The rescheduled first clash of the 33rd America’s Cup between the giant multihulls of Alinghi and BMW ORACLE Racing which is now due for Wednesday off Valencia looks set to encounter brisk winds and more challenging seas. The stage could be set for a high speed first encounter.
The race between the hi-tech, multi-hull boats was reset for tomorrow Wednesday, the next scheduled sailing day in the best-of-three regatta off the Spanish port of Valencia.
Crew members aboard had a frustrating, cold and wet wait of almost four hours more than 25 km (16 miles) off shore before heading back to port.
“We were convinced we were going to race. Yesterday looked good and this morning when we left it looked good but then around 10 o’clock (0900 GMT) the hopes started fading away with the rain and the wind died,” said Alinghi owner Ernesto Bertarelli.
The problem was exacerbated by the vast size of the race area, measuring more than 600 sq km. The course for the first race is 40 km long, comprising an upwind and a downwind leg.
The course area was made necessary in part by the huge size of the boats, each 90 feet long with technology aboard previously unseen in yacht racing. Alinghi is a catamaran with a tilting mast 17 storeys high. BMW Oracle, a trimaran, has a unique wing-shaped mast much bigger than the wing of a commercial jetliner.
Reports suggest that the two teams were configuring their craft for the stronger northerly airs which are being drawn down to Valencia by a low pressure system towards the east.
ON SITE AMERICA’S CUP PARK – BIG SCREEN TELEVISION The big screen television in the America’s Cup Park will be showing live-action from the race course, along with features, packaged programmes, and highlights.
ON TELEVISION Through the agreements with the European Broadcasting Union, which reaches 56 territories and has an audience of over 650 million and, globally, with Sports News TV spanning 160 territories, broadcasting to over 1.4 billion people and also with Transworld Sport with a global audience of over 302 million, the America’s Cup News packages are assured of a massive international audience of over 2 billion viewers.
Among the broadcasters are Great Britain’s BSkyB, TVE/Teledeporte and Canal 9 in Spain, French based Eurosport and Showtime in the Middle East. Broadcasters will take all of the America’s Cup output, including the 26 minutes race day Highlights package, Race News package as well as the 52 minutes summary wrap up programme at the end of the event.
A full listing will be available soon.
ON-LINE WWW.AMERICASCUP.COM The official America’s Cup website keeps you posted with news reports, feature stories, videos and pictures and all the official information of the 33rd America’s Cup in English, Spanish and French.
LIVE VIDEO STREAMING For the first time in the history of the America’s Cup, races will be broadcast live free of charge on www.americascup.com. Video feed will be supplemented (in French and Spanish) with a Live Ticker animated by the best sailing experts
THE CUP ON FACEBOOK Join us on the official 33rd America’s Cup page where you will find all the latest posts around the event. Pages in English, Spanish and French have been created.
FOLLOW ON TWITTER A dedicated team has been setup to chase the latest information during the event and exclusive information from the race will be posted real time for you.
Coverage of the America’s Cup will be streamed live, free, over the Internet, according to recent announcements by Defender SNG and their event partner.
Preliminary Schedule:
Date
Programming
Feb 6
Preview Show
Feb 7
Preview Show
Feb 8
Race Day
Feb 9
Recap
Feb 10
Race Day
Feb 11
Recap
Feb 12
Race Day (if needed)
Europe and Satellite:
Television: Live on British Eurosport (Sky 410/Virgin 521), BSkyB (UK), TVE/Teledeporte/Canal 9 (Spain), Eurosport (France)
Internet: On the Web in Europe via Eurosport Player and americascup.com
This portion of the plan was announced January 22, 2010. Read More
United States and Canada: Internet: At americascup.com and possibly also ESPN360
Television: Not known at this time whether there will be a broadcast partner.
Elsewhere:
Internet: Partners to be announced.
Television: Middle East: Showtime. It is not known at this time whether there will be a broadcast partner in other countries.
More info at: http://www.cupinfo.com/en/ac33schedule-main.php
The ISAF appointed International Jury for the America’s Cup ruled early Wednesday morning on the redress brought by the challenger BMW Oracle.
Five requests for redress were brought before the International Jury by BMW Oracle in their ongoing litigation ahead of the 33rd America’s Cup which is scheduled to start on 8 February. The five-member Jury issued a decision in the early hours of Wednesday morning stating that the America’s Cup organising authority (OA), Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), is correct in setting a start time for the race at 10:06 (local time). There is no Deed of Gift requirement for the start time to be agreed with the challenger as the OA has the responsibility to set the start time.
The Jury also ruled that the Deed of Gift shall prevail over any other conflicting rule and the SNG will amend the Notice of Race (NOR) and Sailing Instructions (SI) to further reinforce this. In another decision, the Jury confirmed that SNG’s race committee will be responsible for determining whether to start or continue a race and in doing so has the obligation to comply with applicable safety and legal obligations. This will be reflected in the Notice of Race (NOR).
While the challenger’s request for redress regarding their intention to dump substances in the sea while racing was denied, the Jury reinforced the fact that all applicable laws must apply to any discharge while racing. The competing parties mutually agreed to modify the rules regarding detection equipment at the challenger’s request.
“We welcome the Jury’s involvement and decisions for the sport. We are confident racing will go ahead as scheduled on Monday – weather permitting – and we are looking forward to finally getting this competition on the water,” said Alinghi team skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth.
The ISAF appointed international jury denied BMW Oracle’s request for redress regarding measurement of the competing yachts.
The ISAF International Jury for the America’s Cup issued an interim decision late Tuesday night rejecting the challenger, BMW Oracle’s latest complaint regarding the position and volume of the water ballast onboard the racing yachts during measurement.
“We are pleased that the jury upheld the New York Supreme Court and expert panel decision of November 2009. This is a positive step towards the America’s Cup – we are glad that measurement can go ahead as scheduled and that the challenger’s request for redress has been denied. With just a few days to go before the first race of the 33rd America’s Cup, the team is fully focused on race training and preparations,” said Grant Simmer, Alinghi design team coordinator.
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