Even when they're training in different continents around the world, the 12 teams vying for the America's Cup are still waging war against each other. It is a war of words, fought through press releases, web sites and blogs, and one of the most entertaining battles to watch is over who thinks they have the best weather. While the majority of the smaller teams have opted to train in Valencia throughout the off-season - more out of financial and logistical necessity than anything - most of the bigger teams have chosen to sail elsewhere in the belief that there are other venues in the world which replicate a typical Valencian summer's day better than a typical Valencian winter's day.
Valencia is notoriously light during the cooler months, and so good training days don't come along all that often. Hence Alinghi's reason for clearing off to Dubai for a few months, and Emirates Team New Zealand's return to Auckland along with BMW ORACLE Racing, nominally an American team but whose sailing crew is dominated by homesick Antipodeans. Within a few days of Alinghi getting sailing in Dubai, the team released a deluge of photos showing their yachts leaning over nicely in a good breeze under sunny blue skies.
Meanwhile in New Zealand the message from Tom Ehman, BMW ORACLE Racing's head of external affairs who writes an excellent blog about the team's progress (http://bmworacleracing.twoday.net/), was less subtle. He grabbed some five-day forecasts for Auckland and Valencia from the BBC weather site and posted them on his blog. While the wind was set to blow nicely in Auckland, the forecast for Valencia showed the wind to be blowing no more than 3 mph for the whole five-day period.
The only one of the ‘Big Four' to have stayed put in Valencia throughout the winter is Luna Rossa, who feel that the upheaval of moving the team and the boats to another venue would outweigh any possible advantages. Victory Challenge, on the other hand, has made a last-minute decision to up sticks and follow Alinghi out to Dubai. Well actually, this is a discussion that has gone on for some months behind closed doors, but the longer time dragged on the less likely it seemed that the Swedish team would be heading east. When management did eventually announce in early December that they would be training in Dubai for the month of January, it came as a surprise even to some members of the Victory sailing team.
A few months ago, such an idea wouldn't have even occurred to the then cash-strapped Swedes, but an injection of funds from energy drink company Red Bull has solved any immediate money worries. Indeed, they say that "Red Bull gives you wings", and that is what the drinks manufacturer has given Victory Challenge in the form of a giant Antonov cargo plane, which will fly the team's two boats out to Dubai at the end of December. But even the magic of Red Bull cannot give you more time, the resource always in shortest supply in an America's Cup campaign. Moving two yachts, all the associated equipment, a short team and two sailing crew is a massive logistical exercise in itself.
Meanwhile, Victory's new boat is nearing completion and is due for delivery to Valencia during January, and will require a shore crew to have her prepped and ready for sailing the moment the sailing team returns from Dubai. With Louis Vuitton Act 13 set to take place in April, this allows precious little time for the team to get the new boat battle-ready for the coming season. This whole excursion to Dubai seems like a classic case of a small team trying to do too much, but perhaps there are reasons for doing this, that go well beyond Valencia 2007. One thing that is certain, the shore crew of Victory Challenge are going to need to drink more than their fair share of Red Bull to get them through the next few busy weeks as they buzz back and forth between Dubai and Valencia.
