Few if any other yachts clubs in the world have hosted as many top sailors over the years as Long Beach Yacht Club.

LBYC's Congressional Cup is widely regarded as the premier annual match racing regatta. It's the oldest and most prestigious of them all. Name a grand prix sailor -- skipper or crew, past or present (or top umpire for that matter) -- and he or she has probably participated in at least one Congressional Cup.

Each year 300 volunteers, mostly LBYC members, go the extra mile to make the regatta a success, and to be sure that each and every sailor competing has a great time. Teams are housed in private homes; the yachts are meticulously equalized and maintained; the racing is run right off the Belmont pier so the general public can take it all it; junior sailors vie to be assigned to the teams for local support and to be sure each evening the sailors can, well, relax; lifelong friendships are made all around.

So it was no surprise to our roadshow team that we were so warmly received and accommodated from the moment we arrived at the Club yesterday afternoon. Vice Commodore Conrad Banks and his effusive wife Katie, along with Board member Randy Smith, had nicely organized and promoted the event, and turned out a standing-room-only crowd. Club Manager Ron Bannaszak and his assistant Richard Ortega were on top of all the details.

And the enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience bid the auction items to the highest amount yet -- $14,400 -- all of which goes to the LBYC junior sailing program. Jane's story on our main website covers it well.

So Stop Five was another great evening, and a bit of a homecoming for Gary, Fresh and myself. Gary is a long-time LBYC member who has competed in the Congo Cup any number of times; indeed, the Club has named their junior sailing room in honor of Gary. Fresh has raced in Congo Cup as well, and I have had the pleasure of serving on Congo Cup juries and umpiring teams over the years; indeed it was at the '88 Congo Cup where umpiring was launched.

Most any sailor who has ever raced at LBYC would agree there is no friendlier, more hospitable club in the world. Vamos a la playa -- especially if it is la Playa Larga.


Grand prix sailing -- and hospitality.


Along with the seasonal decorations at the Club, there was an autumnal
nip in the otherwise stereotypically sunny Southern California weather.


Gary with long-time LBYC member Adra Kober at the Moet reception
prior to Thursday night's show. Adra was a key official in the 1984 Olympic
regatta conducted in Long Beach, and was the first female commodore at
a major yacht club in the United States. Her late husband, Chuck, was an
LBYC Commodore and President of US Sailing (then USYRU).


Design Coordinator and part-time sailing team member (navigator) Ian
"Fresh" Burns (AUS) caught up with us in Long Beach, even if his suitcase
didn't. Fresh's in-depth presentation on the design process generated
many questions from the SRO crowd.


Gary and Mirko auctioning off the Girard-Perregaux team watch.
Last night's auction set a new record -- a total of $14,400 raised for
the LBYC junior sailing program.


LBYC junior sailing program head Alex Uniac, outside the Club's
recently-dedicated "Jobson Junior Sailing Room." Needless to say Alex
was delighted that the BMW ORACLE Racing auction was so successful.


LBYC stalwart Dick Landis with Michel Mader (FRA). Michel has
participated in a number of Cup campaigns, including sailing on the
'92 winning defender America Cubed. Michel told us a very
funny story from the 1977 campaign about a certain Frenchman who
also happens to be our Operations Director; one never knows when
that story might come in handy.


Three generations of the Shadden family: Olympic medalist John
Shadden, son Thomas who is a keen junior sailor, and Grandpa Tom
Shadden. Tom is an LBYC staff commodore who has long been a key
supporter and organizer on behalf of junior and Olympic sailing in
Southern California.


A very happy Dan McCarry, double-winner in the auction, with
Jane going over the details of his 18th man ride next year.


AC mega-fan Diane Swintal is a regular and knowledgable
contributor to 2007AC forums, Diane emailed this morning to say,
"Thanks for a terrific presentation last night - it was especially
fascinating to get the nuts and bolts on design from Ian!"


Time to relax a bit after the show at the well-attended buffet
dinner. Vice Commodore and Mrs Banks (third and second from the
right) shared some hilarious stories about a number of current AC
sailors who have stayed with them during past Congo Cups -- Chis
Law and Jim Spithill, best be nice to The Blogster or you never know
when one of those stories might surface. ;-)


Last evening helped solidify support in the Long Beach area for
the "home team."

Last evening's gathering at St Francis YC was relaxed and most enjoyable. Many old friends were present and we reminisced about the discussions over the years about the Cup and its future that have taken place at St Francis luncheons and Tinsley Island talks. Indeed, much of "what's new for 32" -- the innovations for the 32nd America's Cup such as the pre-regattas a.k.a. "Acts" -- were debated at one time or another at various forums hosted by the forward-looking St Francis YC.

The members were particularly pleased to hear Larry Ellison talking on Gary's show-opening video about there being no better venue for a future Cup than San Francisco Bay.

Our thanks to Rodney Daniel (AUS, but living of late across the Bay in Oakland, CA) who joined us again last evening. Ian "Fresh" Burns was scheduled, but his flight from Munich (he was coming from Valencia) was delayed due to fog at MUC yesterday. Hopefully Fresh made it here late last night; now he can hop on another plane and fly with us down to LA today!

"So long to SFO" as we head to Southern California for Stop Five at Long Beach YC tonight, then Stop Six tomorrow (Friday) evening at California YC in Marina del Rey.


On the road again, la la la....

There are a couple recent posts on the Challenger Commission Blog, one about news in the Port of Valencia ("Blockade Over"), and one about Summertime and Wintertime or, as it is called in the USA, Daylight Saving Time ("Fall Back"), that our team members and friends may find interesting if not useful.

Also, a reminder that Bridget Baker's excellent "Valenica Cronica" -- news and information primarily for the benefit of AC families living in Valencia -- is being posted each week on the CC Blog.

Link me all over.

Spirits were running high last night for Stop Three at our "home port" in San Francisco, Golden Gate Yacht Club. So much so that the auction proceeds, benefitting the GGYC Youth Sailing Foundation, topped the large amount raised at Annapolis YC the night before. We were very warmly received by everyone from Commodore and Mrs David Haskins to the GGYC high school sailing team who volunteered for KP -- kitchen patrol -- to help serve the four-course dinner.

As you might expect, each of the Tour Stops has had a different flavor. New York was more about the history and tradition of the Cup, and "What's New for Thirty-Two" (AC 32). Annapolis being the home of Farr Yacht Design and with so many design team members present was, of course, focused on AC research, design and technology.

Last night was about sailing. Not only was Stop Three the first and only time we will have two sailing team members with us on the stage, but GGYC's community-based high school sailing team were present in force. They had a number of very good questions for Eric Doyle (USA) and Rodney Daniel (AUS).

Being a Friday, and our home yacht club, last evening had more of a gala feeling. A newly painted clubhouse, valet parking, plenty of Moet, fancy hors d'oeuvres, immaculate table settings, four-course meal, lively jazz trio, and the many Bay-area friends, colleagues and former colleagues who were present made it a special evening.

It was nice to be "home," and wouldn't GGYC and San Francisco be a nice home for the America's Cup?

Next stop is Wednesday night (2 Nov) at St. Francis YC.


Staff Commodore and AC Liaison Norbert Bajurin welcoming the
130 guests to GGYC with a brief history of the Club, which was
founded in 1939 as the Club Puerto del Oro. No wonder we feel so
at home in Valencia.


Rodney Daniel (left) and Eric Doyle (center) were peppered with
questions, especially from the GGYC high school sailing team. Rodney
and Eric have been sailing since they were pre-teens, and they
emphasized the value of school and college sailing.


Another SRO audience. A number of Bay-area media were also
present, including Jim Doyle of the SF Chronicle. Above on the
right adjusting his camera is Chuck Lantz of the popular
2007AC Forums. Lining the back wall is the GGYC high school sailing
team.

Ingrid Sommer (AUT) and LV's Monica Savini (FRA) admire the new,
limited-edition Girrard-Perregaux watch being produced in honor
of Golden Gate YC as the AC 32 Challenger of Record. We appreci-
ate GP's Stefano Macaluso (SUI) making the long cross-country flight
from Annapolis to be with us again last evening.


Mirko with the auction winners. As at Annapolis YC Thursday
evening, the benefit auction was a huge success. Check out Jane's
story on our main team website for the details. Staff Comm. Ned
Barrett (second from left) looks particularly happy after winning
the 18th man ride.


GGYC Commodore David Haskins kept a close eye on the
proceedings. He was elated with the $13,750 raised for the
Club's junior sailing program -- nearly twice the program's
annual budget.

En route BWI-SFO, 0830 PDT Friday

Otra vez is Spanish for "again" or "another time."

Last night at Annapolis YC it was standing room only otra vez. Or in the words of the famously fractured (at least when it came to language) New York Yankees baseball manager Yogi Berra, "deja vu all over again."

Early this morning our team website already had a story posted about last evening's Stop Two. If you have not already looked it is well worth the read. Good work by Jane and the website gang in Munich to get a comprehensive post up quickly.

I think we were all blown away by the success of the auction benefiting the AYC junior sailing program. This year three young sailors representing the club won the Sears Cup, the most prestigious junior sailing prize in the USA. No doubt the junior program is well deserving of the added support.

But last night's real focus was our team's design program. As Annapolis is the hometown of Farr Yacht Design, Mirko (who serves, in effect as our Executive Producer on this Tour) made R&D the centerpiece of Stop Two. Bruce Farr introduced the members of his team, all Annapolis-area residents, who are directly involved with BMWOR's testing and design program. Britt Ward then gave the guests a look inside the process and tools being used by our team to fulfill the technical aspect of that winning AC equation: "gathering and managing the resources that result in fast boats, well sailed, that don't break."

A lot of work goes into these YC Tour "shows." Britt wrote and re-wrote his extensive and in-depth presentation, prepared all the powerpoint slides, and rehearsed it a number of times, including yesterday afternoon's dress rehearsal in front of a "test audience" who were not shy about suggesting a few more last-minute massages to the message. No surprise that it ended up being one of the best insider AC technical presentations in memory, especially for a non-techie crowd.

Jamie Gail (NZL) flew down from his home in Portland, Maine and, like his adopted home state, was a breath of fresh air. Gary had a number of good questions for Jamie, as did the audience during the Q&A, which Jamie handled with ease, engaging directness, and more than a bit of humour. As Jamie is a regular on the sailing team (in the pivotal "pitman" position), we never get him over for the Morning Show on race days in Team Hospitality. Too bad because he is a natural.

Speaking of which, as the sport becomes more professional and there are more such morning shows, club tours, media interviews and the like involving the sailing and design teams, it is interesting to note the change in attitude among those we pull into such sessions and the team in general. It used to be like pulling teeth. But our guys largely get it -- that they have professional responsibilities on and off the water -- and all, especially the fans, appreciate it.

Tonight is Stop Three, our "home port" Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco. The focus will be on the sailing team as both Eric Doyle (USA) and Rodney Daniel (AUS) are joining us on the dias. We are expecting yet another sold-out event.

Otra vez.



Jamie Gale (right) getting a laugh out of Bruce Farr (second from right)
and the rest of us during last night's Q&A. Jamie could probably have a
second career in stand-up comedy.


Mirko presents a BMW ORACLE half-model to AYC Commodore Mike
Meyers in appreciation for AYC's hospitality and support.


Mark McGonigle, left, was the winning bidder on both the Henri
Lloyd jacket and the Girard-Perregaux team watch. With Mark is
GP's Stefano Macaluso (SUI).


Good to see so many young faces last evening. Design team
members Mat Bird (team shirt, left) and Bryan Baker (team shirt,
right) with AYC friends Bill Cook (left), Mike Jones (center) and
Bryan's fiance, Kristin (right).

Annapolis, 06:15 Thursday

Yesterday was a travel day. We managed to get most of our bags and equipment into the rental car before driving the five hours down the coast from NYC to historic Annapolis -- capitol of the State of Maryland, and picturesque home of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis Yacht Club (where Stop Two is tonight) and, of course, Farr Yacht Design.


Annapolis, is situated on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay between
Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Like Newport, Rhode Island (which is
just south of Providence in the upper right corner of the map above),
Annapolis is an historic seaport and a hotbed of American sailing.


The City Dock near the Statehouse.


We made it to Annapolis just in time for the kind dinner invitation
extended by Farr Yacht Design. Clockwise from left: Bruce
and Gail Farr, David "Scooter" LaCouter (the noted high-altitude
consultant), Jane Eagleson, David Fornaro, Bryan Baker, Britt Ward,
Mat Bird and Mirko Groeschner. Not pictured, Alon Finkelstein.


FYD's Britt Ward (AUS/USA) will be one of the presentors this evening
at Annapolis Yacht Club, along with sailing team member (pit) Jamie Gale
(NZL/USA). At dinner Britt gave us rundown on the talk he has planned,
and then it was off to AYC for a venue check.

BMWOR's media relations manager, Jane "Bubbles" Eagleson (USA), has been responsible for organizing the Club Tour. It is not a simple job, with more than a few logistical challenges. The format varies at each Club according to their wishes and the lineup of presentors. And there is plenty of media work along the way, as well as extensive coordination with our sponsor partners.


Before leaving Valencia, Jane and Julie "Jewels" (or, since she also works
for the design team, is it "Joules"?) Sutherland (NZL) had to book flights,
hotels, and rental cars, ship materials to the clubs, and otherwise attend
to the deluge of details necessary to put and keep the show on the road.
Julie is one of our team's unsung heroes. Jane rarely misses a detail, or a
receipt.


Media work before and after each Tour stop: on Tuesday morning
Jane organized a media roundtable at NYYC with Dicko and a few key
NYC-area media at NYYC.


Sponsor coordination: Outside the NYYC on a rainy Tuesday, saying
farewell to Bjoern Widemann, Allianz Sponsorship Director, as he was
leaving for JFK to fly back to Munich. Tuesday morning Dr. Joachim
Faber, Member of the Board of Management of Allianz AG and head of
Allianz Global Investors, also participated in the media activities
coordinated by Bjoern and Jane.

Stop One -- Standing Room Only.


NYC, 05:15 Tuesday

Last evening the spiritual home of the America's Cup -- the "Model Room" of the New York Yacht Club in midtown Manhattan -- was overflowing for the first stop on our USA Yacht Club Tour. 200+ guests, largely NYYC members, arrived early and stayed late. The enthusiasm was infectious.

Some had driven or trained in from as far away as Annapolis and Newport. Most had made their way from their NYC offices through the cool, rainy rush-hour in time for a glass or two of Moet before the 18:30 start. Gary "Jobbo" Jobson (USA), Cup-winning tactician with Ted Turner on Courageous in 1977 and long-time AC television commentator on the ESPN, opened our 75-minute presentation with a rousing review of Cup developments past and present. Gary's intro was highlighted by a six-minute video he produced just last week especially for our Club Tour.

(If you are thinking about joining us at any of the other seven Tour stops, Gary's video will be shown at each. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good video is worth a million. In a word, the video is awesome. )

After a warm welcome to all from NYYC Commodore George Hinman (bowman on the winning defender Intrepid in the '67 Cup), Dicko was at the top of his shore-side game in delivering a spirited 15-minute talk on what managing and racing in the 32nd AC is all about. In a nutshell, Chris said the Cup is alive and well and living in Europe. With the advent of the 13 pre-regattas ("Acts") and more racing, the most number of nations ever, mulitple venues, a number of other strong teams, and other developments, to be involved is more fascinating and challenging than ever. To win it, Chris said, is an even bigger ask than in the past, but there is no team with a better chance than the USA's only challenger, BMW ORACLE Racing.

Following Dicko, I took the attentive audience through a ten-minute powerpoint presentation (prepared by our team's resident .ppt king, Mirko Groeschner) explaining "What's New for Thirty-Two." Building on Chris's "alive and well" theme, we highlighted the five most significant new features that together the Defender and Challenger of Record have wrought:

+ Central Organizing Committee.
+ Bidding out the venue.
+ "Boxing" the boat.
+ Simplified rules.
+ More and better racing.

Gary then moderated a Q&A. Dicko and I were peppered with questions. We would have encroached on everyone's dinner plans had Gary not politely wrapped things up after 15 minutes of lively back and forth.

The purpose of the Club tour is simple. With the Cup in Europe and OLN's coverage yet to get underway in a significant way, so far AC 32 has been a bit "out of sight and out of mind" in the USA. So we are here to inform and entertain at these prestigious clubs -- to boost awareness for the Cup, our team and sponsors at the heart of the USA sailing community. More importantly, we hope to show and share the passion that Larry, Chris and every one of our 130+ BMW ORACLE colleagues has for the Cup, and our commitment to winning it.

As Gary said last evening, support of hometown fans gives a boost to every professional sports team. Our "hometown" is the USA, and we are the only American challenger. And as good as the Cup is and will be in Europe, wouldn't it be even better to bring it back to the USA and San Francisco Bay -- perhaps with pre-regattas not only in cities like Marseille and Trapani, but in more USA venues such as Newport, Annapolis, Miami, Chicago, San Diego, LA and Seattle?

Stop Two is Annapolis Thursday evening. Speaking of hometowns, it's not only Gary's (who will be with us again at AYC), but also the stomping grounds of Bruce Farr and his FYD colleagues, many of whom are intimately involved in our campaign. We hear another packed house is in store.

¡Vamos!


The 44th St clubhouse. Click here for the official
NYYC website.


The magnificent Model Room. Copyrighted photo
courtesy of Walter Dufresne. For more pictures of the
architecturally significant 44th St clubhouse, click here
for Mr Dufresne's site.

Apropos the Model Room -- Commodore Hinman receiving a
BMWOR half-model from Dicko in appreciation for the warm
welcome we received last evening at NYYC.

Stop Two: Thursday evening in
Annapolis, Maryland, just outside
Washington, DC.

Today the ACM website leads with a very nice story on our sailing team manager, Olympic medalist and two-time Cup winner Craig "Monkey" Monk (NZL).

The last two paragraphs were particularly good quotes (we should use them on the USA Yacht Club tour which begins tonight at NYYC -- we will be blogging the tour):

While Monk has being doing this job for a long time, he is far from getting tired or bored of the life of an America’s Cup grinder. “Every Cup I seem to enjoy it more and more. The event’s changing, getting bigger, and I enjoy these regattas. I’ve done it the other way where we sailed from 1995 through to 2000 and we just did five years of testing, for five races in the Cup. Those were hard yards.”

After the years of secrecy and two-boat testing, Monk welcomes the Louis Vuitton Acts as a breath of fresh air. “These are definitely high quality regattas. There’s a lot of planning, a lot of shore work, a lot of logistics involved, we’ve got to bring 25 sailors to these events. It’s a two-week package, and you’ve got to put everything together. Training can’t simulate that in-house. It tests everyone right across the board, the shore crew management, sail makers, sailors, boatbuilders – the whole lot. You’ve got to be on top of your game, it lifts the team to a new level.”

Nice ink for Craig, our team and, indeed, the Cup.

Multi-talented Monkey: not only does Craig sail, he is sailing
team manager, serves on the team Executive Committee, and
even helps out with the Morning Show on days he is not racing.

Thanks for the many nice comments on the post a week about team culture. Anytime we are able to post pictures that tell a story about the Cup, our team or a related event the feedback is immediate and gratifying, so we will try to keep those coming.

Speaking of team culture, team members reading this post will know there is a story behind the picture below....

Every AC team ends up, sooner or later, with a "team song." Once agreed, it gets used in audio/video presentations, is played the team docks out on a race day, etc. To some degree, the team songs reflect, indeed helps shape, the "team culture."

A good example of a current team song is the South African folksong "Shosholoza" after which their team is named. It means "go forward" -- persevere in the face of a challenge -- and seems particularly apropos for a start-up AC team.

Another was Team Dennis Conner's 1995 song, "Top Gun" (theme from the movie). Not only was the movie made in San Diego, but DC knew the team needed to shoot down some high flying rivals -- both other defenders and challengers -- if we were to win the Cup. Heavier thinkers might have said DC fancied himself as Tom Cruise, but somehow one doubts that.

The choice of song is often the source of friendly debate within the team -- both serious and not so. Our current dock-out song, popular with almost all concerned, is U2's "Vertigo."

One song that was suggested, and roundly rejected, is in this morning's headlines. ("Swedish pop group ABBA's catchy "Waterloo" hit that won the European Song Contest 31 years ago has been voted the best song in the event's history by viewers across the continent.")

While the tune may be catchy, no self-respecting AC team could possibly use a song whose reprise goes:

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo

Not to mention that, in the meantime, the song has become, well, culturally iconic.

We will give the person who suggested it, a European whose formative years coincided with Abba's ascendency, and whose native language is not Englisch, the benefit of the doubt and assume he did not know the lyrics. Needless to say, he has come in for a heap of good-natured ribbing.

Lately "Waterloo" has become almost the team's anti-song -- played when someone receives one of Mark Bradford's light-hearted and hilariously funny "FITH" (don't ask) awards for making a notable bone-headed play in some aspect of his or her work for the team.

All in good fun, and always kulturally korrekt.

Not exactly the Beatles, or U2
for that matter.

A crack yesterday in the wall of part of the canal that will unite the interior part of Valencian Port with the sea resulted in the entire area being inundated with seawater.

Initially, the Port authorities had considered trying to block it using trucks filled with sand, but finally last night the America's Cup works team stated that they would let the flooding go ahead and end the work with the seawater already in place.

This is not the first time that works for the America's Cup have encountered problems. Just after the first preparations began, two unexploded bombs dating from the Spanish Civil War were discovered.

Source: Valencia Life newsletter.

To see our post in September with aerial views of the canal construction, before the crack, click here.

Am posting this in the Munich airport en route to New York for the first stop on our BMW ORACLE Racing USA Yacht Club tour, so am unable to grab a picture myself. If anyone has pictures they would like us to post, please send them to blog[at]tfehman.com.

Apparently the canal has filled with water a bit ahead of schedule.

There is a post on the Challenger Commission site that further explains the 2006 schedule, released by ACM during the Trapani Acts.

With that post is a link to a .pdf file that shows the 2006 Acts calendar as a graphic.
Some have asked us for a simple picture of that calendar. Here it is as a .jpg file, from which you can cut and paste if needed for other purposes.

Service with a smile. ;-)

2006 Schedule for Acts 10, 11 and 12 in Valencia.

Our "Port Office", near the Darsena, is where the Marketing, Design, and Business departments are headquartered until the new base is complete. With the RCNV base all but dismantled, and the new Base not quite ready, the Port Office is busier than ever.

We could not run the campaign, let alone have a shot at winning, without the people pictured below. They go about their important jobs quietly and largely behind the scenes (and "Acts" for that matter), but are just as professional in their approach, and intense in their focus, as our sailing team. Cool people all.

Lunch at the Port Office: Clockwise from left, Rodrigo Azcueta
(ARG), Frank Albina (FRA), and Asim Khan (PAK) of the design team;
Diana Puketapu (NZL), business department; Joseph Ozanne (FRA)
and Juan Kouyoumdjian (ARG), design team; Gillian Williams (NZL),
business department.