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
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