Valencia, 0900 Sunday

To be sure it's warm on shore, but delightful on the water. Today's weather -- best conditions so far in Act 4, even better than yesterday.

Postcard to the folks: "wish you were here!"

Valencia, 21:15 Saturday

Beaut day for racing -- sunny, warm, dry and even better breeze (12-13 kts) than expected. Close loss to Alinghi, but not much in it. They got the first shift. JK, Gavin & Co. clawed their way back, but Alinghi hung on to win despite breaking their spinnaker pole on the last run. Our boatspeed was good.

Second race against Mascalzone not much of a contest. Tony Kolb and Carl Williams were aboard 76 for the race with "Macaroni" (as they are known with affection around the Port America's Cup), and Gavin and Larry again shared driving duties.

Big David Brooke got whacked on the leg during the race against Alinghi; but, while they shoot horses, last I saw Brookie at the Base this evening he was still standing and shrugging it off in true Kiwi style.

Mood in the camp tonight is upbeat and relaxed, with the realization that there are going to be many, many close races over the next two years. Some will go our way, some not. Full marks to Alinghi for a good job today, and to ETNZ who held off Luna Rossa in the other key match.

Standings as of tonight:

Alinghi (SUI) 6
Emirates Team NZ (NZL) 6
BMW ORACLE (USA) 5
Luna Rossa (ITA) 5
Desafio Espanol (ESP) 4
Victory Challenge (SWE) 3
+39 (ITA) 2
K-Challenge (FRA) 2
China Team (CHN) 1
Mascalzone Latino (ITA) 1
United Internet Team Germany (GER) 1
Shosholoza (RSA) 0

Tomorrow it's UITG and then Desafio Espanol, who, no surprise, have so far looked pretty good in the 2003 One World boat (ESP 67 nee USA 67) V5'd by Reichel-Pugh. Tomorrow is a big day for them -- facing Alinghi in the first flight before they meet us in the second.

Day 4 pairing list is posted here (pdf, 25 KB).

Now off to represent the team at another evening function. Long but good days.

Valencia, 08:00 Saturday

Never sure why organizers and others make the reporting of results and scores so complex. The BMW ORACLE Racing Team Website has a great graphic on the home page to show the overall standings.

Here, simply put, are the results from yesterday:

Flight 3
Alinghi beat the Victory Challenge by :33
BMW ORACLE Racing beat +39 by 1:14
China Team beat Shosholoza by :27
Emirates Team New Zealand beat the Spanish Challenge by 1:10
Luna Rossa Challenge beat United Internet Team Germany by 1:36
K-Challenge beat Mascalzone Latino by :53

Flight 4
Alinghi beat +39 by 2:02
Victory Challenge beat China Team by 2:30
BMW ORACLE Racing beat Shosholoza by 3:37
Emirates Team New Zealand beat United Internet Team Germany by 2:33
Spanish Challenge beat Mascalzone Latino by 1:00
Luna Rossa beat K-Challenge by :55

At the end of yesterday’s races with the winners scoring one point, the losers nil, the standings were:

Four Points
Alinghi
BMW ORACLE Racing
Emirates Team New Zealand
Luna Rossa Challenge

Two Points
Victory Challenge
Spanish Challenge

One Point
United Internet Team Germany
+39
K-Challenge
China Team

No Points (as yet)
Shosholoza
Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team

(credit to www.valencialife.net for helping to keep things simple!)

Valencia, 06:30 Saturday

Each evening before a race day the RC issues a "Pairing Notice" detailing the next day's racing which I thought you might like to see. Here is pairing notice 3 (pdf, 25 KB) for today's (Saturday, 18 June) racing.

And here is the "Morning Show weather slide" Chris Bedford produces for us early each race day, among many, many other facts and figures and predictions which he provides to the Sailing Team for their mid-morning wx briefing....


We have seen this movie before -- on both Days 1 and 2 of this Act 4. More lightish sea breeze and flat water.

For our race with Alinghi today, it will be the first time we race SUI-75 in an official race. We did race that yacht in a very close practice race last Monday, but teams tend to play all sorts of games (using old sails, for example) in practice races so you can't place too much stock on the relative performances of our boats that day.

Alinghi had problems with SUI-75 during the 2003 Cup so they ended up racing, and winning with, the older of their two yachts, SUI-64. (For cost-cutting reasons, under the AC Rules each team is permitted to build no more than two new yachts per Cup cycle.)

Interestingly, Alinghi tested a "hula" on SUI-75 in the late stages of the 31st AC, similar to what Team New Zealand was using on both their boats. Alinghi never got it to work, and were not convinced that it was any better anyway (nor were we at what was then called ORACLE BMW Racing), so they stuck with their conventional SUI-64.

For this Cup, as with our yacht USA-76 and all the other yachts competing in Act 4, SUI-75 has been modified to comply with Version 5 of the AC Class Rule. V5 took effect 1 January 2005. Essentially, a V5 yacht has about 10% more downwind sail area, is a tonne lighter, and the keel bulb is 100mm deeper (maximum draft of 4.1m).

Valencia, 21:00 Friday

"Seasonably warm" was Chris Bedford's forecast, and so it was for Act 4, Day 2 and today's 12 matches. As you will have likely read elsewhere we had two more solid wins, over +39 (ITA) and then Shosholoza (RSA), in the same weak, unassertive seabreeze as yesterday -- 8-11 or so knots.

It was another "Family and Friends Day" meaning spouses and friends of team members were welcomed along with a number of other VIP guests on our three first class spectator boats: Zurga, Ava and Adventura Dos. It was a nice gesture by CEO Chris Dickson and our marketing department. These are long, hard campaigns -- including and especially for our families. Their continuing support is crucial to the team's success.

With the warm (35ish deg C) temps and light air, Sailing Director John Kostecki wisely sent the yacht out at 11:45 with a skeleton crew while the race team remained ashore in the shade and relative cool of the Base for another 75 minutes. This meant that we had many of the sailing team with us for the Morning Show which takes place at the Base for our VIP guests right after dock-out, and we were able to introduce them personally. This was nicely handled by Mark "Squawk" Bradford (AUS), a popular member of the sailing team who has a flair for emceeing, and is well known for his, shall we say, ribald after-hours humour. The sailing team were taken to the yacht by Chase 2 and 3 at 1300.

Another "first" today was being able to interview navigator Peter Isler via mobile phone patched into our race commentary radio circuit that links the three VIP spectator boats. Peter gave us an update before the first match, and again between matches. He is a two-time winner of the Cup, with DC in 1987 and 1988. Together, with his extensive experience as a commentator for the USA Cup broadcasts in recent years on both ESPN and OLN, Peter added a new "here and now" angle for our VIP guests, which they all thought was great!

The "big four" -- Alinghi, BMW ORACLE, Emirates Team NZ and Luna Rossa -- are now all tied on 4-0. We won't likely be tomorrow night, as Luna Rossa and ETNZ square off and we take on Alinghi, both matches in the first flight but on different courses. We have Mascalzone in the second flight. They have had a surprisingly rough go so far, sitting on 0-4 with Shosholoza.

Tonight you could feel the anticipation for tomorrow's racing within the team, even among the spouses on the VIP boats as we came back into the Harbour. More of the same sunny, warm weather and moderate seabreezes are predicted for tomorrow. Let's rumble!


BMW press attache Nicole "Nicky" Stempinsky with prolific
Spanish journalist Jorge Aguade of Las Provincias
newspaper. The Girard-Perregaux team watch launch
was Jorge's 15th press conference in the three days
prior to Act 4, and he had three more to go!

Valencia, 06:15 Friday

Day 1 was pure joy. BMW ORACLE was firing on all cylinders.

As we prepared yesterday morning for the first day of racing everyone on the team seemed to be going calmly about their business -- professionals at work, enjoying their jobs.

At 11:30 I was about to begin the first-ever "Morning Show" in Team Hospitality at our new Base. The 150 VIP guests were on the balcony with a commanding view of the Port America's Cup. For the last hour they had been watching every move of our shore and sailing teams as they prepared and launched 76, loaded on the sails and other gear, and made everything race ready. Finally "Captain" Craig Christensen moved Chase 1 into position to tow 76 off the dock and out of the harbour. You could see the "Electrons" -- Rodney Ernst and Matthew "Mugs" Ulvr-Green -- making last-minute adjustments to the comms and other electonic gear, including all the extra race-day gear required by the Race Committee. This includes cameras, radio-telemetry gear and antennae for television and the "Virtual Eye" (formerly "Virtual Spectator") system that, when it's working, provides superb real-time graphic displays of all the racing.

All at once there seemed to be a pause in the action. Very little motion or activity. Then I realized nothing was wrong, just that everyone had done their thing, on or ahead of schedule, and we were ready for liftoff. I looked around the harbour at the other team bases and could only imagine the frantic activity that must be consuming a few of the other teams as they prepared for their first-ever day of AC racing.

That's when the theme for the day struck me: professionals at work.

The rest of the Thursday was more of the same for BMW ORACLE Racing. 116 competent, practiced professionals getting the job done, and done well.

Our first race was against Victory Challenge (SWE). They have looked good during practice racing here the past couple weeks, and the Swedish-based team were good again yesterday in the lightish 7-12 knot conditions. But our guys won the start and maintained a comfortable lead for the entire two-lap (four legs), 10-mile race. Gavin and Larry each got time on the wheel, and to my eye it was simply a "fast boat, well sailed that didn't break."

Our second match was with newcomer, at least in name, China Team. Essentially they are the French "Le Defi" of the 2003 Cup under new national colours -- literally, as the formerly neon green FRA-69 is now bright red with a yellow bow and known as CHN-69. It was an aggressive pre-start, and China Team sailed better than they had in their first race against Alinghi (SUI-75). However, 76 & Co. were more than equal to the task. We led the entire race, and notched win 2.

Probably the only surprise of the day was the win by United Internet Team Germany over K-Challenge. K had a rough opening day, losing also to ETNZ (NZL-82).

Another bright, warm one predicted today, and hopefully the seabreeze will be a bit more assertive for our matches against +39 (ITA-59) and Shosholoza (RSA-83).

Today's matches:

Race 1
1. NZL 82 vs FRA 60
2. ITA 74 vs ITA 77
3. ESP 67 vs GER 72
4. SWE 63 vs USA 76
5. ITA 59 vs RSA 83
6. SUI 75 vs CHN 69

Race 2
1. ITA 77 vs NZL 82
2. GER 72 vs FRA 60
3. ESP 67 vs ITA 74
4. SWE 63 vs ITA 59
5. RSA 83 vs SUI 75
6. USA 76 vs CHN 69

The codes above are carried on the mainsails of the yacht. The first three letters are the Olympic country code, and two numbers are assigned sequentially to each ACC yacht (irrespective of nation) as it is built, so you can tell relatively how old each yacht is. 61 and before are AC 2000 era boats, 62-82 are from AC 2003, and 83 forward are newly built for AC 2007 -- so far only Shosholoza's RSA 83.

The three Italian ("ITA") teams:

- ITA 59 (nee SUI 59, Be Happy, from AC 2000) is the team +39
- ITA 74 is Luna Rossa
- ITA 77 (nee Dennis Conner's USA 77) is Mascalzone Latino.

The others are probably clear:

- CHN (China), China Team by LeDefi
- ESP (Spain), El Desafio Espanol
- FRA (France), K-Challenge
- GER (Germany), United Internet Team Germany
- NZL (New Zealand, Emirates Team NZ
- RSA (Republic of South Africa), Shosholoza
- SUI (Switzerland), Alinghi
- SWE (Sweden), Victory Challenge
- USA (United States of America), BMW ORACLE Racing

Today's weather: