Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Ernesto Bertarelli’s defending- champion Alinghi syndicate is preparing to hold sailing’s 2010 America’s Cup off the coast of Valencia, Spain.

The Swiss billionaire’s team said in a letter to Judge Shirley Kornreich of the New York State Supreme Court that it was scheduling the regatta for the site that’s been “repeatedly requested” by rival Larry Ellison’s BMW-Oracle team. Alinghi and BMW Oracle have spent more than two years battling over the rules for the 158-year-old event.

Hours of talks on holding the match off eastern Australia broke down this weekend, Alinghi said, adding that it remains open to moving the regatta there if it can reach an agreement with BMW Oracle.

Alinghi “believes that the 33rd America’s Cup must be decided in February 2010, on the water rather than in the Courts of New York State,” the letter said.

Tom Ehman, a spokesman for BMW Oracle’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, said in a statement the team was “‘very pleased” that Alinghi has “finally agreed with us that Valencia in February is the correct venue to hold the 33rd America’s Cup.” Alinghi’s move “presumably” ends the court fight over the venue, Ehman said.

Rules included with the letter by Alinghi, which captured the Cup from New Zealand in 2003 and successfully defended it in 2007, show the best-of-three races regatta would run Feb. 8-12. Both teams have built multihull boats. BMW Oracle yesterday unveiled a 190-foot wing-shaped sail larger than the wing of an Airbus A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane, for its 90- foot trimaran.

Kornreich last month ruled that Alinghi’s proposed site in the United Arab Emirates didn’t comply with the Deed of Gift governing the regatta.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 10, 2009 12:34 EST