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SOCIÉTÉ NAUTIQUE DE GENÈVE PUBLISHES THE NOTICE OF RACE FOR THE 33RD AMERICA’S CUP

After months of wrangling in the law courts, the defender of the 33rd America’s Cup, Société Nautique de Genève, has published the Notice of Race that will govern the 33rd America’s Cup. As per the Deed of Gift the winner of the regatta will be the first boat to win two races in a best of three series.
 
The first race is scheduled to take place in Valencia (Spain) on Monday February 8th, 2010. The second race is scheduled for Wednesday February 10th. If required, the third race is scheduled for Friday February 12th.

For fans of sailing everywhere, except perhaps in San Francisco, the base for the Golden Gate Yacht Club and of course Munich, the home of Bayerische Motoren Werk or BMW, this announcement is a double edged sword; those delighted that the Cup shall be contested on the water and in Valencia but on the other edge, many millions of sailing fans deprived of a series with yachts from all over the world (including Team Origin from Great Britain) as the America’s Cup shall be decided in just one week, between only two yachts, Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing.

So, if you are the owner of a BMW you can now feel proud that their legal efforts have now deprived the region of millions of tourist dollars, thousands of jobs and the livelihoods of many small hotels and guest houses which have all been lost due to the court actions brought upon by BMW Oracle Racing, to try and capture the rights to the Americas Cup though the American legal system and not on the water! The Valencian region will now play host to possibly just two days of racing unlike the successful 2007 series which saw action on the water for over four months plus a host of other events, concerts and activities.

Alinghi staged its 2007 defence of the cup in Valencia where eleven challengers from 9 countries raced each other to challenge Alinghi. The challenger selection series, the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007, ran from April 16, 2007 until June 6, 2007. Emirates Team New Zealand won the challenger series finale 5-0 against Italians Luna Rossa. ETNW raced Alinghi between June 23 and July 3, 2007. Alinghi successfully defended the America's Cup by beating Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2. The racing was much closer than the score line suggests including a 1 second winning margin by Alinghi in the seventh and final race.

On a more positive note, the Alinghi team have already beaten BMW Oracle Racing in the semi-final of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland, New Zealand. The 33rd edition of the Americas Cup shall be contested in 90-foot multi-hull yachts, the first time catamaran or trimaran hulls have been used in Americas Cup competition. Why is this good news? If Alinghi should beat BMW Oracle Racing in February, then there is still a good chance that in 2011 the series could return to Valencia for a proper, multi-national, competition, and not this watered down version. Shame on BMW for putting their profits towards trying to win the cup without even racing. I wonder how far their equally unsuccessful campaign into Formula One would have taken them in trying to force a one on one race for the World Championship! In their words, the New York Court finds Golden Gate Yacht Club's behaviour "unsportsmanlike". Need I say more except “Good luck Alinghi”.

News story by Keith Nicol mcij (Tel: (+34) 609 06 36 14)

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