Just two "short" years remain until the next America's Cup Challenge date. But activity to that end is going on already. In fact, things started the day after Team Alinghi of Switzerland beat new Zealand on 2 March, 2003.
It marked the first time in 152 years the Cup would reside in Europe.
It falls on the winning country, now defined as the Defender, to host and schedule the next challenge. Since Switzerland is landlocked, the first big decision was to find a place to hold the next challenge.
The Swiss formed an organization which quickly got to work, and in November of 2003, they announced that Valencia, Spain would be the host city for the 32nd Challenge.
Valencia sits on the Mediterranean Sea and is know for very predictable weather patterns. That should help the final event keep to its schedule. The city is planning to convert its commercial port area into a "race village" to accommodate the Challenge.
A page on www.americascup.com shows a photo of the harbor as it is now. When you move your cursor over the photo, it shows the changes planned to accommodate the Cup activities.
A construction project in the center of the well protected harbor will become Race Central. Team facilities will be created in a ring around the outside of the harbor.
That, and improvements to the channel, will make it possible for the teams to be on the racecourse within 15 minutes of leaving their dock.
There will be a park that will serve as a public area, special facilities for VIP's and the media.
And, of course, there will be a special area for all those mega-yachts for the really, really rich.
Its location on the southeast coast also is within reasonable reach of 300 million Europeans and the race course will be close enough to shore that land based spectators will be able to see the action.
By the time the Challenge deadline came, at the end of April this year, the entry list became the most diverse in its history.
There are 12 teams from ten countries on five continents, with the last two entries being from Germany and China.
Since 1958, the gap between America's Cup events has averaged five years. Seems holders of the cup are in no hurry to risk it by holding a Challenge.
To avoid this in the future, the organizers have set up a schedule of "Acts" taking place from 2004 to the finals in 2007. This also will give the teams a chance to test themselves and compare themselves to the rest of the competition.
Results of the early Acts will help set up the rankings for the early part of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
The LVC is a series of races held to determine which team will challenge the Defender for the actual America's Cup.
In the past several Challenges, the LVC and the AC competitions have been spread over five months. Under the new system, they will be completed in three more intense months of racing in 2007.
The latest Act was a series of fleet races, involving all the teams racing at once. Coming out on top was Luna Rossa from Italy, with Sweden's Victory Challenge team doing well.
In fact, Victory Challenge appeared to be the winner of one of the fleet races until judge's disqualified it, putting Luna Rossa in front. VC had good finishes in the other races held last week.
More Acts are scheduled for August in Sweden and September in Sicily.