Emirates Team New Zealand practising off Auckland in their AC45. Image copyright Gilles Martin-Raget/www.americascup.com
by America's Cup media
With the conclusion of the America's Cup test sessions in Auckland, most teams are in pack-up mode, heading for Europe.
The weekend in Auckland has been devoted to dis-assembling the AC45s and their wings and fitting them into shipping containers for the move from Auckland.
Part of the design brief for the AC45 was that it be easy to ship and with removable sterns on both hulls, the canoe bodies of the catamarans just squeeze into a standard 40 foot shipping container. The wings too get pulled apart and before long, the high-tech racing catamarans are ready for transport.
China Team packing up in Auckland. Image copyright Gilles Martin-Raget/www.americascup.com
Artemis Racing and China Team are shipping to Valencia where they'll do some more testing before heading to the first America's Cup World Series event in Cascais, Portugal.
"We will do a training camp in Valencia and then we're on to Cascais for the first World Series," said Santi Lange, helmsman and design team liaison for Artemis Racing. "So there's plenty on, and right now we are very happy with how things are running for our team."
ORACLE Racing is striking camp in New Zealand as well, and is also planning another training period ahead of Cascais.
Emirates Team New Zealand is the exception. The team will remain in Auckland for a few more weeks.
"Were going to continue sailing here for a bit longer," said skipper Dean Barker. "We'll sail as long as we can, pack up and send the boat directly to Cascais to get ready for the first event in August."
For the race organizers, the coming weeks will focus on debriefs to distill lessons learned from the Auckland test sessions. The race management, umpiring and media teams are now planning additional testing sessions in Europe and North America as they too get ready for opening day for the 34th America's Cup.
America's Cup
