The Official
Website of the
International
Sailing Federation

'Our boat-building team has been on site in Anacortes customizing the construction site and getting ready for building our boats for several months now,' said Chris DICKSON, CEO, BMW ORACLE Racing. 'We are now confident we have the best facility and the best team and are now ready to start construction.'

BMW ORACLE Racing's Mark TURNER, Tim SMYTH and Mark SOMERVILLE are managing the boat construction. The three were involved with the construction of USA 71 and USA 76, the team's 2003 generation race boats and are among 15 boat builders working on the project. Some 30,000 man hours will go into the construction of the race yacht. The boat is expected to be completed and shipped to Valencia for sailing in the spring.

Under Construction

For the Italians, building has commenced under the supervision of Ximo LOPEZ and his group of technicians at Marine Composite of Vittorio Urbinati, based in Andora, Savona.

The new Mascalzone Latino will be finished this winter, with the boat then being fully finished and equipped in Valencia, Spain. The launch of the new boat is scheduled for March. The design group for Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team is led by Harry DUNNING, who has previously worked on America's Cup designs for Stars & Stripes and Young America.

Both teams say they have not yet been assigned a sail number, but that will be issued early in the construction stage. This follows the news that Emirates Team New Zealand has been assigned NZL 84 and +39 Challenge has taken ITA 85.

The Spanish Desafío Español is also nearly ready to begin construction on the first of its two new boats. Expect similar announcements from the Italian Luna Rossa Challenge and Swiss Defender Alinghi over the coming months, with France's K-Challenge, Sweden's Victory Challenge, United Internet Team Germany and China Team also planning for new boats. South Africa's Team Shosholoza, was the first team of the 32nd America's Cup to build and race a new boat, sailing RSA 83 in the 2005 Louis Vuitton Acts.