Winds key to Valencia decision

Sailing Weekly column: Wind conditions around Valencia were crucial to the Spanish city's victory in the bid to stage the 2007 America's Cup according to the competition's management.

"The wind conditions in Valencia are very, very good for what we want to do," said Michel Bonnefous, chief executive officer of AC Management.

"The wind is very reliable, very steady. We evaluated the worst-case scenario, in other words, how many days you cannot sail, due to the weather.

"In Auckland, over a period where we lost 15 days, in Valencia, at worst, we would lose just one day."

Wednesday's announcement of the next venue for the 32nd America's Cup ended months of speculation surrounding where the Société Nautique de Genève would stage their defence of the world's oldest sporting trophy and was followed by a triumphant celebration in Valencia with the "Auld Mug".

Leading the proceedings was Marcus Hutchinson who hails from Howth and has been a key official of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the series that determines which challenger will take on the cup holder for each series.

Among the crowd of over 300 people, representatives from 15 prospective challengers from eight countries were present, along with key members from the four remaining bid cities, Lisbon, Marseille, Naples and Valencia.

The cup-winning Alinghi team was largely a Kiwi effort led by Russell Coutts, funded by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli. The deed of gift for the cup declares the event must be sailed on open seas so the land-locked winning nation launched a major campaign to find the next venue.

The first pre-regatta will be in September 2004 and two more events will follow that year. The pre-regattas are an opportunity to bring America's Cup racing to different venues and organisers have promised that each of the four final host city candidates will be offered one of these events.

Several pre-regattas are scheduled in 2005 and 2006, ahead of the 2007 opening fleet race regatta. The Louis Vuitton Cup challenger races will begin in April 2007, followed by the 32nd America's Cup match itself with the first race scheduled for June 23rd of that year.

Arguably the best-known sailor associated with the event hinted at the future of the series, known for the vast sums of cash required to fund the technology-dependent campaigns.

Dennis Conner predicted the days of traditional sponsorship would be eclipsed by "wealthy, generous individuals" prepared to bankroll teams of 100 people or more for up to four years at a time and he appeared reluctant to commit to launching his own campaign for 2007.

Meanwhile, the 1720 class last night announced a new "club" variation featuring a smaller spinnaker and furling jib to be sailed by a crew of four. The development is intended to follow a similar innovation by Laser when Radial and 4.7 rigs were introduced. The "club" division will also feature owner/driver regulation.

New builds will feature a revised deck layout although the class stresses that the refinements will mainly be cosmetic with performance gain limited to more purchase lines that will favour lighter crews, even in strong conditions.