I hope everyone had as nice a Christmas as I did, which was in Venice.
At last a move that seems so logical, we wonder what took them so long to act on the thought. Valencia has an infrastructure like no other place for the America’s Cup. Additionally, the America’s Cup belongs in Europe from a sailing audience point of view.
The HR Constitution – the cargo ship that has served as the main mode of transport between America’s Cup World Series venues – has arrived in Valencia where it will discharge its cargo.
All of the ‘materiel’ on the ship will be offloaded in Valencia before the HR Constitution is returned to its owners in time for Christmas.
“We took the decision to land the equipment in Valencia, after considering several factors,” explained Regatta Director Iain Murray. “There is a possibility for a number of teams to train together in Valencia, given the local infrastructure from the previous America’s Cups there.
“And for ACRM, Valencia is also an ideal place for us to undertake remedial maintenance work on our fleet of support boats and equipment. Several of our employees live in Valencia, making it even more convenient.”
The America’s Cup has secured some 2,500 square meters of space in the Port to store all the cargo and to complete the work on the support boats.
According to Andy Hindley, the Chief Operating Officer for America’s Cup Race Management, the use of the HR Constitution to ship the America’s Cup World Series fleet from Portugal, to the UK, to San Diego and back to Europe this year has been a winning formula.
“The chartered vessel has been a great success and delivered the logistics needed better than we hoped,” Hindley said.
Following a three month stop in Valencia, all the equipment will be shipped out from Valencia in the middle of March, in time for the start of the World Series event in Naples, Italy on April 7, 2012.
Banque Populaire V is holding a 1,000 mile lead over the ghost ship Groupama sailing in day 36.
