Gladwell's Line: Concept drawings of Alinghi's America's Cup Defender

11:09 AM Wed 27 May 2009 GMT

'Le Black the 41fter is believed to be a strong influence on the 90ft LWL yacht being built for Alinghi' Copyright &copy / Alinghi Click Here to view large photo

By design or default, there is no doubting that the intrigue and attention that Alinghi has attracted attention from media and sailing fans.

One forum topic on the subject of Alinghi's design and building facilities has attracted more than 50 pages of speculation on the Sailing Anarchy website.

BMW Oracle Racing, by contrast attracted some attention (mostly photographic) during its initial building phase in Anacortes (USA) but has been reasonably open with many images on its website. However they are of the US Challenger's first boat known as BOR90, and which is different from the USA named on their Notice of Challenge.

Whether BOR90 will morph into USA, or if USA will be a whole new boat, is still a matter of speculation.

Team Alinghi, particularly its owner, Ernesto Bertarelli, have a long history in inshore racing multihulls typically sailed ion Swiss lakes. This heritage has made the sleuths's lives somewhat easier and able to predict, with some accuracy, the type of yacht which will Defend the America's Cup on 8 February 2010.

The popular bet seems to be that Alinghi will respond with a catamaran rather than the trimaran favoured by BMW Oracle.

Rather than try to summarise the countless pages of theory and speculation that has been published since July 2007 on this topic we present three concepts from two designers who are European based and are believed to be neutral multihull experts. they have compiled a dossier of information and design intelligence from various sources (French and otherwise) to form a best guess of the latest Alinghi.

MO planview 1.JPG -

The first concept (above) is of the popular 115ft LWL (Load Water Line) two masted Defender. the second mast is believed to be located on the aft beam and will be there principally for type compliance and to gain the real and psychological advantage of sailing a 25ft longer yacht than the US Challenger.

The concept lends a lot from the D35 and 'Le Black' 41fter sailed by Ernesto Bertarelli.

ScreenShot030 - Click Here to view large photo

ScreenShot031 - Click Here to view large photo

The second and third concepts are of the same 90ft LWL catamaran, which is thought to be the favoured option by Alinghi. This yacht is very close to the Le Black thinking - and because she is a sloop will have fewer issues in trialling and work up in the limited time available.

Substantial wings are features of the concepts, with the 90fter being sailed by a crew of seven. Her expected overall length is estimated at 115ft.

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World