Patrizio Bertelli and Carlo Croce (commodore of the Yacht Club Italiano) will meet the journalists during a press conference which will take place on Friday, September 24, starting at 3 PM in Yacht Club Italiano in Genoa.

It's expected that they will outline the campaign and will unveil the name of the sponsors which will join Prada for the third Bertelli Campaign.

Patrizio Bertelli has stepped down as General Manager of the Luna Rossa Challenge and has appointed Anthony Romano to assume that role.

"Luna Rossa will be one of the most serious challenger for the 32nd America's Cup", Romano said. "With our historical sponsor, we are finalizing agreements with other important groups and we are very confident that, very soon, we will be securing our budget".

Representatives of Team Luna Rossa were handed a letter from Pierre-Yves Firmenich, the Commodore of the SNG, accepting the Challenge on Thursday morning, in a small ceremony in Valencia, Spain, the Host City of the 32nd America’s Cup. Team Luna Rossa will represent the Yacht Club Italiano.

Although the team didn’t lodge its challenge until recently, Luna Rossa has been among the busiest of the America’s Cup teams over the past eight months.

"We have been training and testing on the waters off the Spanish coast for over three months,"explained Francesco de Angelis. "We were the first to set up a base in Valencia, and as planned, we now formally announce our participation as a Challenger in the 32nd America’s Cup".

After shutting down most of its operations for August, the team will resume sailing in Valencia at the beginning of September to prepare for Acts 2 and 3 in October. The team will hold an official announcement ceremony to launch its challenge late in September at the Yacht Club Italiano, in Genoa. Luna Rossa will not compete in Act 1, the Marseille Louis Vuitton Act.

Team Luna Rossa skipper Francesco de Angelis first proved his America’s Cup mettle in the 1999-2000 campaign when, trailing AmericaOne 4-3, de Angelis and his crew won the final two races of the thrilling nine-race series to claim the Louis Vuitton Cup. His determination, skill, and modest demeanour made him an instant hero in New Zealand and at home in Italy. But in the America’s Cup Match the defending Team New Zealand was too strong for the Italians, and the t eam was swept aside by the Kiwis.

For the 32nd America’s Cup, the team will represent the Yacht Club Italiano (YCI), the oldest sailing club on the Mediterranean. Founded in 1879 by a group of sailing enthusiasts, and enjoying the support of HRH King Umberto I, the Yacht Club Italiano had the patronage of the Royal Family, and flew the insignia of the Italian Royal Navy.

The Club has been associated with the America’s Cup before – in 1987, the “Italia” team represented the YCI. Today the Yacht Club Italiano can boast 1200 members, including the Italian Navy, and Naval Academy. Carlo Croce is the current commodore.

The Luna Rossa team is the fifth Challenger to be accepted for the 32nd America’s Cup, and joins the BMW Oracle Racing Team, the Italian squad +39, Team Shosholoza from South Africa, and Emirates Team New Zealand as officially accepted challengers.

As Luna Rossa Challenge has had its first two-boat testing day in Valencia waters on Saturday, Nacho Braqueháis starts work for Patrizio Bertelli's team.

The Valencian, who has previous America's Cup experience with the Desafio Español (in 1995 and 2000) and who was aboard the IMS 500 Caixa Galicia skippered by Francesco de Angelis, has been recruited as trimmer.

Earlier in the week a story was carried about American designer Bruce Nelson and Australian helmsman James Spithill joining the Italian Luna Rossa America's Cup syndicate.

According to a story posted on The Daily Sail website, they will be joined there by, "the talented American McKee brothers - Jonathan and Charlie."

Interestingly, all four were members of the Seattle-based OneWorld America's Cup syndicate that eliminated the Francesco de Angelis-skippered Luna Rossa in the semi-final repechage of the last Louis Vuitton Series.

In its Luna Rossa Challenge reincarnation, the former Prada Team looks very familiar. It's another rich campaign, led by Patrizio Bertelli, Francesco de Angelis is at the helm and the grigiorosso boat is the first to get out on the water again.

Nevetheless, references to the formers campaigns are of limited use. The change of name reflects some innovations in the syndicate.

Doug Peterson was fired after only two races in the last Cup and they're now three in charge of design. Claudio Maletto, the only survivor of the last design team, will be associate with Roberto Biscontini (Oracle Racing 2003) and Bruce Nelson (OneWorld 2003 and Young America 2000).

Given the individuals, some fiery debates can be expected. Most of the new blood is in the sailing team, recruits such Australian young gun James Spithill and some of his former teammates.

If de Angelis helms the Luna Rossa for the first outing in Valencia, he said they are not locked into his figure helming their boats during the challenger series which begins in October.

The Luna Rossa Challenge will train in Valencia until the beginning of the pre-regattas (with holidays in August) and during this period they will carry out tests and in-house racing sessions.

As expecting, the Luna Rossa Challenge today transferred the main assets of the former Prada Challenge to their rented base in Real Club Náutico de Valencia.

The two more recent IACC (ITA 74 & ITA 80), their appendages and their equipments were unloaded today from the cargo ship that left Livorno three days ago and arrived in Spain this week-end.

After an intense period assembling the newly delivered boats, Luna Rossa Challenge is now able to test their toys on the water.

All of the members are expected to be here by mid-April to sail for the two boats testing period. The first outing is scheduled for Thursday, April 20.

With a slight delay due to a strike on Livorno's port, ITA 74 and ITA 80 will be shipped tomorrow to Spain. Only 32 hours are necessary for the cargo ship to reach the venue of the 32nd America's Cup.

They will be very soon followed by Francisco de Angelis and good part of the new Luna Rossa Team (50 people, including 24 sailors), in order to begin the first step of training to prepare the AC 2007.