Emirates Team New Zealand christened their second AC72 in Auckland, this morning, in a simple ceremony including a Maori blessing of the waka, or canoe.
Strong winds prevented the official launch of the AC72, but she is expected to sail in Thursday.
As expected there was nothing radical about the boat, in terms of a departure from the base design developed for the teams first AC72, launched last July.
Rather the focus is on refinement in terms of drag reduction and efficiency in working systems. Team Managing Director, Grant Dalton told Sail-World that the bow and stern sections had been changed, but otherwise the objective was to reduce drag.
This is evidenced by a lot more fairing on key parts, including the under-platform structure which now features an Oracle style pod, but within that the same Y-truss system for load distribution has been used, as it was on the original boat.
Foils fitted today are smaller in width, again similar to those trialled by Oracle, and aimed at reducing drag upwind, while providing the required stable flight downwind, when foiling.
The drag reduction features abound on the new design from rather neat dagger-board posts which contain the leading edge of the dagger-board, and a larger area of solid deck around the wingsail. The purpose of the deck is to lower the tendency of the previous fairing to produce lift, and to reduce the drag from the trampoline netting aft.
Sail-World will feature interviews with team boss, Grant Dalton, CEO Kevin Shoebridge, skipper Dean Barker, and Technical Director, Nick Holroyd.
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