Valencia, Alinghi and BMW Oracle reach agreement on America's Cup

11:17 AM Fri 11 Dec 2009 GMT

'There is finally an agreement!! From left Lucien Masmejean (Alinghi counselor), Rita Barber? (Valencia mayor), Gerardo Camps (Valencia regional minister of Economy) and Tom Ehman (BMW Oracle head of External Affairs)' Valenciasailing.com Click Here to view large photo

ValenciaSailing.com is reporting that Alinghi, BMW Oracle and representatives from the local, regional and central government of Spain met today at the headquarters of the Valencia 2007 organization in order to start working on the organizational details of the event.

According to Rita Barber?, Valencia mayor, the first major agreement reached by all parties is that both teams will use their current bases inside the Port America's Cup as their main operation bases. Both multihulls will be docked in front of the bases, just like they did in the 32nd America's Cup. Given their extraordinary size, the two teams will have to use the adjacent bases (+39 Challenge in Alinghi's case and Shosholoza in BMW Oracle's case) or any other space necessary. In fact, the port's maintenance crews have already taken apart the fences that separated the bases.

Still, the Valencia Port Authority will provide additional space, inside the commercial port, in case the two yachts need it under adverse weather conditions. Both yachts might encounter problems entering the canal under high waves since it hasn't been designed for such wide boats and as a result they might need to seek refuge somewhere else.

(L to R) Russell Coutts, CEO and Skipper, BMW Oracle Racing shaking hands with Brad Butterworth, Skipper and vice president, Team Alinghi after the America`s Cup debate at the 2009 World Yacht Racing Forum - onEdition &copy Click Here to view large photo

Organization of the event

First of all, the two organizational aspects of the event will be separated. On one hand the purely sporting issues will be handled by Alinghi while Valencia will organize the rest of the event.

For that reason, four working parties have already been constituted and they will start working from Monday morning on a continuous basis. Time is very short and with less than two months until the first starting gun is fired there is no time to waste.

The first working party will be in charge of finances, the second one will take care of operational and logistical issues, and the third one will handle television, marketing and promotion of the event as well as hospitality and public entertainment. Finally, the fourth working party will concentrate solely on the organization of the sailing competition.

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by ValenciaSailing.com