Viva Espana! Vive la France! It's on!

By Suzanne McFadden

The battle lines have been drawn: from tomorrow, friends and neighbours France and Spain are true America's Cup foes.

The Spanish Challenge and Le Defi France have spent time training together in the last few months in two old Spanish boats from the 1992 cup. But now they have their new yachts, they are "future enemies."

Europe's yachting glitterati have a frantic weekend in store, jetting to and fro over the Mediterranean to see the latest in cup boat design.

Le Defi's yacht, 6e Sens, will be launched tomorrow, while the Spanish lower their new boat into the Mediterranean 24 hours later.

Queen Sophie of Spain will be the godmother of the Spanish yacht to be launched in Valencia. The royal family are right behind the campaign.

More than 500 people will be at the christening of the cream-coloured boat, whose name is a secret until Sunday.

The syndicate will bring two boats to Auckland and one of them is Spain's 1995 cup boat remodelled.

"We wanted to build two new boats, but we were a little short in our budget," said Alfonso Gomez-Jordana, head of operations for the syndicate.

Gomez-Jordana says they have 95 per cent of the funding they hoped for. The two boats will sail against each other off Valencia until August, when they will be shipped to Auckland.

Half the crew are from Spain's '95 team, and many were around in '92.

Cup veteran Pedro Campos will be the racing skipper, with two-times Olympic gold medallist Louis Doreste the tactician.

The Spanish are driven to make a better effort than they did at the last America's Cup, when they failed to make the top four.

"In 1995 we arrived very late - our boat was finished one week before the racing began," Gomez-Jordana said. "This time we have more time, more money and more experience. We believe we have a strong challenge."

Le Defi, the more solid of two French challenges, have a new boat to show off tomorrow. Building began on 6e Sens (Sixth Sense) last November. The French will build just one boat. After her launch she will begin her sailing programme, led by former world matchracing champion Bertrand Pace, at their summer base in Lorient until the end of August.