Following the excitement of Team New Zealand's legendary win in 1995, Auckland was chosen for the Defense and the Viaduct Basin, a previously disused industrial area, was chosen for the Cup Village and base for the syndicates.

During the two Americas Cup Regattas in Auckland, the best place to experience America's Cup excitement, if not on the water, is the Viaduct Basin, in downtown Auckland. The bases, which were temporary, were lined up side by side along Halsey Street with a superyacht marina squeezed in between them.

During the last America's Cup Regatta, 4.2 million visitors confirmed its success as a major event and is one of the significant criteria used by AC Management during the selection process was the possibility of finding a new Viaduct Basin.

In Valencia, the headquarters of the 32nd America's Cup will be located in the center of the Port. After a complete redesign and renovation, this is where the team bases, the regatta offices, the press center and the America's village will be located.

La Dársena Interior, the section of the port that will serve as home base for the Cup and its sponsors and fans, is already in the shape of an amphitheater. The plan is to put an island in the middle with a heliport and berths for the super yachts that follow in the Cup's wake.

The plans show massive changes including the construction of an 800-metre long canal, 80 metres wide and seven metres deep in order that the competing boats and their attendant launches do not disturb the port activity on their way to the race course.

Next to la Dársena Interior is the seafront promenade, an area full of popular restaurants and bars facing the beach, open all day and well into the night.

Everything is scheduled for completion by 2005. Also included in the plan are a commercial and leisure centre, museums and other sports facilities.

"The wind conditions in Valencia are very good, very stable, they are very constant and that is probably one of the best assets that we have," said in August Jose Salinas, executive director of the "Valencia 2007" bid.

With Auckland's variable weather pattern causing endless delays during the last regatta, a priority for organisers was to find a location with consistent breeze. Postponements and canceled race days wrecked the rhythm of the last Cup

America's Cup management chief executive Michel Bonnefous said the sailing conditions in Valencia more or less guaranteed sailing every day. The winds are very rarely too faint or extreme in the spring and summer months when the challenger series and then the Cup will be contested.

"We evaluated the worst-case scenario, in other words how many days you cannot sail due to the weather", Michel Bonnefous said. "In Auckland over a period where we lost 15 days. In Valencia, at worst, we would lose just one day."

Throughout the summer there is a regular thermal sea breeze from the south-east of 10-15 knots, known locally as the Garbi. The other main winds are the Garell from the North-east and the Tramontane from the North.

Those winds, according to several experts, are not as constant as has been advertised.

"I think people are getting the wrong idea that this is San Diego: 6 to 8 to 10 knots, flat water or gentle swells and light air," said Tom Ehman, of Oracle BMW racing, the San Francisco-based challenger of record. "This is in the teens. That's plenty of breeze, especially for these machines."

What would really guarantee a monotony-free event would be closer races. With that in mind, the design rules for America's Cup class yachts have been modified to narrow the design range and increase the downwind sail area.

"We wanted the boats to be sportier; to have more lead changes and to keep the racing more interesting," Ehman said.

The Gulf of Valencia’s other attractions include the water’s depth, its proximity to the coast, the absence of underwater obstacles, the lack of marine currents, as well as excellent visibility, with less than four days of fog a year.

Mr Salinas said the 2007 regatta could be run just to the north or south of Valencia.

The courses will be set close to the shore to enable better public viewing and because of the wind direction in Valencia, the organizers should be able to start and finish the races near shore: a major and positive change from what happened in San Diego and Auckland.