London, 1645 Saturday

The late, great American TV host, Ed Sullivan, used to open his weekly variety show with those words (in our headline). They sum up nicely the action here at the Collins Stewart London Boat Show at the ExCel Centre in the Docklands area of London.

Mirko and I arrived Wednesday evening to assist our partners BMW, Girard Perregaux and Henri Lloyd with presentations on our large BMW ORACLE Racing stand during the show's final four days.

The centre piece of the stand, of course, is USA 61. Today alone over 2000 people have stood in line (er, queue) for up to fifteen minutes to get a chance to climb the stairs and see 61 up at the deck level.

Between presentations, media work, and meetings/socials with our sponsor-partners we have not found much blogging time. However, we do have some good pix that we will get up ASAP. In the meantime, here is one from Wednesday when Princess Anne, a keen sportswoman and President of the Royal Yachting Association (the UK's national sailing authority) visited our stand -- and spent well more than the four minutes allotted in her very tight schedule.




And a shot from yesterday....



Photos courtesy of Matt Dickens and Tim Stonton/onEdition. Copyright onEdition 2007©

With the holiday break behind us, the team is hard at work on several fronts, especially Auckland with the arrival of USA 98 from the States Monday, and the imminent start of "Summer Sailing Session #2" in New Zealand -- two boating with 71 and 98.

Today our Auckland base also had a visit from 28 young German sailors who had been competing in the 420 Worlds across the Harbour Bridge in Takapuna for the past week. Sailing Team Manager Craig Monk (NZL) gave "420 Team Germany" a behind-the-scenes tour. The visit was the idea of former Optimist World Champ Tina Lutz (GER), who was a guest of BMW ORACLE Racing during Louis Vuitton Act 6 at Malmo in 2005. Tina’s father, Dr. Reinhold Lutz, is also with the German 420 sailors in Auckland and organized the visit. 420 Team Germany coach Gerd Eiermann also joined the tour.

The following pictures of just some of the action shoreside today at our temporary team base on Halsey Street in the Viaduct are courtesy of Captain Craig Christensen (NZL). Thanks, Craig, and keep 'em coming. We'll give you a new title -- the BOB's NZL Senior Correspondent.

As you may seen by now in the various media reports and on our main team website, early this (Monday) morning in Auckland, our logistics magician, Scotty Sandford (NZL), saw to it that our new ACC yacht, USA 98, was safely and quietly delivered into the boat shed at our temporary "summer training" base on Halsey St. in Auckland.

This was the successful culmination of months of tri-continent planning and finely-tuned execution by, among others, our ops jefe Laurent "Leroy" Esquier (FRA), logisitics/basing manager Grant "Guthrie" Davidson (NZL), yacht construction manager Mark Turner (NZL) and his intrepid gang in Anacortes, shore team manager Tim Hacket (NZL), and our marketing/pr team.

An excerpt from the communique Jane "Vale" Eagleson (USA), our PR maven, is sending today to team members, families and sponsor/partners about our latest campaign milepost....

USA 98 slipped into our temporary base in Auckland, New Zealand this morning under the cover of darkness after the long journey by road and sea from Anacortes, WA, USA. Scott Sandford, our New Zealand Logistics Manager, accompanied the boat for the final leg of its journey overnight from Tauranga, New Zealand to Auckland. Shrink-wrapped and strapped onto the flatbed truck, the boat arrived to the Viaduct at about 4:30 am. Boat construction manager Mark Turner and shore team manager Tim Hacket were at the base to unload the new yacht from the truck into the boat shed. Shortly after 5am, the boat was safely unloaded before the sun was even up.

Later in the morning, it was like the first day back to school after summer break. Team members arrived to work after their Christmas holidays excited and refreshed for the New Year. The arrival of the new boat had the guys pumped and the base was humming as the boat-building team, shore team and those sailing team here all pitched in to start prepping for next week’s sailing. Most of the sailing team arrives in New Zealand in the next week.

USA 98 will be launched for the first time next week and then the sailing team will conduct sea trials before race training begins. USA 71, which sailed in Auckland last month, will serve as the trial horse for the new race yacht. The team will focus on crew preparation for the 2007 Cup season with an intensive sailing program over the next 5 weeks.

So that's the latest -- the first (design), second (construction) and third (shipping to NZL) phases of 98's mission are accomplished, and so far so good. On with the fitting out, testing, and training.

This, too, is the first confirmation of 98 as our second sail number. Once, however, Luna Rossa announced a few weeks back that they had 94, it would have become obvious to most that the two remaining unclaimed numbers -- 98 and 100 -- belonged to BMWOR and Alinghi respectively. Now the world knows for sure, not that it's a big deal. But to those of you who thought our second boat was 94 or 96, better luck next time. ;)

Is 98 auspicious? Time will tell. But in the meantime, it can only be a good sign that number 98 is the atomic number for the element californium. And there is some elegance to the sequence 76-87-98.

Hard to believe it was 28 years ago that I first met Chris Dickson. We came to know each other when Dicko, in his mid-teens, appeared on the world sailing scene at the IRYU (now ISAF) World Youth Sailing Championships -- as did a number of other current, top sailors including Russell Coutts, Charlie McKee and our teammate and aero coordinator JB Braun (USA). This was in the late 70's and early 80's. At these events I was coaching the USA team and, later, serving on the jury.

Dicko was winning. In fact, he won an unprecedented (and unmatched since) three world youth sailing titles. At the time the doublehanded Youth Worlds was raced primarily in the International 420 Class. Indeed, Dicko won two of his Youth Worlds titles in the 420, and a third in the Laser II.

This morning, one hears, Dicko showed up in the dinghy park at the Takapuna Boating Club on Auckland's north shore, host of the 2007 420 Class World Championship, to have a look around and chat with some of the 232 young sailors competing.

A generation after he was winning similar youth events, Dicko has a couple children of his own, and is in his fifth AC campaign, this time as skipper and CEO. How many of these kids racing in Takapuna this week aspire to someday participate in the AC in any capacity? You can bet just about all of them. And nice to see Chris, now quite the sailing celeb, going back to his roots and spending some time with these up and coming sailors.

Photos below courtesy of Sail-World.com/NZ's Richard Gladwell.

Forecast charts (not the captions, LOL) courtesy of the BBC Weather Center.

On this, the 12th day of Christmas, while most of the Christian world has already begun packing up the ornaments, throwing out the tree, and finding a place for all of their gifts, Spaniards are continuing the celebration. All the stores are closed, and at least here in Valencia it is another clear, beautiful and unusually quiet Saturday.

Today also marks the rapidly approaching "beginning of the end" of AC 32.

In Spain, 6 January is Dia de los Tres Reyes -- Three Kings Day -- the long awaited day on which the three kings bring their gifts. On 5 January, children go to a parade where they see the three tings arrive in their city, and take the opportunity to ask them for gifts. Later, before going to bed, children leave their shoes out in a visible spot in the house or on their balcony. They go to bed hoping that when they wake up they will find gifts left by Mechior, Gaspar, and Balthasar.

For breakfast or after lunch, families often have the typical dessert of the day, the Roscón de los Reyes, a large ring shaped cake that is decorated with candied fruits, symbolic of the emeralds and rubies that adorned the robes of the three kings. Somewhere inside the cake there is a surprise, and the person to find it will be crowned King or Queen of the house for the remainder of the day. [Source: Escuela Internacional]

For those of us involved in AC 32 today has other significance: on 6 April, three months from today, Act 13 will be over; and a short month after that, on 6 May 2007, the LVC Rounds Robin will be over and seven of the eleven Challengers go home. More on the Challenger Commission site.

Nice to see BMW New Zealand supporting the 420 World Championships being held this week off Takapuna on Auckland's North Shore. No real surprise that after three days of racing young Kiwis are dominating the event, currently led by defending world champs Carl Evans and Peter Burling. The top five:

1st NZL Carl Evans & Peter Burling – 5 points
2nd NZL Simon Cooke & Scott Illingworth – 14 points
3rd NZL Rowan Swanson & Bruce Kennedy – 19 points
4th AUS Sam Kivell & Max Taylor – 29 points
5th BRA Marcos Adler & Bruno Faria – 36 points

BMW ORACLE Racing has a number of team members from the UK, to say nothing many fans and friends there. We were delighted, therefore, to hear the news today about the newly announced ORIGIN Challenge from GBR for the next America's Cup.

Not only is the UK one of the best sailing nations, at least in terms of Olympic and Offshore racing, the economy is of course among one of the world's largest. At least of the Anglo countries, the British media is probably the most sailing- and Cup-savvy of any. And it's where the Cup all started back in 1851 -- hence, we hear, one of the reasons the name ORIGIN was chosen for their new team. Aside from the USA, historically GBR has played a larger and longer role in the Cup than any other nation.

All good reasons to welcome Sir Keith & Co into the AC 33 fold.

Check the posts about all that on the Challenger Commission site, or click here for their new team website.

Over the past 61 years, the Sydney-Hobart has become an icon of Australia’s summer sport, ranking in public interest with such national events as the Melbourne Cup horse race, the Davis Cup tennis and the cricket tests between Australia and England. One of the two or three most prestigious ocean races in the world, no yachting event today attracts such huge media coverage -– except, of course, the America’s Cup and the Round the World Race.

Congrats to BMWOR's design coordinator Ian Burns (AUS) and sailing team member Rodney Daniel (AUS) who raced aboard first-to-finish (second year in a row) Wild Oats XI in last week's 630nm "bluewater classic."

They were champs on shore as well. At the 2 January prizegiving it was announced that the Wild Oats XI crew had clubbed together to donate AUD$ 2,000 for the cancer fund-raising being carried out during the race by British skipper Michelle Colenso, who's Oyster 55 Capriccio of Rhu won the Cruising Division. Mid-way through a round the world cruise Colenso was diagnosed with breast cancer and she competed in the Sydney Hobart despite being mid-way through her chemotherapy treatment.

More at the Sydney-Hobart Race official website.

Do you read the excellent YachtingWorld.com website?

Would you like the chance to win a beautiful scale model of a BMW ORACLE America's Cup Class yacht?

To enter the competition, click on the image of the model. Competition closes 18 January 2007.

Hard to believe, but the final AC 32 pre-regatta, Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13, begins on 3 April -- three months from today. The Act 13 Notice of Race has now been published by Regatta Director Dyer Jones, and is available to read or download here.

The Challenger Commission has a good (in your Ed.'s humble opinion) story posted that explains the 2007 AC racing program, including Act 13's fleet racing format and schedule.

Why is Act 13 so important?

+ It is the last time the Defender formally gets to race with the Challengers. When the AC 32 Protocol was negotiated, Alinghi insisted on having Act 13 as a means for the them to "check in" with the Challengers, because....

+ In Act 13 the Challengers and the Defender must use one of their "declared" AC 32 yachts (on or before 31 March each team must declare the one or two Version 5 ACC yachts, built in their home country, that they may use in the LVC and/or Match). With the LVC starting just eight days after Act 13, you can be sure that the Challengers will be using their Top Gear. The Defender? We shall see.

+ The Defender aside, the Challengers will be battling for their final Louis Vuitton Ranking points. This is a "times three" regatta so the top Challenger in Act 13 will score 11 x 3 or 33 ranking points, second place 10 x 3 or 30 points, etc. Together with points accrued in Acts 4-12, these final ranking points will determine the overall standing of the Challengers going into the Louis Vuitton Cup, which in turn determines how many bonus points each Challenger gets to carry into the LVC Rounds Robin. There are LVC tie-breaking implications as well. (See the above-mentioned CCB post for details.)

+ Act 13 will be the first time a number of Challengers will race a new ACC yacht; and likely the first some will race their second new yachts.

+ It the last chance for the Challengers to check in with each other, sort their boats and technology, and polish their tactics and crewwork before the start of the LVC only nine days hence.

+ Finally, it is an all-systems warm up -- for the teams, organizers, television, host city, etc. -- and a chance to promote, locally and worldwide, the imminent start of the the Louis Vuitton Cup and, shortly thereafter, the 32nd edition of the oldest, and arguably most prestigious, trophy in international sport.

To whet your Act 13 appetite, we'll end this post with some great Gilles-Martin Raget shots from previous fleet-racing Acts.

...to the Port America's Cup in Valencia -- in less than three months in fact (on 1 April) -- "Unveiling Day".

See the Unveiling Day story posted last evening over on the Challenger Commission Blog.

Here is a nice photo sequence by Gilles Martin-Raget of the launching of a skirted ACC yacht, whichs will give you a bit of an idea of what a pain it is to deal with the skirt and, hence, why the sailing and shore teams will be happy when they come off on April 1st....

...to a BMW showroom near you.

BMW is well known for nifty in-car implementation of technology, but our Bavarian friends have something brewing that is causing quite a stir in the geek press. There's more of this tech tease on the Autoblog website. Why does this remind me of the cheeky launch of the bow-spritted USA 87?

;-)

...to waters near you, assuming you live in or around Valencia, more AC racing in less time than any similar period in the 156-year history of the America's Cup -- the oldest trophy in international sport. Below is the 2007 Racing Schedule as issued by AC Management; click here to see or download a larger Adobe .pdf version, or click here to download an even larger (still one page) MS Word .doc version.

...to waters near you, assuming you live in or around Auckland....



...to waters near you, assuming you live in or around Dubai....

...to a Boat Show near you, assuming you live in or around London....

...to a website near you, the Notices of Race for Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 13 (3-7 April 2007), and for the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup "Challenger Selection Series" (16 April - 12 May 2007). See the New Year's Eve post on the Challenger Commission Blog re. their publication by Regatta Director Dyer Jones yesterday.

UPDATE: The NORs for Act 13 and the LVC are now posted on the CCB here, along with a simple explanation of the entire 2007 AC racing program.

...to a Team Base near you (assuming you are a BMW ORACLE colleague), in addition, of course, to a new ACC yacht...

To all of our colleagues, families, friends and fans, best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Successful 2007.