Alinghi unveils new boats

www.alinghi.com
Alinghi unveils new boats
2007-03-31

Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America’s Cup, unveiled SUI91 and SUI100, their two new generation racing yachts, on the 1 April at 09:30. For the occasion, the Defender was exhibiting the America’s Cup, won by Alinghi on 2 March 2003, and the Louis Vuitton Cup, the latter soon to be at the centre of the challengers fight for supremacy over the coming months.

Under the America’s Cup rules, the yachts have been skirted since 1 January 2006 allowing the teams to develop their yachts and appendage packages in secret. The 1 April is the day where the design teams display the fruits of their work and get the opportunity to assess the work of their competitors. Grant Simmer says: “We are proud to display SUI91 and SUI100 today.

They represent the product of three years of research, development and testing by our designers, sailors and shore crew. We are confident they are capable of retaining the Cup for Alinghi,” he says adding: “As the Challengers head into the LVC selection process, we will be racing everyday in our final preparation for the Cup.” Rolf Vrolijk, principal designer, adds: “We are looking forward to Louis Vuitton Act 13 and are looking forward to seeing how SUI91 performs relative to the Challengers”.

On the subject of where the major developments have been, chief engineer Dirk Kramers explains: “The interaction between disciplines such as the aerodynamics, the hydrodynamics and the structures, is where the refinement is today. The big development has been gaining the understanding of how all the different disciplines interact and figuring out which different combinations work best. The design game is so complex you can never really achieve perfection.”

The doors of the base opened to the media and the AC Family (AC accredited) from 09:30 and to public from 11:30 onwards.

Other news:

Alinghi has signed their final sponsor for this campaign. WISeKey SA is an internet security firm, based in Switzerland with affiliates in the USA, Spain and Bulgaria. It is a Swiss registered company, with headquarters in Geneva, formed in February 1999 as a result of five years of university research work into Internet security undertaken by Carlos Moreira and Malcolm Hutchinson founders of WISeKey.

“We are delighted to welcome WISeKey as a Co Sponsor of Alinghi for the 32nd America’s Cup. We greatly appreciate their support of our project. As a team we need to efficiently share and access confidential information and clearly security is paramount. Our partnership with WISeKey will ensure that we have the optimum protection,” says Grant Simmer, Alinghi managing director.

The founder and chairman of WISeKey, Carlos Moreira, comments on a happy union: “We are proud to be a Co Sponsor of Alinghi and provider of their digital identification solutions. WISeKey has many areas in common with Alinghi including our corporate spirit, our federative model, and bringing together the best experts in the world to build a winning team.”

Also on show at the base for those who enjoy Las Fallas, the local Valencian celebration of Spring, Alinghi had on display a Falla of the Alinghi keel and bulb, made by local artist Fernando Carrero. It stood 2.5 metres high by 2metres wide (and no it wasn’t burnt as they do on 19 March every year)!

www.alinghi.com

Alinghi flies the colours of the Société Nautique de Genève, Switzerland. Its partners for the 2007 campaign are UBS and BT Infonet (Main Partners), as well as Audemars Piguet, SGS, Nespresso, MSC Cruises and North Sails (Co sponsors).
Visit our web site at: www.alinghi.com

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