New Zealand launches latest model of yacht
Agence France-Presse, Auckland
America's Cup defender Team New Zealand launched its latest yacht late Monday as it bids to keep sport's oldest trophy Down Under for the third time in a row.
The launch comes ahead of the Louis Vuitton Cup from October 1, when nine teams will race for the right to take on Team New Zealand for what will be their second defense of the America's Cup next January.
On Wednesday the French Le Defi Areva syndicate yachts will arrive aboard a container ship. Their crew were arriving here Monday. Their racing yacht will not have a name but will go under its sail number, FRA69 -- which was initially offered to the British challenge who rejected it because of its sexual nature.
New Zealand's new yacht, NZL81, was launched by Pippa Blake, the widow of yachtsman Peter Blake who was murdered on the Amazon River in Brazil earlier this year.
"When I look at the boat I see not only the hopes and dreams of everybody in New Zealand but every single person in the team and their spirit is represented in that boat," designer Clay Oliver said.
The business of keels has been crucial in America's Cup racing -- in part technology and in part bluster. In 1983 the yacht Australia II, armed with a revolutionary winged keel, defeated the US Liberty to remove the cup from the US since they first won it in 1851. Winged keels have been standard ever since, although in the last series four years ago the Swiss in Be Happy came up with what was termed "a revolutionary loser" with twin keels.
Whether NZL81 has anything radical under her is unknown but on the couple of occasions she has been towed out onto the course Team New Zealand have kept the skirts on.
Team skipper Dean Barker said the boat was the best they had ever had.
He said the team would work six days a week and the mast and sail program would step up a gear.
Oliver said Team New Zealand had done everything it could to ensure it has a boat which is faster than anyone else and faster than the one it had before.
"We have used aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, structural engineering and all the sciences associated with that to put together a boat which we believe is the best we can do," Oliver said.
With just over a month until the start of the Louis Vuitton Challenger series, Oliver said all of the syndicates would have used Team New Zealand's 2000 winning yacht NZL60 as a starting point.
"Most of the challengers are falling in line with what the norm is. That norm is pretty much the boat which won the America's Cup last time," he said.
"The beams are a little different, the bows are a little different but this group of boats is going to be quite close in performance. There is one group which is a little different and that is Oracle and we'll see what their ideas are when the challengers start racing.