About to dock out: shot of USA 87 a few minutes ago -- boom cover is
already up to protect the crew from the very hot sun today on the
tow out. Dock out is at 12:15. Is already 33 deg (93F) and approach 40.

...hazy, hot and humid. At least there should be a decent seabreeze today.


We will try to find time to post these weather slides each race day,
courtesy of our team meteorologist, Chris Bedford (USA).

...for our family, friends and fans in the USA -- TV rights-holder OLN will carry Act 12 on a tape-delayed basis during the final weekend. Details on the Challenger Commission Blog

By the way, the CCB is where a lot of good, general information relevant to all Challengers gets posted on an almost daily basis. The site is well worth checking out, especially during regattas. Likewise, of course, our main team website.

VLC 2020 Wed

On the eve of Act 12, it is a warm, humid and airless evening in Valencia. Some of us are still here at the Base beavering away including....

Jane "Bubbles" Eagleson (USA), whose p.r. task never ends, is working on a request from the Today Show for another BMW ORACLE appearance next week. Nice!

Grant "Guthrie" Davidson (NZL) is here trying to sort out another power outtage (the third in as many days) which has cut the electricity off at our base and Luna Rossa's next door -- through no fault of ours! Not nice. In fact, a royal pain.

Russell "Greenie" Green (NZL) is hosting a nice (to be sure) group from our clothing partner, Henri Lloyd, including co-CEO Paul Strzelecki (GBR) -- who is among the nicest guys involved in AC 32.

Rules advisor Richard Slater (AUS) is at his apartment, but the phones are ringing and emails are flying back and forth as he sorts out final details on tomorrow's racing with the race committee and umpires.

No doubt there are others down in the sail loft, design office, and boat shed still hard at it.

For tomorrow, you heard it here first, or at least read it -- the pairing list for tomorrow's first day of Act 12. We race UITG (GER) in the first and Shosholoza (RSA) in the second.

And it is different from that which had been published some days ago, due to ACM's good efforts to improve the host TV broadcast. The TV "matches of the day" have been moved from the first match on each race course to the third match on each -- so the TV people can cover the starts of matches one and two before focusing their cameras for the duration on the third match.

Wind? Looks to be lightish again tomorrow, indeed for most of the early part of the regatta.

More tomorrow, but to quote once again our friends on the 2007AC Forums, "Let's Regatta."


The sailing team on a brief check-sail this afternoon on USA 87, our entry
for Act 12, waving to a group of school kids from Caxton College on a last-
week-of-school field, er, sea trip. This evening Dicko reported that all
systems are go.

Not enough going on for you with the Rockefeller Center exhibition in NYC continuing through 2 July and Act 12 beginning here in VLC tomorrow?

Then check out the welcome news (team website and CC Blog) announced at Kiel (GER) yesterday of the "German Sailing Grand Prix" that will take place there in August among United Internet Team Germany (GER), Team Shosholoza (RSA) and ourselves.

For the first time in the 155-year-old Cup history, three challengers will meet in Germany to compete against each other in a regatta.

Tony Kolb (GER, sailing team) was in Kiel yesterday with Benedict Horber (GER, marketing team) to make the announcement along with reps of the South African and German AC teams.


Tony Kolb (right) giving BMW Sauber F1 team driver Nick Heidfeld (GER) a
tour of our team base in VLC during Act 10 last month.

There is a good bit of video about BMW ORACLE Racing playing these days on the sail.tv website. Have a look.


Nice ink, or in this case, airtime for BMWOR.

Here in Spain, as in many places around the world, it's Father's Day. Our team has the day off, and we hope everyone is enjoying it as it will be the last chance to relax a bit before Act 12 begins this Thursday (22 June) and runs through at least Sunday 2 July. At least, we say, because Monday 3 July is a reserve day in case racing is not completed by the 2nd.

It's two full weeks of racing with plenty of shoreside action as well. Monday and Thursday next week are also reserve days, so hopefully the teams will get at least a bit of a break either or both of those days. Regardless, it will no doubt be a long, hard slog. I guarantee you there is not a person on our team who is not keyed up for the start of racing this coming Thursday, when our opening-day opponents will be GER and RSA.

In the meantime, relax and enjoy the nice Sunday here in VLC, or wherever in the world you may be celebrating Father's Day.


Jake Halcrow (CAN): "I love my Daddy!"

Laurence Brady's biography of Sir Thomas Lipton will be published by Birlinn in 2007. In the meantime, he has penned a piece for The Scotsman, Scotland's national newspaper, that also appears today on their website. Interesting perspective, and historical take, on brand-promotions and the America's Cup:

Sun 18 Jun 2006

Global yachting brands set up for challenge that was buoyed by Lipton's tea
LAURANCE BRADY

TWELVE teams from 10 countries are striving for superiority in one of the most daunting sporting challenges. It takes four years of hard-fought competition to triumph, and to make things harder for upstarts, the trophy-holders automatically qualify for the final - and have the right to defend the prize on waters of their choice.

In the 12th Louis Vuitton 'Act', running from June 22 to July 3, sailing teams will be watched live by thousands of spectators, and more than 80 television channels will broadcast their endeavours. New team entrants from China and South Africa will be set alongside more familiar competitors from New Zealand, Europe and the United States, each on budgets ranging from £30m to £65m.

The prolonged battle features mono-hull, 24-metre super-yachts weighing 24 tonnes with single masts 32 metres high, and the multinational sponsors benefit from at least three years of brand exposure, not to say opportunities for corporate hospitality.

The Swiss yacht, Alinghi, representing the Société Nautique de Genève Yacht Club, spoiled the party in Auckland three years ago by destroying the defenders, Team New Zealand, with five straight race wins, setting the stage for the first European defence of the America's Cup.

That defence was not confined to one location in the early stages, the showcase of yachting talent taking in Marseilles in France, Malmö in Sweden and Trapani on Sicily before centring on Alinghi's chosen port of defence, Valencia in Spain. Landlocked Switzerland was obviously not an option.

The America's Cup remained in American hands, at the New York Yacht Club, for the first 132 years of its 155-year history. When the schooner America crossed the Atlantic in 1851 and triumphed over the cream of British yachts, the gauntlet was thrown down. Until 1958, challengers aiming to reclaim America's Cup had to sail across the Atlantic and to take on the lightweight, sleek defender of the New York YC.

Challenges were not inevitably the preserve of the British aristocracy. Between 1899 and 1930, it fell to a grocer from Glasgow, whose name became synonymous with tea - and who developed into a global entrepreneur - to mount five challenges. In the America's Cup, Sir Thomas Lipton's name is a byword for sportsmanship.

Lipton was ahead of his time in spotting the opportunity to link his name and business to an international sporting event. And his peerless diplomacy and sportsmanship, win or lose, guaranteed many inches of favourable press coverage on both sides of the Atlantic.

In today's brand-and-sport-conscious global society, figures such as Ernesto Bertarelli, a pharmaceutical millionaire and head of the Alinghi syndicate, and Larry Ellison, who leads the BMW Oracle syndicate, are seeking to emulate Lipton's determination - and to win the cup.

The grand prize that eluded Lipton was eventually wrested from the Americans in 1983 by a syndicate led by the Australian entrepreneur, Alan Bond.

The 32nd America's Cup will reach its climax in June 2007 when the challenger with the most points accumulated from years of competition and a final victory in the Louis Vuitton Cup, will emerge to face Alinghi in the best of nine races.

Ellison's formidable BMW Oracle team, Emirates Team New Zealand and the Italian Luna Rossa stand out from the rest as the most likely contenders for the ultimate challenge. By the end of Louis Vuitton Act 11 in May, the three had established a gap of more than 30 points between them and the fourth-placed Desafio Español.

No overall British challenge is being mounted on this occasion, but individuals are involved. World-class British yachtsmen such as Ben Ainslie, the triple Olympic medallist, Ian Moore and Ian Percy have key roles to play in the respective challenges of Emirates Team New Zealand and +39, one of three Italian entries.

Whatever the outcome, there is no doubting the spectacular impact that the initial European America's Cup has brought to bear on the public, the media, the corporate sponsors and, not least, to the hitherto industrial port of Valencia.

Given Britain's unique contribution to the foundation of this sporting phenomenon, and the legacy of eminent men such as Sir Thomas Lipton, it is hoped that a new British challenge - for the 33rd America's Cup - will take shape in the months ahead.


Lipton was ahead of his time in spotting
the opportunity to link his name and busi-
ness to an international sporting event.

Larry will love this. The announcement by Bill Gates on Thursday that he would be stepping down from Microsoft sooner than later led to a story on NBC Nightly News that evening which included a shot of reporter Mike Taibbi standing on the deck of Spirit of New York (USA 49) in Rockefeller Plaza. The title of the piece was, "Baby boomers opt for second acts." So, LOL, a story on Boomer Bill gives Larry and our team brief but nice network news exposure with full branding. The MSNBC website has a transcript of the two-plus minute segment, as well as a video of the actual report that aired on NBC Thursday eve.

Congrats to Larry and Oracle for a great performance of their own in
the recent quarter.

Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of the BMW ORACLE Blog, or "The BOB" as our friends on the 2007AC Forums have come to call it.

We very much appreciate the many nice emails (even one text) about the BOB's first year, and the comments posted by DBS and Alex. Truth is keeping up the BOB takes a fair bit of time and effort, but it is usually a lot of fun and rewarding for the pleasure our families, friends, and fans are apparently finding in it. Interesting, too, to see how our team's general reaction has gone from skepticism (or worse), to tolerance, and, now wide acceptance.

Thanks to BMW for the idea and support, to Dicko for green-lighting it (this blog aside, Dicko has been surprisingly supportive, even innovative, when it comes to marketing/promotion/communication), and to Jane and Mirko for trying their best to keep me in line and on message without constraining let alone censoring. And it goes without saying, but to my wife Leslie and our dauther Meg who put up with me banging away on the computer at all hours of the night and day.

A special thanks to the gentleman who runs the "back end" -- Roland Neubauer of Sports Media Service in Munich, a talented agency that helps BMW with a lot of their online comms. Earlier this week we asked Roland if they could come up with our first-year stats, and he came back this morning with these:

316 stories
262 comments
1330 (!) images
approx 120,000 words

The images stat was a big surprise. Had no idea we'd posted that many. While in NYC this week a new Canon pocket cam with image-stabilization (hands getting shaky with age?) has been acquired, so, hopefully, we can lift our photo game a bit.

But, yikes, 120k words? That's 10,000 words per month. And we more or less took a couple months off along the way. No wonder the laptop keyboard is looking none too flash these days.

Finally, we are pleased to report that, thanks to all of you, the sitemeter shows a large and steadily growing readership over the past year:


Looks like June will be another record month.


OK, so let's get on with year two, and the final 12 months of AC 32. And it has started with a bang. Last evening BMW ORACLE had major functions in four cities around the world: Rome, Valencia, Kiel and NYC. Jane has a good story and some photos on yesterday's Rock Ctr events on the main team website. In short, it was a terrific day for the team, Cup and, indeed, our sport.

And, of course, the sailing and support teams in Valencia are hard at it getting ready for Act 12. We're on the plane back to VLC tonight, and can't wait for the racing to begin next Thursday. Should be a terrific regatta, and ensuing year.

Thanks again to you, our families, friends and fans for your continuing interest and support. Let us have any comments and suggestions -- always appreciated.

Jon "Z" Ziskind (USA, sailing team) being interviewed a few minutes ago
during the 0900 segment on NBC's Today Show by weatherman Al Roker.
We will post a video of the entire interview as soon as we have it.


The Long Island homeboy, now living in Valencia, comes home to the
the Big Apple to explain what a "trimmer" does -- and as you know it has
nothing to do with the lawn. Note to Chris Bedford -- you've got a new
member of your weather team: at the end of the interview Z presented
Mr Roker with a team shirt (with his name on it) and made him an honorary
member of BMW ORACLE Racing.

Two of our BMW ORACLE sailors -- Jon Ziskind (USA) and Ross Halcrow (NZL) -- will be on NBC's Today Show this morning (Thursday). One will be interviewed on the 0900 segment, and one on the 0930 segment. The Today Show airs in most local markets across the USA at the same time (live or taped).

And then at noon Eastern Time today CNBC's Power Lunch will be doing a two-hour special live from our BMW ORACLE exhibit at Rockefeller Plaza and covering in several different segments the business side of the America's Cup with a number of people connected with BMW ORACLE being interviewed. That is from 1200-1400 Eastern (New York) Time and is shown live worldwide on CNBC -- so those of you in Europe and Asia with CNBC on your cable or satellite should be able to tune in as well (again, it is live for two hours today from 1200-1400 New York time, or 1800-2000 in Western Europe, 1700-1900 in London).

The official AC 32 website is carrying the ACM press release that was issued today about the Cup-related events here in NYC this week and next, including the arrival tonight of the America's Cup and Louis Vuitton Cup. They will be on public display this Sunday and Monday as part of the BMW ORACLE Racing exhibit at Rockefeller Center.


The AC 32 title partner is, of course, Louis Vuitton. LV
has stores in many major cities around the world,
including a particularly spectacular one here in NYC
on Fifth Ave. Any bets as to whether the LV Cup makes
a brief appearance there this weekend?

Entrance to New York Harbour, outside of which the New York YC
defenses took place from 1870 until 1930 when moved to Newport at
the start of the J-Boat era. The Statue of Liberty was unveiled on October
28, 1886, sixteen years after AC1 (the first Cup defense -- the race
around the Isle of Wight in 1851 was not a Cup defense per se.)


St. Patrick's Cathedral is the largest decorated gothic-style Catholic
Cathedral in the United States. It is the seat of the archbishop of the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and a parish church, located at 50th
Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, just across the street from
Rockefeller Center. Work was begun in 1858, but was halted during the
American Civil War, commencing again in 1865. The cathedral was
completed in 1878 and dedicated on May 25, 1879. By then Cup racing
was in full swing -- the NYYC's third defense had taken place three years
earlier; AC 4 was in 1881.


Speaking of the J-Boat era, construction of the
Empire State Building began in March of 1930 on the
site of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel at 350 Fifth
Avenue at 34th Street. It was completed 14 months
later in May, 1931. Designed by the architectural
firm of Shreve, Lamb, & Harmon Associates, the
Empire State Building, at 102 stories, was the tallest
building in the world until the completion of the first
tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan
in 1972.


Photos by TFE in NYC this week.

With the twelve teams in final preps for Act 12, the 1230 dock out looks more like a parade of sail -- especially when it's bouncy outside the harbour, as the teams prefer to hoist their mainsails inside the Port America's Cup before towing out into the rough water.


From the back of the parade to the front: ESP, USA-76, RSA, ITA/39,
USA-87, NZL. Great picture, courtesy of Pierre Orphanidis and
Valencia Sailing. As usual, click on the image to enlarge.

It's been one year since BMW announced they were buying the Sauber F1 team. Congrats to our BMW F1 colleagues for their progress, and this nice ink on today's Motorsport.com:


It's never an easy job to set up a Formula One team, even when you're a manufacturer such as BMW and taking over an outfit that already exists. It was June last year when the announcement came that BMW had acquired a majority interest in Sauber and would enter the 2006 championship as a team in its own right.

After eight races this season BMW Sauber is fifth in the constructors' standings with 17 points, only three shy of Sauber's total for the whole of last year. Speaking exclusively to Motorsport.com in Munich, BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen confirmed that the development is going according to plan.

"Yes, it is," he says. "We are in a two year ramp -up phase which covers this year and next year and by then we will have expanded the factory in Hinwil and taken on more than 150 additional people."

He adds that the integration between BMW HQ in Munich and the team base in Hinwil, Switzerland, is also an ongoing project. "It takes at least one winter period to get the engineers together and a race season to get the track people together, so I think by the end of the year we should be there."

Full story


Mario Theissen (GER), BMW F1 driver Nick Heidfeld (GER) with Dicko at our
team base during Valencia LV Act 10 in May.


Prof Dr Theissen in our marketing chase boat Henri Lloyd before racing as
18th crew during Act 10.

Finally some details on our guys' win at the Trombini (see earlier post below) have come out from the organizers, via Scuttlebutt Europe:


As expected the final was between Chris Dickson and Paolo Cian, international star and winner of the 2005 trophy challenge. The final lived up to expectations, every lap of each race was full of surprises, overtakes, penalties and flying finishes.

Cian started in the lead and was ahead at the first mark. Dickson caught up and overtook at the second windward course and Cian got two penalties, one at the finishing line, he was beaten by just 3 seconds.

The second race saw a double overtake at the mark and Cian won by one length.

The third race was a close duel but Dickson won. The fourth and final race was decided by a sudden change of wind. Cian was in the lead on the first upwind course with 8 seconds advantage. On the second windward course Cian opted for the right side leaving Dickson behind on the left. Cian lost the wind whilst Dickson sped towards the lay-line, with a decisive advantage, winning with a 40 seconds margin.


Flipper, Dicko and Sue at the prizegiving.

NYC 0800 Monday

Just turned on the tube here in the NYC hotel room to find USA-49 nicely framed bow-on to the Today Show cameras.


Today airs in the USA Monday-Friday in most markets from 0700-1000. It
has been the top-rated national morning TV show for ten years. There is
also a weekend edition.


One often-overlooked reason the '87 Cup developed such a large following in the USA was the Today Show's tour around Australia that coincided with the LV Finals and AC match in Fremantle in January-February of that year. When visiting Perth their studio set was outdoors overlooking the AC harbour. Those of you who were there will likely remember the NBC Today Show party and Willard Scott walking in larger than life with outstretched arms and an ear-to-ear grin, and announcing, "We is here."

Indeed they were, just as BMW ORACLE Racing is today -- and all this week and next -- on The Today Show.

Just posted on the CC Blog is another story on life in Valencia that may be of interest to our team members and families.

As you will have read on our main team website, USA 49 arrived here in the Big Apple late Friday evening by truck from California.

Even without the updates from our logisitics team we would have known it was en route as Jane Eagleson and I have been receiving emails the past few days from people who were astonished to see the yacht trucking down the highways and byways of America. Some were already fans, some media; others didn't know what they were looking at until they apparently googled BMW ORACLE Racing, found our website or blog and contacted us.

Those of you in the USA who watched NBC's Today Show (weekend edition) Saturday morning would have seen the yacht being lifted into place and the mast stepped. The glass-walled Today Show studio is just a stone's throw from where 49 is set up in Rockefeller Plaza. No doubt the yacht and AC display will be making cameo appearances on the Today Show throughout this week and next.


Late Friday evening arrival of USA-49 into midtown Manhattan.


We checked out USA 49 Saturday evening after arriving NYC from VLC.
The yacht is right next to the Today Show studio and just above where
the famous Rockefeller Center skating rink is in the wintertime.


Looking back from the yacht to the Today Show studio. The open area
along 49's bow will be one of two pools with radio-controlled AC yachts
for the general public to try their hands at later in the week.


Security Guard Brian Tolan from Brooklyn said a lot of people were
stopping by to take pictures of 49. Some, he said, knew it was an
America's Cup yacht; others "have no clue and think it is weird but
kinda interesting to have a yacht in the middle of the City." Our
amigos católicos will be interested to know that the spike in the
background is part of St Patrick's Cathedral opposite Rock Ctr on the
east side of Fifth Avenue.


Today (Sunday) was the Puerto Rican Day parade up Fifth Ave. This pic
is looking across Fifth Ave to Rock Ctr over the parade and the happy,
boisterous throng assembled for one of Manhattan's biggest days each
year. It was good fun to take in the sights and sounds. Our good friend
and regular BOB reader Denise Holmberg (wife of Alinghi helmsman Peter
Holmberg) is a native of Puerto Rico and would have been proud. Wish
you were here, Denise!

Congrats to Chris Dickson (NZL), Zach Hurst (NZL), Kazuhiko “Fuku” Sofuku (JPN) and Paul “Flipper” Westlake (AUS) for their 3-1 win over Team Shosholoza's Paolo Cian (ITA) in the Finals of the XII Roberto Trombini Challenge Trophy today in Ravenna, Italy. Dicko & co. finished the ISAF "grade one" match racing regatta with an impressive overall 18-3 record.

Even sweeter given that Cian is the defending champion and a bit of a local hero. Paolo is also sailing well and has helped lift Shosholoza of late.

Our guys will be back in VLC Monday evening and join the balance of the team in continuing preparations for Act 12, which begins a week from this Thursday.


The fleet of Tom 28's. The 8.5m long
yachts were penned by +39's designer
(a Ravenna native) Giovanni Ceccarelli
specially for the Trombini Match Race.