If Valencia was named host for the 2007 America's Cup, Ernesto Bertarelli always wished to stage an exhibition regatta on Alinghi's home waters in Switzerland.

But nothing is finalized yet as space constraints and busy shipping lanes are clearly working against a Lake Geneva Regatta.

There must be reasonable landscape for each syndicate, for their facilities and for their back-up teams and the issue with the Lake is that these areas are well developed and are costly.

"We are looking for solutions in order to bring the Cup to the Swiss but it's a very complex operation", Ernesto Bertarelli said. "I would like to see two or three America's Cup boats sailing on Lake Leman and, if I can't promise anything, we're working hard for 2006".

The main issue is represented by the size of the boats, which inputs draught ratios (5 meters) that fall out of the 'Swiss' range,

In spite of this, discussions are in hand to add a Swiss Regatta in the 2006 programme and the Lake Specialists see only the little port of Pully as a possible venue.

"From my point of view, what was done in Marseille with six boats is not realizable there because we would not know where to place the boats", said Swiss engineer Jacques Conus. "But an exhibition with two or three boats is possible, even if we had to sweep the bottom in some places".

A precedent case exists which could give hope to the Swiss : In August 1998, the Marc Pajot's BeHappy has already been sailed in Pully to attract potential investors.