Alinghi 5 sails for the first time on Lake Geneva
[Source: Alinghi] The Swiss America’s Cup Defender, Alinghi, hoisted the sails on its giant new catamaran Alinghi 5 for the first time today on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. The 90ft multihull was cheered off the dock at midday by hundreds of spectators watching the maiden sail out of Le Bouveret.
Murray Jones, who is running the initial trials of the giant multihull that represents a first step in the development process towards the 33rd America’s Cup, gave his comments on a good first day on the water: “We went out this morning with a list of objectives to work through: testing the boat, checking the structure, doing some manoeuvres and seeing if the sails would all sheet and it went pretty well; we ticked off just about everything. There are a lot of systems on the boat that are complicated and new, but it was fantastic. To fly the boat upwind and downwind with gennaker was awesome for the first day of sailing. The boat is a tribute to the designers and the boat builders. To deliver a boat of this complexity that works straight out of the box on the first day is impressive; really impressive.”
Alinghi 5 maiden sail. Lake Geneva, 20 July 2009. Photo copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi Grant Simmer, design team coordinator, was observing the trials from a RIB: “It’s been a good day, we had a list of things we wanted to tick off and we took it slowly and carefully and have finished the day achieving all those things. It was exciting to see the boat sailing for the first time after so much time designing, boat building, sail making and spar making; seeing all those bits come together and seeing the machine working is great! We’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
This multihull – the culmination of 100,000 man-hours – was launched on 9 July by helicopter and will continue to sail on the Lake over the coming weeks.
The weather today, courtesy of Météo Suisse, was a light 5-7 ESE ‘Vauderon’.
Alinghi 5 maiden sail. Lake Geneva, 20 July 2009. Photo copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi
Alinghi 5 maiden sail. Lake Geneva, 20 July 2009. Photo copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi
Alinghi 5 maiden sail. Lake Geneva, 20 July 2009. Photo copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi
Alinghi 5 maiden sail. Lake Geneva, 20 July 2009. Photo copyright Carlo Borlenghi / Alinghi
11 Comments:
Made in Swiss!
Oracle peut se faire du soucis...
Regardless of my BMWO leanings, this is a great looking boat. Truely a work of art.
Having said all that, I wonder how the engine performed during this initial trial. ;)
They fly a hull on this first day ???
Incredible.
Hey russ
not only did they fly a hull.. They also tacked about 8 times. Unfurled, furled and flew a hull with a gennaker. And all this with full mainsail. They didnt even bother to start off with a reef in.
Looking very, very sharp.
Rolf, Dirk, Grant and all the others
you have done a great job !!!
Sexy!
Hey Manolo,
how do you feel on lake geneva to see your old buddies that racing machine?
They look like a bunch of rich spoiled kids that get to ride dad's new Porsche or Mercedes...
In the meantime the rest of us that worked in a team in Valencia are now jobless.
I really hope Erne$to and all the Swiss cheaters will get a beating in the court today.
Don't do a mistake. If you are jobless it is because BMWO and not Alinghi. Without BMWO the america's cup would be this month...
"Don't do a mistake. If you are jobless it is because BMWO and not Alinghi. Without BMWO the america's cup would be this month..."
Ah the old standby Alinghi line. Yeah it was BMWO's fault CNEV was found to be the fake that it always was intended to be.
The swissers ruined the cup - buuuuu! Stay on your lake!!!
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