BMW Oracle, Alinghi, 33rd America's Cup in Valencia 14 February 2010 (photo: ©Carlo Borlinghi / Alinghi)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Alinghi’s president, Ernesto Bertarelli, has taken an upbeat tone about the future, now that the team’s solid defeat at the hands of BMW Oracle in the 33rd America’s Cup sailing race is behind him. He praised the resilience of his team in a statement on the Geneva-based Alinghi’s web site Wednesday 17 February, part of an announcement that the boat and its team will celebrate Alinghi’s 10th birthday in September 2010.
“Alinghi has had a fantastic run in the America’s Cup. We created this team 10 years ago.
BMW Oracle team walking out to the boat Sunday 14 February before the race they won, taking the 33rd America's Cup sailing title (photo: ©2010 Guilain Grenier/BMW Oracle)
Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) - BMW Oracle has taken the America’s Cup sailing title, winning the second race Sunday 14 February almost as clearly as it won the first race two days earlier. The American boat finished 5.26 minutes ahead of Alinghi: Oracle’s technology, with its massive rigid sail, was the real winner. The race was close during the first leg but BMW Oracle pulled ahead and the winner was never in doubt.
Links to other sites: Alinghi, America’s Cup, BMW Oracle
Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) - The boats waited until nearly the last minute to begin their second race of sailing’s America’s Cup sailing race, after delays while the wind shifted. Alinghi began the race with a penalty, just as it did in the first race, which it lost to BMW Oracle by 15 minutes.
Live and Updates on the America’s Cup site.
Oracle, headed for a clear victory in race 1, America's Cup, 12 February (photo: BMW Oracle)
Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) – The water and wind were fine at last on Friday, after days of waiting for sailing conditions off the coast of Valencia to be right for the America’s Cup race to begin. But once Alinghi and Oracle put their tall sails to work, American Oracle’s trimaran dominated the race and won neatly over the Swiss catamaran, finishing eight and a half minutes ahead.
The “wing”, as Oracle’s rigid mast has become known, put in a stellar performance, as did the boat’s aggressive crewing. Alinghi’s lead at the outset, due to a stalled start on Oracle’s part, faded, and by the top mark at the end of the 20 nautical mile upwind first leg Oracle was 3 minutes 21 seconds ahead. By the end of the race Oracle’s lead had more than doubled. Alinghi was hampered by a penalty turn handed out early in the race. The Swiss boat was expected to regain time in the down wind leg, but, Sail-World reports, “it was obvious that, in the soft conditions, Alinghi was at a disadvantage.”
Alinghi held a steady pace, but that was no match for Oracle’s performance on the second, downwind leg, and Alinghi’s finish was something of a shambles.
Waiting for the race to start, Friday 12 February, in Valencia (photo: BMW Oracle
Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) – The America’s Cup sailing race has finally reached water. The two tall elegant sailboats built using the latest technology are fighting out the first of their two or three races. The race began shortly before 15:00 Friday 12 February after being delayed Monday and Wednesday due to no wind the first day and high seas the second.
The match can be viewed online live on the America’s Cup site or on the TSR web site in French.
BMW Oracle Tuesday night in Valencia - waiting, waiting
Update / 2 13:05 Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) - The most that can be said about the America’s Cup sailing race is that it’s having trouble filling its sails, quite literally. The race between Swiss Alinghi and US BMW Oracle has been delayed until Friday at least 13:00, due to “leftover seas” from yesterday’s wind.
“The waves were the biggest problem. I think they were about 1.3m average size in the start area,” said Alinghi strategist Murray Jones. “That means we could’ve had a peak of 1.8m and that’s the biggest issue.
“There was a swell coming from one direction and waves from an offset of 90 degrees to that. We’ve been out in conditions not quite that bad, but it’s heinous. I think they’ve done the right thing by not sending us out there,” Jones said.
The race was scheduled to start Monday, but there was too little wind. The teams spent Wednesday morning at their bases, waiting to see which of two contradictory weather forecasts would win out: offshore or onshort breezes were predicted. In the end, they canceled each other out. Races are now scheduled for 12, 14 and 16 February.
BMW Oracle on the water in Valencia 3 February
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – America’s Cup, the top international sailing event, may happen in Valencia after all, it appears, after months of legal battles between Alinghi and the challenger, BMW Oracle, threatened to sink the race. Remaining legal challenges, over such matters as Alinghi unilaterally setting the start time of the race at 10:06 Monday 8 February were put to rest by the International Jury Wednesday 3 February, which said yes, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) has the right to set the rules.
The five-person jury early Wednesday refused several challenges from BMW Oracle to what the SNG argues are its rights to set the rules. The Geneva-based SNG, home to Alinghi, holds the Deed of Gift, which traditionally gives the bulk of decision-making power to the defending champion.
Alinghi on the water in Valencia, 1 February 2010 (photo: ©2010 George Johns/Alinghi)
One of the BMW Oracle objections concerns dumping substances in the sea while racing. The jury refused the San Francisco-based team’s objections to rules for this, it emphasized that all applicable laws apply during the race.
Weather will ultimately determine if the race begins on time. The weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday: 8-20C, 20 percent chance of rain and winds picking up from 10kph Sunday night to 21-25kph.
Links to other sites: Alinghi, BMW Oracle
Alinghi sailing near Valencia 21 January 2010 (photo: GJ, Alinghi)
Left to right: Ricardo Peralta, Spanish government delegate; Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi team president; Alec Tournier, SNG general secretary; Rita Barberá, the mayor of Valencia and Vicente Rambla, vice-president Valencia regional government (Photo: Alinghi)
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – New York Justice Shirley Kornreich told Geneva-based Alinghi and San Francisco sailing team BMW Oracle Friday in a telephone conference call Friday 29 January that she will not rule on the legality of sails used by Alinghi in the America’s Cup sailing race before the scheduled start to the competition.
The America’s Cup, generally considered the most prestigious race in the sailing world, is scheduled to be raced in 10 days in Valencia, Spain.
Kornreich has presided over a series of legal battles that have threatened the race since Alinghi won the last one in July 2007.
Alinghi promptly announced that the race “is free to proceed as ordered by previous New York rulings: in Valencia on the 8, 10 and 12 February.”
BMW-Oracle says Alinghi's sails not made in Switzerland
Update 18:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – America’s Cup challenger BMW-Oracle and defender Alinghi are set to go back to court in New York after negotiations broke down in Singapore 12 January. The two sailing teams and their boats are in Valencia, Spain to contest sailing’s oldest and most prestigious race, a best of three meets that begins 8 February. Final details of the rules for the races are under discussion, but a sticking point lately has been the source of Alinghi’s sails.
BMW-Oracle maintains that Alinghi’s sail, made in the USA, violates the Deed of Gift’s stipulation that the boat be entirely built in the country the team represents, in this case Switzerland, home of the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). The Deed of Gift is the document that lays down the ground rules for the 159-year-old race. Alinghi says bluntly that BMW-Oracle has it wrong.
Alinghi in Valencia. © 2010 Jose Delgado / Alinghi
Valencia, Spain (GenevaLunch) – Both defending champion Alinghi and US challenger BMW Oracle have arrived in the port of Valencia for final preparations before the series of three races that kicks off 8 February. The Alinghi team has been unloading the ship that transported containers, masts and other material from the Persian Gulf port of Ras Al Khaimah. The BMW Oracle trimaran, BOR 90, arrived in port a day earlier.
Alinghi is featured at a special exhibition at Nyon’s Musée du Léman which shows the extent to which Lake Geneva boating traditions and knowledge as well as Swiss high-tech technology in the form of composite materials and design from EPFL contributed to the making of the America’s Cup defender.
Other links: Alinghi, BMW Oracle
BMW Oracle left California 15 December for Valencia, Spain
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Alinghi sailing team is preparing to defend its World Cup title in the chilly winter waters of Valencia, Spain in 2010, following a decision Tuesday 15 December by a panel of New York Supreme Court judges to uphold an earlier decision. A judge ruled 30 October against the choice by Société Nautique de Genève’s of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for the next America’s Cup. The four-judge panel also upheld an earlier decision to exclude rudders from the measurement of the load waterline length of the race yacht.
Alinghi will face BMW Oracle in February 2010 in Valencia. The BMW team, based in San Francisco, left California Tuesday for Valencia, to start preparing for the race.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Alinghi, BMW Oracle
Alinghi to race in Valencia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Alinghi sailing team will face its challenger BMW-Oracle in Valencia, Spain, in the best of three races in February 2010. Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the Geneva, Switzerland sailing club that Alinghi represents, says that the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which is represented by BMW-Oracle, has not replied to its suggestion a week ago that the race be held in waters off the east coast of Australia. Thus the only other venue open to it legally, in order to comply with the February date, is Valencia.
BMW-Oracle with mast, photo by Gilles Martin-Raget
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Team Alinghi has suggested a venue for the 33rd America’s Cup race with challenger BMW-Oracle off the coast of Australia, in order “unlock” the race and “return the competition to the water”. The announcement 5 November comes a day before a hearing in the New York Supreme Court scheduled to determine whether Alinghi’s favoured venue in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates will be upheld by the court.
Justice Shirley Kornreich had ruled 27 October that Alinghi must choose a southern hemisphere location or Valencia, Spain for the race in February. The ongoing legal battle between the two teams threatened to postpone the actual race. Alinghi appealed that decision.
In search of safer seas (image ©2009 Alinghi/Carlo Borlenghi)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – New York’s Supreme Court has ruled against the Geneva-based Société Nautique de Genève’s (SNG) choice of venue for the America’s Cup 33rd edition. The race was to be held in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, in the the Persian Gulf, in February 2010. The 27 October ruling stipulates that the race must be held in the southern hemisphere between 1 November and 1 May.
“This is a disappointing result as we were certain that Justice Cahn’s May 2008 decision allowed the Defender to choose Valencia or ‘any other location’,” said Lucien Masmejan, Société Nautique de Genève legal counsel.
Alinghi in less contentious waters. Photo: © Dinah Roberts
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The oldest, most prestigious sailing competition may be decided in a New York courtroom instead of in the Persian Gulf waters off the Arabian peninsula. The defending team Alinghi, representing Geneva’s Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) put their huge catamaran into the water off Ras al-Khaimah (RAK), United Arab Emirates Saturday 17 October, but a New York judge must still decide whether the venue, traditionally chosen by the defender, may be allowed to stand.
On Saturday, Ernesto Bertarelli, the billionaire backer of Alinghi, called on the BMW-Oracle team to get down to business and start sailing.
Vice-commodore Fred Mayer of the SNG, right, at 1 August arrival of Alinghi in Geneva. Alinghi President Ernesto Bertarelli, left and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey. Image: © 2009 Guido Trombetta/Alinghi
Ras al-Khaimah, UAE, America's Cup venue 2010
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Update 3 10:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The next America’s Cup race, the top event in the sailing world, will be held starting 8 February 2010 in Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) announced Wednesday morning 5 August. The SNG has the right to select the next race’s location, as the home club of Alinghi, holder of the America’s Cup.
“Our absolute priorities in making this decision are the prevailing weather conditions and the resulting safety that they bring to both [Ed. note: Alinghi and official challenger BMW Oracle] teams,” explains Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth.
Al Hamra, Ras al-Khaimah, UAE
“We looked everywhere for a venue that suited having good racing for the Match dates in February. We had trained in the UAE in the winter with Alinghi before and in the end we settled on Ras al-Khaimah in particular because of the infrastructure in Al Hamra Village and because it has a great building sea breeze during the day, similar to Mediterranean conditions in the summer, making it good for these boats and safe for all concerned.”
A GenevaLunch feature on the new sailing marvel, Alinghi 5: the boat, the technology, the view for Lake Geneva area viewers
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Alinghi 5, 90-foot catamaran - photo, E Wallace
Alinghi 5 sailing first time, 20 July 2009 - photo, © Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi
Le Bouveret, Valais, and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There are sailboats, and then there is Alinghi 5: at 90 feet (27 metres) far larger than anything else on Lake Geneva, technologically astonishing and a delight to the eyes, but also exciting in terms of the sailing challenges it presents. The catamaran, built at great expense and specially for the next America’s Cup race in 2010, was presented to a mostly-charmed group of international journalists Thursday 23 July, but the weather was not cooperative. “We took it out into the harbour Wednesday and hit 31-knot winds,” said Alinghi’s president, Ernesto Bertarelli. It was forced back to shore, where the Alinghi team then kept busy with shoreline duties for the next two days. “Lake Geneva is a challenging place to sail. Yesterday was a real test for us,” he said of the failed outing.
Alinghi 5, a giant among sailboats at Le Bouveret, Lake Geneva - photo, E Wallace
A heavy mix of high winds, hail, thunder and lightning made it impossible to hoist sails, but the weekend weather was decent Saturday and is predicted to be beautiful Sunday 26 July: sunshine and good breezes on Lake Geneva. (Ed. note: Twitterati can follow Alinghi on the water via Twitter at alinghiteam)
Lake Geneva area: Alinghi 5 now on the lake
For the next two weeks people who live along Lake Geneva or who are visiting the area will see the new America’s Cup Swiss boat as it runs tests and the team gets used to handling it, working first from the base in Le Bouveret, at the Valais/Vaud end of the lake, then from Geneva.
The Alinghi team will sail the length of the lake, from Lausanne near Le Bouveret to Geneva and its home port at the Société de Nautique de Genève for the first of August Swiss national holiday.
Bertarelli and his team are inviting all interested sailors in the region to accompany them in a public flotilla of pleasure boats, which should create a spectacular sight (cameras ready!).
Alinghi into the water, Lausanne April 2009 (image, Carlo Borlenghi)
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) - Conflicting reports are surfacing about what exactly a New York Supreme Court judge ordered 14 May, in the legal case linked to sailing’s America’s Cup , but it appears that Justice Shirley Kornreich upheld an earlier decision that Alinghi and BMW Oracle must race against each other by February 2010 at the latest. AFP wire service reports that Kornreich insists the two must have what will amount to a rare battle between two boats in the America’s Cup, but the story sheds little light on where this race fits into the planned Cup races that include several other teams.
- Alinghi iD35 shakedown sail, Cup Julius Baer, Nyon 4 May 2009 (image, Carlo Borlenghi, Alinghi)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – There is a new wrinkle in the latest round of the legal battle between Geneva-based Alinghi, holder of sailing’s America’s Cup, and San Francisco-based Oracle, which has been fighting hard in the courts to change the date and rules for the next race. Alinghi is reported by Sailing World News to have filed charges with the New York Supreme Court against BMW Oracle for hiring a spy.
The papers allegedly refer to a police report where a man named Jean Antoine Bonnaveau states that he took photos for Oracle in the hills above Villeaneuve. The story is reported by Bloomberg in New York, which says that the alleged spying “continues a tradition of subterfuge in the event.”
The two teams are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow 14 May in New York, with Alinghi facing a motion from Oracle for contempt of court, charges to which it filed an opposition 11 May.
Alinghi relaunch, 2008
San Francisco, California, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Your average non-sailor might be forgiven for thinking America’s Cup is a game of ping-pong rather than arguably the world’s most famous sailing race. The legal battle between the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, and US-based Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), home to Oracle, continues, with the GGYC asking a court in New York for a new hearing, set for 15 May. Alinghi is the holder of the America’s Cup and Oracle is the official Challenger. Last week, 24 April, the Tribune de Geneve carried the cheerful headline that Alinghi had agreed to Oracle’s demand for a multi-hull race in 2010. For about an hour it appeared that the bickering might be over and a race could be run.
Photo, ©Ivo Rovira, 2008 for Alinghi
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Tremendous arrogance and lack of respect for the teams involved” is the way Geneva-based Alinghi is referring to the announcement Monday by Oracle BMW that it will not participate in the 33rd America’s Cup sailing race but will instead continue to fight Alinghi in the courts.
Update July 2009 New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) - The Challenger of the Record for the 33rd America’s Cup sailing race is now the GGYC (Golden Gate Yachting Club) in San Francisco, following a ruling by a judge in New York Tuesday that disqualified the Valencia-based Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV).
Photo, Ivo Rivero 2007, Alinghi, Dubai November 2007. Reprinted with permission.
The Spanish club had been named as the Challenger of the Record by Alinghi, the Swiss-based team that won the 32nd race in July 2007, and Valencia was selected as the home for the next race. The America’s Cup is the top event in the sailing world.
Today’s ruling is based on a technicality, that the CNEV had not held its annual regatta before becoming the Challenger of Record, Michel Hodara, chief operating officer of ACM (America’s Cup Management), which oversees the races, told GenevaLunch. Alinghi’s choice was hotly contested from the start by BMW Oracle, which was not the challenger for the 2007 race.
Emirates Team New Zealand was the Challenger of Record in July 2007, having won the Louis Vuitton race series against several other competitors. Alinghi defeated Emirates 5-2 in a very close set of races.
The judge’s decision is a blow to the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the yacht club that is home to Alinghi. The SNG was taken to court in August by BMW Oracle, whose home is the GGYC in California.
