Saturday real unveiling day

By JULIE ASH

The Team New Zealand boat is like no other seen in this America's Cup, but until race one on Saturday, they have no idea whether NZL82 has a competitive edge over Alinghi.

Yesterday the skirts were dropped and Team New Zealand and Alinghi unveiled their yachts.

Alinghi revealed few changes to SUI64, the boat that convincingly beat Oracle BMW Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup final.

The bow has been modified to allow a little more sail area, the winglets slightly adjusted and there was double rigging on the three-spreader mast.

The boat was not sporting a hull appendage.

"People thought we were going to try to work in the same direction as Team New Zealand," Alinghi principal designer Rolf Vrolijk said.

"But we think we have been going in the right direction all the time, so we just wanted to improve, rather than try to copy something."

Team New Zealand's boat also closely resembled the one that was unveiled last month.

The revolutionary hula (hull appendage), a double-rigging system on a four-spreader mast and an innovative boom were all features of the black boat. But the most interesting concept was the extremely long and slender keel bulb.

The longer bulb moves the centre of gravity down and makes the boat faster upwind. However, its size also creates drag.

Team New Zealand designer Mike Drummond said Team New Zealand's and Alinghi's boats have been configured with the same goal - to be fast upwind.

"We're all trying to get a boat that's fast upwind, to get in front first," he said.

"These are two boats that are quite different in every respect except for the rig.

"You would expect one would be faster and one would be slower, but we just don't know."

Oracle designer Bruce Farr said Team New Zealand's choice of keel bulb was "'very interesting."

"I think it is a surprise to most designers," Farr said.

"The longer bulb gets the centre of gravity lower, presumably at the expense of some drag, so it may be faster upwind but almost certainly slower downwind."

In regard to the hull appendage, Farr still questions whether it is within the rules.

"I think it is an atrocity that this has been allowed by the measurers to get through the rules," Farr said. "It was never anticipated or intended by the rules. "If you look carefully through the rules there are plenty which indicate it is not supposed to be there."

Australian Ken McAlpine, the cup's chief measurer, had said any object jammed between the false and real hulls could affect the yacht's legality under the rules.

Both yachts appeared to have advantages and disadvantages.

"You have got two boats which are in slightly different corners," Farr said.

"But I actually think they will be pretty even."

NZL82 should be faster in straight lines and in heavier conditions upwind and downwind. Alinghi's long rudder should make the boat more manoeuvrable and it could have an edge upwind, particularly in lighter conditions.

"The rumours are that their boat is a lot faster than ours, but our predictions are that it will be a closer than people think," Alinghi designer Manuel Ruiz de Elvira said

Team New Zealand designer Clay Oliver described SUI64 as a "lovely boat. We saw what we expected."

But despite all the innovations on the black boat, Oliver said Team New Zealand would not know if they had got it right until race one.

"What people have in their mind is the hula and that long bulb. They are saying, 'the boat is just going to shoot out.' But that is not the case. They are just small things.

"You have to expect the worst. It is always going to be tough, and you have to keep that in mind."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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