Dean Barker in Valencia,
Other Challengers to Follow
2/4/04

by Félix García

Dean Barker in Valencia and other challengers

Rita Barberá, Mayor of Valencia, welcomed Team New Zealand’s Dean Barker to town January 23rd. Barker, the Kiwi team’s skipper, was in Valencia for a few days last month with his wife to scout the city and to find the right location for their stay in the city during the Cup. 

As demonstrated in the last edition of the AC, the Teams with the highest budgets usually arrive over a year before the official start of competition. But in Valencia the situation will be different, because ACM Management has prepared several regattas with the main challengers taking part in the Pre-Regattas September 5-12, 2004. 

Some teams are already expected to race in Valencia next fall : the Swiss Alinghi, the American OracleBMW, the Italians Mascalzone Latino and Prada, the French Le Defi, and possibly the Australian Ozboyz Challenge, if the Australians have their new team assembled in time. 

New Zealand’s team (composed of over 100 people) will arrive in Valencia to stay in 2006 accompanied by their families, although TNZ will also compete in the Pre-Regattas of September 2004 and the regattas of 2005. 

Speaking during his trip, Dean Barker was pleased that yacht designer Marcelino Botín had joined Team New Zealand.  Barker told Valencia’s mayor he hopes that many New Zealanders will visit Valencia during the Cup, especially those living in Great Britain who will find it easier to travel to Spain than the New Zealanders living at home down under. 

First teams in Valencia

The “Balcón al Mar” project is expected to be completed in the first months of 2006, so in the meantime many teams have requested to locate their interim Valencia headquarters at the same places which the Spanish “desafios” of 1995 and 2000 America’s Cup were built.

All the signs say that the first boat to arrive in Valencia will be the Italian Prada team of Patrizio Bertelli and Francesco de Angelis, expected to be in the Port of Valencia next April.

World Exposition 2005

Rita Barberá announced that Valencia has received a request that Valencia 2007 have a presence in the Spanish Pavilion at the upcoming World Exposition in Aichi, Japan, to be held March through September of 2005.  The invitation is based in part on the extensive coverage the 2007 America’s Cup has received in major Japanese print and broadcast media.

Félix García is a journalist living in Valencia, Spain.