There will be a press conference on Friday evening beginning at 19:30 local time in Valencia (13:30 EST, 10:30 PST) from the team base featuring team founder Larry Ellison (USA), team CEO Russell Coutts (NZL) and the skipper and helmsman of USA, James Spithill.
And best of all, you can watch it live. This will be our first live streaming event (see previous story below). Just tune in to the player on the main team website.
American tactician John Kostecki has won an Olympic medal - silver in 1988 - and skippered illbruck to victory in the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race. Now, there's nothing he'd like more than to bring the Cup back to his home state of California, where he started sailing as a kid.
"I grew up in San Francisco Bay sailing with my parents on dinghies and small keelboats and when I was about seven years old I joined Richmond Yacht Club on the east bay of San Francisco and started in their junior sailing programme and then slowly graduated up through the sailing programme there and then St Francis Yacht Club sort of adopted me and I started sailing for them."
Not surprisingly for someone hooked on sailing, he can remember watching Cup races on television and thinking, 'I want to do that'.
"Back in 1983 when Dennis Conner lost the Cup to Australia, I remember watching that on TV - and I remember it clearly - and at that point I was like, 'Someday I'm going to be an America's Cup sailor."
Although the USA is vastly different to the America's Cup Class boats he guided to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final in 2000 with AmericaOne, Kostecki says that in many respects, his job now is the same as it was then.
"I help direct the boat in the right direction on the race course, determine where the best wind is according to the windshifts and try to place our yacht - hopefully - in a favourable position versus our competitor."
But he says some aspects of the job are very different indeed.
"In previous America's Cups the racing was on short courses in both distance and time. This time around we're going to have races that are three maybe four or more hours in length (and race courses that are 40 nautical miles long)," he explains.
"In the previous America's Cup you would focus on the first wind shift, so you're looking one minute up the track after the start. This is going to be very different. We're going to have changing conditions over a 40-mile course and so it's going to be more oriented towards offshore style sailing, where you're going to be racing through different conditions. So it's going to be bigger picture type strategies."
Even the way the team has trained has been much different from in the past. No two-boat testing, for example, and no full-scale practice races against an opponent on the trimaran. Instead, the priority has been to make the boat as fast as it can possibly be.
"In the America's Cup, the fastest boat normally wins, so we've been focused on making this boat as fast as possible around the race track," he says. "Our biggest improvement has been the wing sail. It's clear that once we had that on, the ability of the boat to manoeuvre, its speed, the ease of sailing, all of it combined, is much better.
"I'm optimistic… I feel good about it. I feel that we're going to put our best foot forward for the races."
...Cup legend Dennis Conner won the America's Cup in Fremantle, Australia.
It was the last time an American challenger won the Cup, although American teams successfully defended in 1988 and 1992.
Team photographer Gilles Martin-Raget was there and shot these images, and team meteorologist Chris Bedford was in Fremantle, working at his first America's Cup for DC.
After leaving his university degree half way through, navigator Matteo Plazzi (ITA) has enjoyed a sailing career that has moved from strength to strength. His first Cup experience came in 1987 with Italy's Azzurra Challenge and he's never looked back:
"I started as a kid with small dinghies and then when I was about 18 or 19 I started sailing IOR boats and spent more and more time on the water I haven't really stopped since," Plazzi says. "When I was starting my degree at University at the same time I was doing a lot of sailing and I had to make a decision. That was when I said to my family, 'thanks, but I am going to try and live from sailing' and that's really when I started."
Highlights of his career to date have been the America's Cup with Prada/Luna Rossa (three times) and before that the around the world race with Winston in 93-94. He won the Admirals Cup with Brava along with three One Ton Cups.
On the USA, he is the navigator, working with tactician John Kostecki (USA) and skipper and helmsman Jimmy Spithill (AUS).
"As navigator I am trying to give information to the tactician and helmsman - real information, facts for the discussion - so that they can make decisions. I use instruments and computers and use the numbers to help the other guys."
The amount of information at his fingertips is astounding, as the technology on board continues to get more impressive.
"I think technology is changing the work of the navigator as the computers get more powerful," he explains. "On this boat especially, we have so many more sensors that we use to monitor stress and performance, (for example). The technology that we are using today is much higher than what we've used in the past."
Another difference, of course, is simply the nature of the beast itself. USA is a speed machine, especially compared to the old ACC boats.
"The sensation is quite different," Plazzi says. "Three or four times faster than an ACC. In choppy conditions, the movements are very sharp and the boat is vibrating quite a lot. Everything happens quite fast. But when you are flying on one hull in flat water, it is amazing how quiet the boat is.
"It's always exciting being on the boat and sometimes scary. We're trying to push but always stay in control, but we've been pushing harder and harder to find the limit and that's something we have to do."
Racing is now just days away. How does he feel about that?
"The race with Alinghi will be fun," he says. "The entry at the pre-start, for the first race will be very exciting. We don't know what will happen and we'll have to decide what to do in that moment. It will be great."
If you live in the United States, you can follow the America's Cup Match on ESPN - online that is.
And we'll have more information on how to follow BMW ORACLE Racing in its challenge for the 33rd America's Cup shortly.
Below is more info about ESPN360.
For the first time in its programming history, ESPN360.com -- ESPN's 24/7 broadband sports network -- will carry the oldest sporting trophy event and sailing's most prestigious regatta and match race, the 33rd America's Cup. The best of three races duel will take place live from Valencia, Spain beginning Monday, Feb. 8th at 3:45 a.m. ET. Race 2 is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 10th and -- if necessary -- Race 3 on Friday, Feb. 12th, both at 3:45 a.m. ET.
Calling the event for ESPN360.com will be ESPN sailing commentator and president of US SAILING Gary Jobson along with renowned sailing expert Randy Smyth, both former winners of the America's Cup. After breaking into programming to carry Race 7 of the 25th America's Cup in 1983 -- won by Australia off the coast of Newport, R.I., to break the longest winning streak in sports -- ESPN networks televised every America's Cup competition through 2003.
The 33rd America's Cup is the highly anticipated sequel to the drama-filled result of the 32nd America's Cup in 2007 that sparked a two-year courtroom battle between defending champions Alinghi -- racing team for Société Nautique de Genève -- against Golden Gate Yacht Club's racing team BMW ORACLE Racing. This year's duel under the one-on-one Deed of Gift will settle the dispute between defender and challenger.
According to boat director and sailing team member Matty Mason (NZL) the crew, "had a really good day today and we're all feeling positive about racing in a few days time. I think we're really starting to gel together on board."
The team sailed for most of the day, had a practice start and sailed a short windward-leeward course. The crew manoeuvres were sharp and the boat was moving well.
