As Luna Rossa is almost ready to sail in Valencia, Oracle BMW Racing is continuing its training session in Auckland. But the American shore co-ordinator Grant Davidson is working hard to prepare the Team arrival.

The agreement with Club Náutico de Valencia has been signed since several months and the last details were negotiated in the last week. The Larry Ellison's Team will now start the construction of its Base in a yacht club which will host six syndicates (a new French team joined the fleet recently).

The date for the team's arrival had not been set but it should have occurred very soon as Grant Davidson has rented 16 apartments in the historic downtown of Valencia and is looking for schools for the Team members' childrens.

The Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia have just begun the process which will lead to a huge reorganization of the Valencian Port intented to host the future America's Cup village.

The first important step is the publication of a tender notice in the Boletín Oficial del Estado espagnol et in the Official Journal of the European Union for the "construction of a connecting canal".

The budget is proposed at €143,9 million and the deadline for receipt of tenders is 12 noon (local time) on Monday, 17th May 2004.

For the Spanish authorities the time will run very fast as the duration of the contract is 30 months from the award of the contract.

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 70 & 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.

The GBR (America's Cup) Challenge confirmed that they have reserved space at the Real Club Nautica Valencia and have appointed Michael ten Bokum to manage logistics on behalf of GBR Challenge in Spain.

The team is working closely with Real Club Nautica to progress the development of the site and are currently finalizing layout plans and aim to have a presence in Valencia from this summer onwards.

The GBR Challenge shore crew will arrive in Spain next Tuesday in order to prepare the first step of training in Valencia.

The Real Club Nautico de Valencia will accomodate five syndicate in the former Desafio Español base for the Louis Vuitton Cup 2000.

Luna Rossa operations in Spain began yesterday, as the Italian team set up their base on a 3000 sq m site rented from Real Club Náutico de Valencia.

The first six containers delivered yesterday include the composites lab, the weather team instruments, the sail loft, and spares and equipment for the two boats.

Antonio Marrai, head of logistics for the team, is scheduled to arrive in Valencia today, and the base should be operational next month.

The Real Club Nautico de Valencia and their 3000 square meter which was the Desafio Español base for the Louis Vuitton Cup 2000 is the place where you must be.

After Alinghi, Oracle, le Défi and the Luna Rossa Challenge, it's now the Peter Harrison's Team which came to an agreement with the Spanish Yacht Club to begin a training session in Valencia as soon as possible.