ITA 94 leaves her builders

Second Luna Rossa bound for Valencia

At 2.06 p.m. today Luna Rossa ITA 94 began her transfer towards the Italian team’s base in Valencia, Spain. Here the mast and appendages will be fitted and after completing her configuration the first on the water fine tuning tests will take place.

The hull left from Nembro (Bergamo) and will travel to Livorno will then be transported to Tarragona, Spain by ship. The new Luna Rossa’s arrival at the Valencia base is expected by 18 December.

ITA 94’s construction follows three years of research and executive planning carried out by the Luna Rossa Design Team, 22 people from 10 different nations. The boat was built at the Persico Nautical Division yard by the Luna Rossa Boat Builder Team supervised by Kiwi Director Richard Gillies. The Team consists of 27 people from 9 different nations.

This morning Gillies stated: “I am very satisfied in the work we have done here. Today is a wonderful day although I’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief when the boat reaches Valencia.”

Claudio Maletto, Yacht Designer, was present at the yard representing the Luna Rossa Design Team. He commented: “This boat represents the result of three years of work of Team Luna Rossa. She is radically different from the first ITA 86 and a very interesting aspect for us has been the full scale testing we carried out on ITA 86. The changes we made on 86 at the end of the last series of regattas allowed us to work on three boats. The ITA 86 that was launched was a transitional boat between those of the last Cup and ITA 94 which presents an extreme form. It makes no sense to ask oneself if ITA 94 is more beautiful aesthetically than ITA 86. From a structural point of view one can definitely appreciate the evolution of the hull lines.”

The launching of Luna Rossa ITA 94 will take place in Valencia in January at the Team Base designed for Prada and Telecom Italia by world re-known architect Renzo Piano.
ITA 94 is the sixth hull designed and built by the Team since 1999. To this date Luna Rossa’s hulls have taken part in 154 match races: 46 for ITA 45, 9 for ITA 48, 74 for ITA 74 and 25 for ITA 86.

The official event which will open the 2007 program will be the Unveiling, in Valencia. It will be held on Sunday 1 April and on that day all Challengers will unveil their boats.
The first match of Act 13, the preparatory races leading to the America’s Cup, will take place on Tuesday 3 April. The first Round Robin for the selection of the official Challenger to the America’s Cup will be held beginning 16 April.