America's Cup

Ahoy!

Tomorrow starts at Valencia one of the most lucrative sport events in the world, and one of the poshest. Also, the oldest continuous trophy in sports. It started in 1851, with Americans winning for a straight 132 years (25 editions) until Australia took the Cup in 1983. The Cup is so called because of the first yacht to win the trophy, the America.

This will be the first time in over 150 years that the America's Cup has been held in Europe.

Here are some curious facts about this year's edition:

* 60,000 bottles of Moet & Chandon were taken to Valencia. The official Cup's champagne will be opened by the winners of each regatta, but also on all the ceremonies organised by the Louis Vuitton Cup;

* 1,000.000 m2 is the surface the Port of the Cup, the largest and most modern infrastructure ever to be built for a nautical competition;

* 1,000 boats will coming in and out of the port each day of regatta;

* 33 TV cameras will follow the regattas from helicopters, catamarans, speed boats and even aboard the competing boats. Furthermore, there will be 6 cameras on each boat during the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup and America´s Cup;

* 18 kg of weight and 110 cm height - these are the measures of the cup, the oldest sports trophy in the world.

The way it works is quite refined and difficult to grasp, but in other words, the regattas for classification have been happening since 2004, eliminating candidates - to keep public interest high between matches before the 2007 America's Cup championship, the Louis Vuitton Acts were created with 13 regattas, called "Acts".

The Louis Vuitton Cup is composed of the regattas' rounds in order to establish at the end, a competitor for the last America's Cup winner, the Alinghi from Switzerland (ironic winner, from a land with no sea!).

The America's Cup per se is that event, the competition between these yachts, representing their yacht's clubs. The cup is to be passed on to the yacht's clubs and is still the original trophy.

All this takes place starting tomorrow to June 12 (Louis Vuitton Cup - challenger selection series). The 2007 America's Cup match will take place between June 23 and July 7.

Everyone is ready, on their positions, just waiting for the right wind blow and strike of luck. These are the teams.

Team name Nationality

Defender:Alinghi Switzerland

BMW Oracle Racing United States

+39 Challenge Italy

Team Shosholoza South Africa

Emirates Team New Zealand New Zealand

Luna Rossa Challenge Italy

Areva Challenge France

Victory Challenge Sweden

Desafío Español 2007 Spain

Mascalzone Latino-CapitaliaTeam Italy

United Internet Team Germany Germany

China Team China

Good luck, sailors!