Official competitions will start next year

Budgets reviewed on the rise, dotted technology vessels, sponsors who are rubbing their hands. For his great return to Europe, the America's Cup puts small dishes in large. This week compete in Valencia regattas which will designate the champion of the 2006 season. These ultimate repeats opposed 12 competitors from 10 countries. Official competitions will start next year. The final between the "Defender", the Swiss Alinghi, and her suitor will take place in June 2007, at the end of a series of elimination races listed in the calendar of the Louis Vuitton Cup, responsible for selecting the best challenger.

Over the past year, the city of Valencia, Spain, which hosts events, lives to the rhythm of the "Copa". Crews took up their quarters in hotels, the bases of the competitors are well aligned along the port, taxi drivers are English, beauty Gets the long Avenida del Puerto and restaurants were modernizing their cards and raised prices.

For the third city of Spain, it is a unique opportunity to view the status of capital of the world of sailing, with its eternal rivals: the bubbling Barcelona and the haughty Madrid. Rita Barberá, the Mayor of the city, intends to take advantage of the coming of the America's Cup and its cortege of international visitors to the old Roman city visibility that it lacks. Nearly EUR 1 billion will be injected into the economy of the city. Half of this cash was already used to transform the ancient port of marina to fashion fishing. One of the ambitions of Rita Barberá aims to "open the city on the sea". Throughout its long history, the city he actually turned its back, with a single goal: to protect themselves from the raids of the pirates.

Anglo-Saxon subtleties

For the people of sea, the issue is a kind of old myth more of one hundred and fifty years. It is in fact a silver Ewer chiselled in the maniéré style of Victorian England. The possession of "old sporting trophy in the world" has always attracted the best sailors in the world and fascinated naval architects. It also ruined several patrons contaminated with the "match race" fever, this regatta two where there is no second. Today, the inheritors of this tradition of high-end sports sponsorship are known billionaires: Ernesto Bertarelli, the Swiss pharmaceutical group Serono owner, Larry Ellison, the founder of the American software Oracle Editor, Patrizio Bertelli, the boss of the Italian Prada luxury group.

These three industrial are ready to do anything to win. For three years, they invest almost without counting the best team members and the technologies that make the difference. The budget of these three "top teams" navigates between 120 and 150 million euros. Not surprisingly, Alinghi, BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa are given as favourites for the event by all specialists. Behind the stars, there are honest craftsmen, who train hard and must escape with much lower budgets. A New Zealander, a South African, a French, a German, a Swede, a Spanish and two other Italians. For the first time, a Chinese "challenge" China Team, "Les echos" are partner is part of the circuit. But all this turmoil leaves marble the old Valencian, more attached to the rules simple and Earth of the "fútbol" to the finasseries of the sail. In remote taverns of working-class neighborhoods of the port, it feels not too concerned with the sport of rich, these endless sites and these VIP parades that have become the common lot of the city.

The victory in 2003 the Swiss team in Auckland, New Zealand, was experienced as an anomaly by regulars of the microcosm. For its first participation, a play-boy Geneva, came a country of Montagnard and eating cheese, Italian name and living on a Lake, took the last. The nose and beard of the Anglo-Saxon masters who dominated the tests for a century and a half and established the rules of the competition: two substantially identical boats are opposed around two buoys. Start the wind, back under spinnaker and two or three loops depending on wind conditions. Behind the apparent simplicity lie many typically Anglo-Saxon subtleties, which is virtually inaccessible to every human being who is not a member of the yacht club of Newport, on the coast is the United States, or Cowes, in the Isle of Wight. In fact, the game is to push the opponent to the fault. The penalties are not rare and the "has" (referees) are struggling to enforce the regulations out flags. Damage are also part of the game and there are more spinnakers exploding and the Genoese tear in the race. Each of these betrayals of the equipment, means whining the cash drawer: between 20,000 and 30,000 dollars for each sailing of prior lost. More than double to replace the mainsail, now cast with material laminated widely using carbon fiber.

The "Foreign Legion" Alinghi

The start is a particularly dramatic year, become the emblem of the Cup. Marking the opponent seeks control of two delicate exercises: "dial-up" (application of priority rules) and the "circling" (the two adversaries revolve one around the other). In the majority of cases, the cutting the line first, all sails lined, finishes the race in mind. The spi in the breeze, he is welcomed by a concert of sirens and fog horns.

A vessel of the new generation is about 24 metres long, weighs around 24 tonnes and is worth approximately EUR 5 million. Alone, the bulb, the oblong ballast attached at the end of the keel, weighs around 20 tonnes. A feature that say bad languages that a Class America is the most expensive object ever built by man "to move the lead in the water". Sailboats in competition this year are lighter and more inserts than their counterparts in 2003. They are therefore more lively and a little faster.

The pattern of Serono is not unknown in the world of yachting. Decided to bring the Cup on the premises of the nautical society of Geneva, the "bel Ernesto" released his personal cheque book to attract the best on the banks of the Leman. In 2000, it was a real "Foreign Legion" sailors, engineers, architects and specialists. Three years later, the Swiss team imposed a though 5-0 to Team New Zealand, taking the title bewildered by such a success, never seen in the history of the trophy for the first participation.

This technique of transfers is now widespread. Team BMW Oracle (140 people) and includes 7 French passed under the banner of the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco. Among them, Bertrand Pacé, today helmsman of reserve of the American challenge. Changing employer and budget, the former skipper of the French challenge in 2000 became the French sailor best paid in the history of the America's Cup.

A more attractive event

The winner of the test has a unique advantage: it has the power to amend the regulations to go its own way. Ernesto Bertarelli is not deprived of use this sovereign right. He has made evolve competition with a dual objective: making the Cup more attractive to sponsors and more lively for the spectators. In drawing methods of formula 1, the Swiss have transformed the place of the test without too traditions. A specific structure, ACM, was formed to manage the event and its image. The first result of this modernization is obvious to all observers: money flows in flow. The total budget of the Cup is now close to EUR 1 billion.

Reverse of the Medal, the competition has become a huge Bazaar to derivatives and a compulsory venue for VIP influential. A dual trend that irritates the purists. Repeatedly, the King Juan Carlos, amateur patented races off the coast, made visit to the old lady. The sovereign such attendance was very solemn religious baptized in the "Desafío Espanol", the boat that will defend the colors of the Spain next year.

To this competition, the French team K Challenge finally managed to find a sponsor: Areva is back in the race giving its name to team Canadiens by injecting a dozen million euros in operation "Valencia 2007". With a near total budget of EUR 20 million, the circle of Paris sailing team will not only build a single new generation boat. "Our aim is the qualification for the semi-finals and we strongly oppose already in the after-2007", shows, confident, his boss, Stéphane Kandler.