With a spectacular presentation on the evening of Friday 5 April, Alinghi Red Bull Racing, the team with the flag of the Société Nautique de Genève, unveiled BoatOne, its AC75, the result of the work of the design team led by Marcelino Botin and built in the Ecumbles shipyard, on Lake Geneva. The unveiling ceremony took place exactly one month after BoatOne’s arrival in Barcelona and began with the release of the new AC75 from the shed in the Swiss team’s base in Port Vell. (Here all our posts about the America’s Cup)
The spectacle of the “human sail”
The unveiling ceremony of Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s BoatOne was a real show. The acrobats of the Catalan theater company La Fura dels Baus, hanging in the air above the boat, created a spectacular “human sail”, enchanting the guests but also all the enthusiasts and curious people who from outside the base were able to witness the event which in practice it kicked off the journey towards the Preliminary Regattas of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.
America’s Cup: a hull with many surprises
Straight bow, long keel, practically flat hull, deck with particular bulge at the bow and shortened cockpit. These, with the foils hidden inside special “boxes” that hid their shapes and dimensions, were the elements that attracted the attention not only of the professionals when BoatOne, once it left the warehouse, appeared throughout its length. In particular, attention was focused on some “protuberances” located immediately abaft the bow which could serve to create a Venturi effect and send air flows towards the jib creating greater pressure or which could serve to help the bow to come out of the water after a nosedive.
The cut-away cockpit
Another element that attracted attention is the cut-away cockpit at the stern leaving about 3 meters free up to the transom. A radical choice after the new rule has reduced the crew members of the from 12 to 8, that there is no passage of sailors during changes of board and with the crew was concentrated in the arms area.
America’s Cup: Ineos Britannia’s BR3 also arrives in Barcelona
The excitement over the unveiling of Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s BoatOne had not yet died down before another protagonist of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup reached Barcelona. In fact, on Saturday 6 April the exceptional transport with BR3, the new AC75 of Ineos Britannia, arrived in Barcelona and, after having paraded along the Passeig del Colom, the avenue that runs along Port Vell from the square with Monument a Colon, reached the base of the English team.
A journey of over 1600 km
To reach Barcelona RB3 completed a journey of over 1600 km. Leaving on 2 April from Carrington Boat, the Southampton shipyard where it was built, the new English AC75 first reached Portsmouth to be loaded onto a ferry which unloaded it in the Spanish port of Bilbao. From there, it’s a 600km journey to the finish line in Barcelona.
Emilio Martinelli
