This will be the fourth Spanish Challenge for the America’s Cup, following entries in the 1992, 1995 and 1999 Louis Vuitton Cups. But this Desafío Español team is entirely new and represents a complete break from the past.

Desafío Español has acquired the two OneWorld boats from the last America’s Cup and will use them as a training and testing platform, as well as the former America True boat, USA-51.

After challenging, the team quickly established a temporary base in the commercial area of the port that they could use for training. Desafío Español began training at the end of March.

With its challenge, Desafío Español inherits the ‘home team’ mantle from the Defender Alinghi, which brought the America’s Cup to Valencia. With the support of a home crowd in June 2005, the Spanish team will be eager to justify that faith. It is a well funded project, and has many positive things going for it.

The OneWorld package of boats and design information is a tremendous head start for the team. The OneWorld boats were among the fastest in Auckland, and this should benefit Reichel and Pugh tremendously as they move forward with the new design.

While the sailing team will feature a majority of Spanish sailors with prior Cup experience or achievements at the Olympics, several international sailors will be included to broaden the experience of the crew, including Karol Jablonski and Jesper Radich.