America's Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing is building the prototype for a group of six identical 45-foot-long catamarans for team competitions in 2011 "world series" races. The 34th America's Cup event is planned during 2013 using team-built 72-foot-long catamarans possibly in the waters off San Francisco, Valencia, Spain, or Rome, Italy. A Sept. 16 report in the Rodney Times says that BMW Oracle is manufacturing the scaled-down one-design AC45 fleet at a facility that it acquired on New Zealand's North Island in 2008. The factory in Warkworth, about 38 miles north of Auckland, has polymer-matrix-composite capabilities. The BMW Oracle team, headed by enterprise-software entrepreneur Larry Ellison, won the 33rd America's Cup on Feb. 13 in Valencia using a trimaran to defeat two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland. (And thanks to long-time Plastics News correspondent Roger Renstrom -- our resident expert on composites -- for this item.)
Materials developments heating up for America's Cup
Letter
to the
Editor
Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]