Racing begins at Trapani in two and a half weeks, on Thursday 29 Sep. It is the same format as Malmö, with a week of match racing (Act 8) followed by three days (Fri-Sun) of fleet racing (Act 9). So the 2005 ACC "season" closes on Sunday 9 Oct, with not only the Act 9 winner receiving prizes but also the 2005 ACC Season Champion being crowned. The latter is for bragging rights, and is a series including Alinghi that is separate from the on-going and all-important CSS Ranking for the Louis Vuitton Cup.

For the record, the current ACC 2005 standings:

1- Alinghi, 47 points
2- BMW ORACLE Racing, 41
3- Emirates Team New Zealand, 40
4 - Luna Rossa Challenge, 40
5- Desafío Español 2007, 28
6- K-Challenge, 23
7 - Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, 23
8 - Victory Challenge, 22
9 - +39 Challenge, 20
10 - United Internet Team Germany, 15
11 - Team Shosholoza, 7
12- China Team, 6

The scoring is simple: 12 points for winning an Act, 11 for second, 10 for third and so on. With Alinghi six points out front, it will be hard to catch up with only two regattas to go -- we would need to win both and have Alinghi finish no better than third in one and fourth in another. More important for us is to sail well, continue to learn about ourselves, our boat and the competition, and try to put more points between us and the other challengers in the above-mentioned CSS Ranking, which we currently lead by one slim point over ETNZ and Luna Rossa who are tied for second.

You may find interesting the nice satellite shots and map of the Trapani area posted on the Challenger Commission blog today. Below is a decent aerial shot of Trapani, looking westerly over the city.


Click on the image to enlarge.