[Source: Alinghi] Alinghi, Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup, welcomes one of the world’s most renowned multihull sailors to the team for this campaign: Loïck Peyron. The 50 year old Frenchman has crossed the Atlantic 43 times; 18 single-handed. He has raced around the world twice, holds three Transat titles and two Transat Jacques Vabres: “In every sailor’s mind, the America’s Cup is part of life. I have been following it for many years and now to be working for a team like Alinghi makes me proud,” Peyron said, adding: “There is a tremendous amount of work for sure, but it’s a big challenge. An interesting strength of Alinghi is that it has a lot of knowledge from a lot of areas of the sport: monohulls, offshore sailing, multihulls; especially here in Switzerland. The way the team works is based on team spirit and the method works really well; they have proved it many times. Now like everybody here, I am impatient to go and sail on the lake to see the potential of this amazing machine.”

Brad Butterworth, Alinghi team skipper and four-time America’s Cup winner welcomes Peyron: “We are looking forward to working with Loïck; he brings a lot of multihull experience – from both a design and sailing point of view – to a team that already has quite a bit of depth in this area of our sport. I think he will be an asset to this project and a good addition to the team.”

Sailing career highlights
43 Atlantic crossings; 18 single-handed
2 Round the Worlds
3 Transat ‘Anglaise’ wins, single-handed
2 Transat Jacques Vabre wins
2 Bol d’Or wins

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

Alinghi 5 designer talk about the catamaran. Video copyright Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

Alinghi 5 designers talk about the catamaran. Video copyright Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

The 33rd America’s Cup is getting closer. Less than 48 hours after she was airlifted from the boatyard to her new temporary base on the banks of Lake Geneva, Alinghi 5 was masted on Friday afternoon.

Alinghi 5 is masted. Le Bouveret, 10 July 2009. Photo copyright Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

Here is the first footage from today’s launch of Alinghi 5, the catamaran Alinghi will race in order to defend its America’s Cup title. It is really worth watching, especially the footage from the construction of the yacht.

Launch of Alinghi 5, brand new catamaran of the Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup. Villeneuve, 8 July 2009. Video copyright Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

Russell Coutts, CEO and skipper of BMW Oracle, is currently in Malcesine, Italy, racing with Larry Ellison on his team’s RC44 yacht. After the day’s races he made a VERY brief comment on Alinghi’s new catamaran, Alinghi 5. He didn’t really say much, but here is the video, just for the record.

Russell Coutts comments on Alinghi’s new catamaran, Alinghi 5. Malcesine, 8 July 2009. Video copyright RC44 Championship Tour

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

[Source: Alinghi] Alinghi, the Defender of the 33rd America’s Cup, launched its new 90ft catamaran today on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, by helicopter.

At 16:00 this afternoon, Alinghi 5, the Swiss America’s Cup Defender’s new catamaran, was lifted out of the tent where it was built in Villeneuve, Switzerland, and into the air by a Mil Mi-26 helicopter, the biggest and most powerful in the world, to be launched on Lake Geneva.

Alinghi 5 represents a first step in the development process towards the 33rd America’s Cup and the team will now focus on preparing it to sail over the coming weeks.

Ernesto Bertarelli, Alinghi team president, who was present to congratulate the team and for the boat christening by his wife Kirsty, commented: “As a passionate multihull sailor I am extremely excited to see Alinghi 5 launched and for the next stage of this campaign to begin: over the coming weeks and months the team will work towards defending the 33rd America’s Cup next year. The team has done an excellent job to make this happen; we are all looking forward to going sailing now.”

Watching as the helicopter lifted Alinghi 5 out of the tent and on to the water, Grant Simmer who, working alongside a team of designers, boat builders and sailors, has coordinated the project said: “I feel very proud of what we have achieved; there have been so many people involved who have worked really hard. They have done a fantastic job and this is the product of their hard work.”

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

Judging from our website traffic and number of hits as well as the record number of photos on other websites and forums, this must be the equivalent of Michael Jackson’s funeral in the sports of sailing; history’s most followed boat launch.

Alinghi’s brand new catamaran, Alinghi 5, is now safe on the waters of Lake Geneva.

Alinghi’s brand new catamaran, Alinghi 5, is launched on lake Geneva. Le Bouveret, 8 July 2009. Photo copyright Stefano Gattini / Alinghi

Alinghi’s brand new catamaran, Alinghi 5, is launched on lake Geneva. Le Bouveret, 8 July 2009. Photo copyright Stefano Gattini / Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

Alinghi’s new catamaran, Alinghi 5, started her helicopter trip from the boatyard to the team’s base on the banks of Lake Geneva.

Stay updated on http://twitter.com/alinghiteam and for the complete back story throughout the day join Friends – it’s free: http://www.alinghi.com/en/friends-33rd/index.php

Alinghi’s new catamaran, Alinghi 5, airlifted. Villeneuve, 8 July 2009. Photo copyright Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back

[Source: Alinghi] The heli-launch planned for this morning has been delayed due to weather and will hopefully happen this afternoon.

The heli-launch planned for this morning has been delayed due to weather on Lake Geneva, but the mast operation went ahead and a KAMOV KA32 helicopter arrived at 09:15 to lift the 17-story high mast from Villeneuve to the Alinghi base in Le Bouveret…

There is hope for a weather window this afternoon to launch Alinghi 5, the catamaran…

Stay updated on http://twitter.com/alinghiteam and for the complete back story throughout the day join Friends – it’s free: http://www.alinghi.com/en/friends-33rd/index.php

The mast of Alinghi 5 being airlifted. Villeneuve, 8 July 2009. Photo copyright Stefano Gattini / Alinghi

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Valencia Sailing) and software by Elliott Back