AC34: (Very) Big Blue goes sailing

(July 24, 2013) – While it remains unclear when America’s Cup challenger Artemis Racing will begin racing in the challenger series, the team did begin sailing today, taking their newly launched second AC72 for its first foray on the Bay. They even got their new boat, affectionately called ‘Big Blue’, up on her foils, although the photos show her dragging her arse a bit. Baby steps, right?

An underlying hurdle for the Swedish team was that Big Blue was found to be a little bit too big. Per the AC72 Class Rule, she was overweight. Whereas most classes have a minimum weight, the AC72 class has a maximum weight. It is understood that the deuce gained weight when she was structurally reinforced, perhaps to address the engineering shortcomings of their first boat that disintegrated as part of the May 9 capsize which took the life of crewman Andrew Simpson.

Anyway, to change a class rule requires a 100% approval of all competitors, which occurred, or at least all the teams signed off for Artemis to compete in the challenger series. No word on what happens if she advances to the America’s Cup match.

Here are the links to see the rule change and photos.