The 33rd Americas Cup

Have a look at the review for the 32nd Americas cup held in 2007 at Valencia Spain.

Review of the Venue (9 May 2007)  Car Park cost us 9 Euros for 5 hours, no entry fee by car but by foot no info on the official web site at the time of writing.

One had to take care if going in  by foot because apparently they made you put your valuables through the x-ray scanner like at the airport but wallets and valuables are being stolen at this point.  The con merchants created a fuss at the point where the trays exited the machine and then stole  valuables in the confusion. People had to watch their valuables carefully.

There was no information on how to get there on the official site. No GPS coordinates for Tom Tom.

There was very little signage from outside Valencia City.  (Enter "Port America's Cup" as an address for [TomTom One V2 Europe] ,or,  these are the coordinates:   N 39°27'40", W 0° 19'24")  The sailing was just to the North of the port or a few miles to the South.

There was very little shade at the actual venue so with temperatures in excess of 30 deg and strong sun it paid to take your own shade and a wide brimmed hat.  The venue was very large so one had to be prepared to walk. The commentary on the large screens was in Spanish so we took a small vhf radio to tune in to the live English broadcast on 100 FM (approx)

If you had a disabled person in your party taking a wheel chair with you was a wise move.  There were quite a few dangerous drops, as is common in Spain so taking care was advisable.

There were free boat ferries to take you around the marina and canal but the boats took us everywhere we did not want to go. It is a long walk back from the Sheds to the North park screen.  Again they seemed oblivious to the fact that visiting parties may have a disabled member who could not travel far.  It would have been better to provide more info on how to get where in advance because with a disabled member of the party it is not possible to run around the whole venue in advance especially if there is only two of you.  So more info please from the Americas Cup Park Management next time.

The races took place a fair way off shore so  a very long lens for your camera or very very powerful binoculars is essential to catch the action.

You needed to take a walk to the end of the north breakwater to see the Romeo race course and walk to the end of the south breakwater to see the races on Juliet (If you were lucky)

The only shade we found was under the main Americas Cup Building but a steward made a fuss when we sat down to eat our sandwiches.

All said though the venue was spectacular and the racing was televised on 2 large screens and was shown on Sky Sports 1,2,3 and red button,  (But it was sensible to  take shade with you, and the radio and earphones!)

The North side of the canal was the best place to be to see the yachts at close quarters being towed out and back.

You could subscribe to watch all the races on your computer.  The races were delayed by a few minutes usually but you had a virtual race course with the boats displayed like on a computer game.  Still a very good way to watch the race.  They also had, live audio commentary when the races were on and flashed up a few real pictures of the racing.  Very good if you had a fast PC.

Official Americas Cup Website