AC75 boats to launch in April
Teams in the 37th America’s Cup have to give a minimum of two month’s notice of their planned date to launch their ‘big boats’, the secondgeneration AC75S which will be used for the 2024 America’s Cup races. All six teams gave notice in February, which means the first AC75S are expected to hit the water in early April.
Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi Red Bull Racing were first to give notification on 6 February, with Emirates Team New Zealand confirming that they plan to launch in Auckland before shipping to Barcelona by July. All AC75S must be constructed in the country of the flag nationality, so INEOS Britannia’s AC75 – codenamed RB3 – was built at Carrington’s in Hythe, near Southampton, before transportation to the team’s hub at the Mercedes F1 base in Brackley, Northamptonshire – “About as far from the sea as you can get in England!” pointed out skipper and CEO Ben Ainslie – for fit out.
The American Magic team also has to ship its AC75 to Europe after build in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, so could be one of the last to launch.
Alinghi recently unveiled images of their new AC75 leaving the boatyard in Ecublens, Switzerland, for Spain to launch no earlier than 5 April. “She’s radical and it will be beautiful when she’s going fast,” said David Nikles, lead boatbuilder. Despite the boat being under close wraps, other teams will be pouring over the images closely for clues as to the team’s design direction. Early speculation is that the hull shape shares characteristics with New Zealand’s winning Te Rehutai and the freeboard suggests cyclors rather than recumbent bikes... for everything else we’ll have to wait and see!