Photos: Best of the America's CupKEY POINTS:
VALENCIA - A photo taken of Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli's family yacht has led to speculation that the America's Cup will remain in Valencia if the Swiss syndicate repel Team New Zealand's challenge.
Alinghi are up 4-2 and need one more win to retain the Auld Mug, with
tomorrow being the next scheduled race day.
The photo, featured in Swiss and Spanish newspapers, was taken on the Mediterranean yesterday, when race seven was due to be held but ended up being abandoned because of light and shifty winds.
It has also led to the belief that Spain's Desafio Espanol will be the new challenger of record, or representative of the challenging syndicates.
Among those pictured on board the Vava were Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG) president Pierre-Yves Firmenich and Desafio president Jose Ignacio Sanchez Galan. SNG is the yacht club that Alinghi are representing.
Swiss newspaper 24 Heures today reported that Firmenich was carrying a top-secret document -- the protocol for the next America's Cup regatta.
If SUI100 were to get the additional victory it needed over NZL92, the protocol would be signed immediately with the new challenger of record, which 24 Heures named as Desafio.
The paper also said the first part of a new contract had been placed with Valencia's regional authorities.
Firmenich told 24 Heures that Alinghi and SNG would adopt the same procedure as they did with the then challenger of record, American syndicate Oracle Racing, on winning the cup in Auckland four years ago.
The aim was "to avoid a challenger coming forward up and messing up the cards by proposing a wild protocol like in 1987".
The reference was to New Zealand businessman Michael Fay's rogue campaign, which led to the mismatch between Fay's big boat and American skipper Dennis Conner's catamaran off San Diego in 1988.
Firmenich also said he was impressed by the way Valencia had welcomed the America's Cup.
"In November 2003, when we came here for the first time, it was difficult to imagine what we see today," he said.
"The concept in its entirety has been achieved with a remarkable harmony."
Port America's Cup used to be a thoroughfare for heavy industrial traffic and the site of abandoned warehouses near the Mediterranean's busiest container port.
The area now contains more than two dozen restaurants, cafes and nightclubs, park areas and a 700-berth marina.
The present challenger of record is Team New Zealand, who took over the mantle in May after Oracle's elimination at the semifinal stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' series.
Team NZ got the job because among the remaining challengers -- themselves and Italy's Luna Rossa -- they were next in time to present a challenge to Alinghi after the 2003 event.
- NZPA
