BMW Oracle Racing’s new 90-foot multihull yacht touched water for the first time yesterday (24 August).
In a team gathering at the water’s edge, the carbon fiber boat was lowered into Fidalgo Bay in front of the boat yard where it was constructed on the Anacortes waterfront. Melinda Erkelens, Golden Gate Yacht Club board member and BMW Oracle Racing team member, broke a bottle of Moet et Chandon as she commissioned the new BMW Oracle Racing 90.
“We have learned a lot and developed a lot of new technology in building this boat and I’m really looking forward to testing it on the water,” said team CEO and Skipper Russell Coutts. “It is going to be an interesting challenge and we will need to build up slowly and carefully to testing its full potential,” Coutts said.
The team expects sea trials to begin in early September once the fit-out is complete and structural load tests are conducted dockside.
The team brought in Van Peteghem and Lauriot Prevost (VPLP) of France, and one of the most successful skippers in multihull racing – Franck Cammas – to design the boat. Led by Mark Turner and Tim Smyth, the BMW Oracle Racing construction team has worked in a purpose-built composite yacht construction facility housed in a 100 x 200 foot, three-story shed.
For more information, visit www.bmworacleracing.com.