baker
Main Grind - Spooner
Trim up - Halcrow
Trim down - Naismith
Main - Clarkson
Traveler - Westlake
Helm - Dickson
Alt Helm / Afterguard - Ellison
Tactics - Brady
Strategy - Doyle
Navigator - Burns
Aft grind - Daniel

Bowman Brad "Cob" Webb (NZL) and midbow Kazuhiko "Fuku" Sofuku
(JPN) dried off and warming up after spending the afternoon in the rough
and tumble world of "frontierland" (as the pointy-end of the boat is
sometimes called by the sailing team).


As we were getting the snapshot above a few minutes ago Brad said, "When you can count on your gear staying in one piece a day like today is all good." Fuku said, simply, "tough but great sailing conditions."

Good points both.

We will leave the carnage details to the other reports and websites. No doubt that will be the story du jour. Suffice to say that today was proof yet again that, to win the Cup, you need fast boats, well sailed, that don't break.

Or as they say in Formula One, to finish first, first you have to finish.

As far as I am aware, there were only one or two very minor problems on 76, inevitable in the 20-25 knot breeze and bumpy conditions this afternoon. Yet another feather in the caps of our shore team who build and maintain our yachts, our design team (who normally show us the way to robust equipment in the first place), as well as our sailing team (who managed to keep it all in one piece today while winning two races).

And, no surprise, the "big four" as the media like to call Alinghi, BMW ORACLE, Emirates Team NZ and Luna Rossa, are all on four wins. The Spanish are on two wins, and all the rest are on one win except China Team on zero.

One scary moment this afternoon was the brief appearance of a waterspout. It dropped out of a squall just to the south of the race course. Team Meteorologist Chris Bedford said the cold air that arrived behind last night's frontal passage produced today's windy, squally conditions as well as the waterspout -- a smallish tornado that sometimes develops over open water when temperature differentials are conducive. A waterspout can produce winds locally to 60 kts, but fortunately today's dissipated almost as soon as we saw it drop out of the clouds. Nonetheless, a bit of a shocker at the time.

Chris says that tomorrow there should still be plenty of breeze, but not quite as much -- in the teens not twenties. Should be perfekt for our matches against United Internet Team Germany and the "match of the day" against Alinghi.


Above, our Desafio Espanol neighbors after arriving back at the dock this
afternoon with broken boom. Shosholoza also broke a boom, the
German Team had mast problems and an injured crewman, the
Swedish Victory Challenge broke their headfoil in the race against
us (and they had to retire), China Team did a spectacular broach but
recovered from it and carried on. BMW ORACLE had an uneventful
day in the very difficult conditions.

The headline pretty well sums up the day -- as well as our superb sailing team manager, Craig "Monkey" Monk (NZL), with whom I caught up for a few minutes after the yacht had returned to shore and he got into some warm, dry clothes.

I paraphrase, but Craig had the following observations in no particular order:

+ Cool: it was cold out there. Not only the water, but the air, too. We won't ever complain about Valencia being too hot. We miss sailing in shorts and t-shirts. The guys' hands were especially cold, and we all will be adding a layer or two of warmer clothing tomorrow.

+ Calm: routine, even fun day at the office. The 22-24 knots in the second race was as much wind as we have raced with since Marseille [Act 1] a year ago. The broken spinnaker pole aside (which was not a design or contruction problem), the boat was great. Shore team have done a nice job. Only problem was that all the wind blew the couscous out of our lunch packs and made the cockpit floor slippery. No more couscous in the lunches!

+ Collected: Dicko, Gavin, Eric, Fresh and Larry [the afterguard] were a solid unit. Won both starts handily, and they got us around the track well. Larry probably sailed two-thirds of each race, taking the wheel on the second leg and finishing out both*. Shosholoza were quicker than +39, and Shosholoza has made a nice step forward since Valencia -- good to see.


Craig Monk (NZL), has collected an Olympic Bronze Medalist in the Finn Class
(1992, Barcelona) and two AC wins (1995 and 2000 with Team New Zealand).
"Monkey" is our crew boss, and is a cool and calming influence throughout
the team.

*update Saturday morning 05:30 -- spoke with Dicko last night who said Larry actually took the wheel both races after the gate (start of the second lap) of each race. Monkey, who is a grinder, and others forward in the boat are so busy, and the handover to Larry normally seamless, that they often don't know for sure when the change of helmsmen took place.

Tomorrow's first day of racing should be interesting on any number of fronts -- including the weather front. For the next couple days rain is predicted and it could be "blowing dogs off chains" as they say Downunder.

Our matches tomorrow: Shosholoza and then +39. First warning signal is at 12:00.

The official pairing list is available here.pdf (pdf, 21 KB)

...or in this case, comments posted on the blog.

Today I found this comment posted on the Cool People story from a couple days ago about my Malmoe office mates which turns out to be from Scotty Sandford's father:

Father to Scott
Great blog site Tom. I just want to check if that's just a shadow behind Scott's head in the photo above or has he forgotten how to find a barber (again!)? JS

Many thanks, John. About the hair, here's a close up -- you be the judge....


Scotty "Afro" Sandford (NZL)

Skippers' photo-op.

This morning's skippers' press conference will be widely reported on by better journalists than I, but suffice to say that, as usual, what went unsaid was probably more interesting than what was said.

One thing that did strike me -- the number of different nationalities among the 12 skippers:

DEN
FRA (2)
GBR
GER
ITA (2)
NZL (2)
POL
RSA
SWE

Twelve skippers from nine countries, no more than two from any one country, and no American. Moreover, the Dane sails for the German team, the German for the Swiss team, the Brit for one of the Italian teams, the Pole for the Spanish team, one of the French for the Chinese team, and, as you will know, one of the Kiwis sails for the "American" team, which has team members from 16 different countries!

By the way, I am reminded by Peter Huston to mention that "skipper" means the person in charge on the yacht, and that the skipper may or may not be the "helmsman." Chris Dickson is our skipper and helmsman; by way of example, Geoff Meek is skipper of Shosholoza, but for this regatta at least their helmsman, newly installed, is Chris Law.

Can you name the other skippers that go with the list of nationalities and the picture above? If not, you may wish to check the ACM website , which has a very good report on today's skippers' press conference.

The moderator, Richard Simmons (no, not THAT Richard Simmons) seemed to think we had changed our appendage package (we have not) and that the Kiwis had not (they have). As previously reported the Swedes have made the biggest change since the Valencia Acts -- swapping their older SWE 63 for the second of their 2003 boats, SWE 73. When asked why, Magnus Holmberg smiled slyly and said something about 73 being an even faster boat than 63 (63 went very well in VLC until they were found by the Measurers to be out of compliance with the Class Rule).

Our change in the afterguard -- Dicko on the wheel and Gavin moving from the wheel to tactician -- is also a significant change. Likewise Alinghi's change of helmsman -- Jochen Schuemann in for Peter Holmberg.

Rumor has it that "Bruno's Buoy," the brainchild of Louis Vuitton's Bruno Trouble to serve not only as a highly-visible windward mark but also a camera platform for several photo journalists, may be making its debut next week during the fleet racing Act 7 here in Malmoe.


The big buoy tied up at the RCNV in Valencia a few months back.
Initial tests showed it was difficult to tow and anchor. Have those
problems been solved and we are about to see Take Two?


For details, check this post from May on the Challenger Commission website.

There are thousands of bikes in this town. It's completely flat, making a bike the preferred mode of transport for our 45 or so team members here, not only back and forth to our team hotel but in and around the expansive venue.

Bikes are cheap to buy, and cost next to nothing to rent. More than one hotel makes them available at no cost to guests, like you might be loaned an umbrella on a rainy day at a flash hotel in London.


Dicko and Jane "Red Bull" Eagleson (USA), our intrepid media manager, biking back from the skippers' press conference this morning.

Boat builders are sometimes called "carbonologists." Tim Hacket calls them "abrasive technicians," -- because they do so much sanding?

Rumour has it that when David "Duffy" Duff (NZL), our chief sailmaker, and his colleagues are trying to, uh, make an impression (both are partnered, so we are definitely not talking "sorts, tarts, birds, or chicks" here), they call themselves a "soft-foil engineer" -- not be confused, I would hope, with "soft foil-engineer".


Dave Little (NZL), a.k.a. "Little Dave", and Big Dave "Duffy" Duff (background)
checking over a mainsail in the makeshift sail loft at the back of our base in
the Malmoe paddock this afternoon.


Duffy, a true gentleman, and our highly regarded head sailmaker.

It's nice to have a surprisingly large number of family and friends joining us here in Malmoe, and enjoying the clean and well-organized venue and surroundings.


Mike Segerblom (striped shirt) and family from Long Beach, CA visiting the paddock yesterday. Mike is the long-time Executive Director of the highly regarded United States Sailing Center at Long Beach. The Segerbloms were vacationing in Copenhagen and came across the bridge to Malmoe for the afternoon. Mike is an old friend of a number of us in BMWOR, including Dicko (who, most will be aware, is far left in the photo above). And, no, they had not just come from an audition for a remake of the movie "Blues Brothers".

The new BMW ORACLE Racing photo and video archive is now online at www.bmor-photo.com and www.bmor-video.com.

The enhanced service for media, friends and family provides up-to-date photo and video material from the team including categories such as "event", "crew action", "people", "boat", "match racing", "fleet racing", "shore side" and others.

The new archive is offered as a service to all partners and media to assist in providing the visual materials needed to accompany news stories about the BMW ORACLE Racing team. During the upcoming Louis Vuitton Acts, daily race copyright-free images will be offered at no cost.

Video footage featuring BMW ORACLE Racing will also be accessible online at www.bmor-video.com. The video footage can be previewed online in the form of video streams. Additional information such as a rundown, a short description, the rights and technical details will be provided with each video footage segment. More features such as a search function, an online order procedure etc. will guarantee you a professional, fast and comfortable use of this system. Within the "specials" section of the archive you can find short cuts of the best grinding sequences, helicopter sequences etc.

The new service is being managed by the marketing department's Max "Schnitzel" Hoellerl (AUT).


Max Hoellerl

Here in Malmoe each team has its own 50-meter dock, long enough to accommodate two weather boats, a chase boat, the tender and the yacht. Being at the ends of the paddock, Alinghi and BMW ORACLE have their own docks. Other teams each share either side of a dock. In accordance with AC 32 rules, at each venue (including Valencia) teams choose their base locations in order of their entry into AC 32. As the defender, Alinghi is first; then the Challenger of Record (BMWOR), then +39, etc. Last to challenge was China Team.



View from the end of our dock looking back to the Paddock: in the foreground are Weather 1 and 2, then Captain Craig Christensen's Chase 1, and behind that our Tender. Chris Roberston will again be driving the tender here in Malmoe. 76 is in the background along the breakwater, waiting to be lifted out. Note the building in the far left -- that is the brand new "Turning Torso" apartment building...



...which coincidentally was designed by Valencia's noted architect Santiago Calatrava, who also designed most of the structures in the City of Arts and Sciences in VLC.

There are four cranes to handle the 12 yachts. Scotty Sandford tells me that all four are 250 ton capacity or more. One was found here in Malmoe, but the other three had to be brought in from Finland. They not only lift the yachts in and out in lieu of travellifts, but they step and unstep rigs, put support boats in and out of the water, etc. So they are busy and scheduling can be a bit of a mission.

Last evening, for example.


Why was our shore team standing around well into the evening?


Because our neighbors had some trouble undoing the nuts that connect the starboard V1 (sidestay holding up the mast) in the yacht.


This tied up the crane that services our end of the paddock. And since 76 was still in the water, our guys had to wait a bit. But it works both ways -- probably we have inconvenienced our neighbors once or twice as well. Such is the cooperative spirit in the "AC paddock."


After 90 minutes or so they got their nuts off, and the rig was pulled out.


Then the crane was swung around to lift out 76. Tim, Scotty and Trevor looking flash in their flourescent-green, locally-mandated (and no doubt a good idea) safety vests .


76 lifted out...


...and swung toward the cradle.


ACM's operations manager and paddock boss, Rene "Fluffy" Holliger, stops by to be sure all is in order.


76 over her cradle, the front end of which is about to be raised so the yacht can be lowered to her nighttime resting spot.

As with Act 1 in Marseille last year, here in Malmoe all the teams are lined up side by side in a Formula One-style paddock. Much has been written, and photos published, elsewhere so I will not belabor the point. Suffice to say, the atmosphere is much more relaxed, neighborly and in a word -- enjoyable.

We all have friends and former teammates on most if not all of the other teams, and here we see many of them each day. In VLC, working behind the walls of our individual bases and with our homes spread all over greater Valencia, we rarely see anyone from the other teams. But here is it different, and this is the way yacht racing, and the America's Cup, should be.

It was that way in Newport. The teams were clustered together on the cityfront wharves. There were not bases, per se, and it was much more open and communal. Then came the winged keel, skirts, and the walled-off, high-security bases in Freo (87) and San Diego (88, 92 and 95) and Auckland (00 and 03). Same now in Valencia.

At least Alinghi and ourselves as Challenger of Record have reversed that trend with these AC road-show events. I for one would like to see future Cups venues set up more in the way of these paddocks we have had in Marseille and Malmoe, and less of the expensive, individual bases being constructed as we speak in VLC.


By a nose...we are at one end of the row of 12 yachts in the Malmoe paddock; Alinghi is at the other. Our immediate and colorful neighbor is Desafio Espanol (ESP). Next to them is Mascalzone Latino's firey red ITA-77 (fomerly Dennis Conner's USA-77, New York Yacht Club's 2003 challenger Stars & Stripes), then the black yachts of Victory Challenge (SWE) and K-Challenge (FRA) respectively..

For the Malmoe Acts I am sharing an office-container with the Shore Team, in many ways the heart if not the soul of an AC team. They do the long hours putting everything together, keeping everything in excellent working order, and then taking it all apart -- not only day by day, but over the long campaign haul.

They are "cool" in every sense of the word: not only talented, hard-working and fun (day and night!), but calm and unflappable, regardless of what we as a team, or the weather, or the organizers throw at them.

And now with the AC a true travelling circus, the Shore Team is a 24/7 operation on a semi-global basis. To wit, while Scotty "Big Rig" Sandford (NZL) is holding down the logistiks fort here this week and next, Grant "Guthrie" Davidson (NZL) is already back in VLC overseeing the construction of our new base and looking after the trials and tribulations of Trapani -- the venue in Sicily where Acts 8 and 9 will take place in a month's time. And while Tim Hacket (AUS) and his crew care for the yacht here, Mark "Tugboat" Turner is in Seattle setting up our boat-building operation.

For the Shore Team there is "no excuse for excellence"; perfection is the goal.



My Malmoe officemates: Tim Hacket, team machinist par excellence Trev
"The Rev" Berry (NZL, who also knows a thing or two about red wine),
and Scotty Sandford. Kevin Batten (NZL) was out tending to his rigs.
For Linda Berry -- despite Trevor looking a bit like a schoolboy caught
in the act, that is not a racy Swedish magazine.



Rig man Kevin Batten, in his "real office" -- the rigging
container.

Another piece of "know your partners" good news, even though Valencia is technically not a "partner"....

The following story comes as no real surprise, at least not the figures. Our team partners contributed to this boomlet, as they brought some 1000+ people to VLC for Acts 4 and 5 -- almost certainly the largest number of VIP guests entertained by any team. From today's Valencia Life newsletter (www.valencialife.net):

Although the next stage of the Americas Cup regattas is set to take place in Malmo later this week, the Consellera for Tourism, Milagrosa Martinez, yesterday revealed some figures concerning tourism for the visitors who came to Valencia to see the Americas Cup regattas last June. According to the latest figures over a quarter of the people who came to Valencia for the regattas stayed in luxury hotels and all in all the visitors spent around twenty million Euros. Mrs. Martinez added that these new tourists who visited the City have now opened it up to a market where visitors spend more than the average tourist, and interest has been shown in both the City of Valencia and the Valencian Community as a whole by a new sector of the international tourist market. The study also pointed out that 50% of the visitors for the June regattas were from Spain (18% from Catalunia, 17% from Madrid and 22% from the Valencian Community), whilst some 16,000 foreign visitors were in the City (from Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland and France for the most part). In addition, these visitors stated that they valued the comfort and politeness of the Valencians very highly during their visit, registering a satisfaction ratio of 8.15 (out of 10), whilst 82% visited restaurants that featured Valencian cuisine, and 95% stated that they had no trouble at all finding out about Valencia.

In Formula One they call the overseas (meaning non-European) races "fly-aways" because the equipment has to be flown in Bernie Ecclestone's fleet of 747's instead of trucked as is done for the races in Europe.

For the new AC 32 circus, I guess you might call Malmoe and Trapani "ship-aways", but since most of us flew up here perhaps "fly-away" still works.

Most teams, including BMW ORACLE, have only about 45 team members working here. Interestingly, one of the newer and normally smaller teams, +39 (one of the three Italian challengers), has nearly 100 people here. I must check in with my old friend Luca Devoti, 2000 Finn Class Olympic medalist and +39's sporting director, to see why they came with such a relatively large contingent. Perhaps it has something to do with the next regatta being a "fly away" in their home port of Trapani.


En route Valencia to Malmoe on Friday -- the layover at Munich airport allows time for a quick wurst and Bavarian beer, for which we invited fellow travelers from Desafio Espanol. Left to right: design team coordinator Ian "Fresh" Burns (AUS), Desafio Espanol's Teresa Ruiz, marketing director and Munich maven Mirko "In the Pink" Groeschner (GER), Jorge Lamarca (Desafio Espanol rules advisor), our team doctor Kiko Espi Escriva (ESP), weather team member and expert match racer Rod Dawson (NZL), and marketing's Kerstin "Handstand" Schulz (GER).

In the same vein as our upbeat "know your partners" piece about BMW a week or so back (about which I took some good-natured ribbing from one or two of my colleagues for appearing obsequious), I now offer one about Oracle corp.

Today's San Jose Mercury News has an article entitled "Pleasant Surprise" by John Boudreau about Oracle's buyout of PeopleSoft. It begins:

They were supposed to be corporate raiders, riding into Pleasanton to pillage PeopleSoft, the much beloved software company Larry Ellison and his Oracle lieutenants had successfully vanquished after an 18-month hostile takeover battle.

Small businesses feared Oracle's $10.6 billion acquisition of the hometown PeopleSoft in January would hurt their customers -- and spending power. City officials worried about losing their largest employer, and a possible strain on social services from fired workers. Many foresaw mom-and-pop operations, already hurt by the earlier tech downturn, on the verge of closing.

But then economic Armageddon didn't happen. Small businesses didn't shutter. And Oracle executives reached out to the community with a philanthropic spirit that has won over city officials.

Turns out there's a smiley face behind the warrior face.

Here is a link to the entire article. The Mercury News site requires registration, but it is free.

This is the first of a new category of posts here -- "Valencia" -- with observations and commentary about the ups and downs of daily living here in VLC (the airport code for Valencia, now commonly used by our team and others as the abbrev. for Valencia).

Valencia isn't perfekt, no place is. But gradually I sense we as a team are coming to terms with if not enjoying the city and surroundings. Living here is inexpensive, the food is excellent, the locals are very friendly, good private schooling, and the weather much nicer than Auckland and, especially, Hamburg (our previous hometown).

We all knew going in that having the Cup for the first time in a non-Anglo country, especially one where relatively little English is spoken, was going to be tough on our mostly-Anglo families. I speak a little Spanish so it has been easier for me. Others are coping. Am impressed by the number of our teammates, and their families, who are sticking to their Spanish classes and books, and slowly but surely are picking up a bit of the lingo. And our Spanish team members ("tripulantes") like Anabella "Happy" Alegre, Sofia "Sarah" Barraclough, and Alejandra "Alex" Mato are a big help.

One aspect we all struggle with is the dust, even in the suburbs -- so it can't be blamed on the constant construction in and around downtown.

Here is an excerpt from today's edition of a popular English-language newsletter we subscribe to called Valencia Life:

MORE ON THE WAY
According to the weather experts, the ‘red rain’ that has been present recently in the Valencian Community, is only a presage of things to come. The most recent rainfall of this nature was the first rain to fall in the Community for over 50 days, but at the same time, left the biggest amount of red dust since records started in 1988. It would appear that the ‘red rain’ emanates from North Africa, and is only apparent when the storm is over.

So that explains it! Overnight, my car went from pristine clean to this...



The good news is that los meses calientes -- the hot months of July and August -- are just about behind us. Last summer seemed hotter. So either it has been a mild summer, or we have gotten used to the heat, or now that we are situated it is just not as uncomfortable as we expected. Probably some combination.

Having finally adjusted to the hot weather here, today I fly up to Malmoe. Racing begins next Thursday. We shall see just how thin the old blood has become. Am packing a heavy jacket just in case.

"The modern-day bowman's description encompasses three basic duties: Call the starting line, make the headsail changes, and do all the climbing*. But the simple description doesn't convey either the action or complexity of the work at hand. Done well, it's a job that takes speed, strength, and balance, as well as the ability to keep track of a dozen lines and parts that are constantly bending around turns and overlapping each other. It takes a personality that enjoys a certain amount of chaos and mayhem, and further enjoys salvaging order from it...."

So began an article in the January, 1995 issue of Sailing World, the authoritative USA yacht racing magazine, called "Cult of the Point" by Doug Logan.

"Point" in AC parlance means the pointy-end or bow of the boat; hence "pointman" in lieu of bowman who resides up in "frontierland." Indeed, it would seem bowmen must have a bit of cowboy in them to survive the frontier. Indeed, to my knowledge it is the only position on an AC boat which has a "union" and their own dedicated website.

For some reason the "Cult of the Point" article is showing up today in my various search engines tuned to "America's Cup." It was one of the better sailing articles in memory, and also highlights a bit of contemporary AC history, so I thought our readers might enjoy it.

The full text of "Cult of the Point" is available here.

*Ten year's later Doug Logan would have written "most of the climbing" as these days the Strategists, such as Eric Doyle, are also often up the rigs as windspotters and batten kickers.



Two of the best "pointmen" in the game, Alinghi's Dean Phipps and BMW ORACLE's Brad Webb in a photo (one of my favorites) from the UBS Trophy in Newport last year.