KEY POINTS:
The tone was set early on. "We are going to give you a little bit of insight into what has happened here in Valencia so you can take a little bit of the bull out of it and put a few more of the facts back into it," Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth told journalists.
The defenders were on the defence.
With just five of 11 flights completed in round one of the challenger series after a week of racing, America's Cup Management (ACM), the body set up by Alinghi to run the event, had come under fire for their choice of venue and timing of the event.
After ACM this week refused to release the weather data they collected on Valencia when considering venues to host the cup, Alinghi stepped in and provided a useful weather briefing.
The head of the syndicate's weather team, New Zealander Jon Bilger, put up a raft of graphs and statistics which showed that Valencia should have been a reasonable sailing venue at this time of the year. The problem, Bilger explained, was an "atmospheric block" which prolonged the bad spell.
"If you look at the data, from 2000 to 2006, you would say April through to June here is a great time to hold the America's Cup," Bilger said. "We stand behind that report and it is just unfortunate that this month has been bad - but literally anywhere around the world you go you have the same sort of problems."
The difficulty is that the stats are not consistent. There are teams here who have said April 2005 wasn't great, yet Alinghi claim 93 per cent of the days were sailable.
Alinghi then put up some statistics which painted the Hauraki Gulf as one of the worst sailing venues in the world, with only 35-50 per cent of decent sailing days between January and March 2001-03.
Butterworth was asked why the Swiss kept comparing Valencia to Auckland when Valencia was handpicked for its "reliable breeze".
"Believe me no one in this team knocks Auckland, they had a great time there including Ernesto [Bertarelli,]" Butterworth said. "He loved it. Nobody is knocking Auckland - it is just a matter of getting the facts right."
Had ACM provided such information earlier then Valencia may not have copped so much flak, something which even Butterworth acknowleged.
"You are right but it is difficult when you are a sailing team, these [weather] guys are the best in the world in their job and I think they needed an avenue to explain how they see it. That's the face of it."
Butterworth said the bad weather had been to his team's detriment, too. "As defender, we don't have to win races that count, but we have got two boats we are trying to get up to speed."
In reference to the timing of the challenger series, Butterworth said the dates for the America's Cup were set by ACM and designed to fit in around other major sporting events.
"Whenever the question was brought up about the Louis Vuitton Cup, Alinghi pushed back from the table. We have had nothing to do with it. That was a discussion between the challenger of record, represented by [BMW Oracle Racing's] Tom Ehman and ACM."
* Lady Pippa Blake sailed with Team New Zealand yesterday in what was Anzac Day in Valencia.
The widow of the late Sir Peter Blake sailed as 18th person on NZL92 in their match against Team Shosholoza which the New Zealanders comfortably won by 1m 23s. Team New Zealand went on to claim an equally decisive 1m 03s win over United Internet Team Germany in their second match.
In both matches Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker obliterated his opponents in the start box winning his team the favourable side of the course.
"The key to any of these races is the communication, particularly in the afterguard in the starting area," Barker said.
"It all felt like it was going well today."
Team New Zealand are scheduled to face China Team and Luna Rossa tonight. Chris Dickson's Oracle racing remain the only unbeaten team so far.
