SWE 96 reaches Valencia

New boat for the Swedish challenger makes her arrival

Victory Challenge solo new boat for this year's America's Cup, SWE 96, arrived at the Swedish team's base in Valencia today.

Sam Murch, the team's Shore Manager was in Göteborg when SWE 96 left the shipyard on Monday morning and was also waiting in Valencia for her arrival. (In between he has been in Dubai where Victory Challenge currently has its winter training). "It’s always a great relief when such an important transport goes well," he commented. "The feeling of relief comes when you receive the goods in the same condition as when you sent it off."

The transport of SWE 96, by lorry from Göteborg to Valencia, has only taken five days.
"It has been a very effective transport, thanks to the efforts of the freight company, Complete Freight," Murch continues. It was also Complete Freight that organised the air transport of Örn (SWE 63) and Orm (SWE 73), via giant Russian Antonov cargo planes, from Valencia to Dubai for winter training.

By choosing a shorter route via ferry, from Trelleborg in Sweden to Travemünde in Germany, a time-consuming road transport through Denmark could be avoided and the driver had a necessary rest, before continuing on through Germany. This speeded up the delivery, so that SWE 96 arrived at the Spanish border on Thursday night and reached Valencia just before 1 pm on Saturday (when weekend restrictions for heavy loads are applied).

Meanwhile the new boat’s bulb, weighing more than 20 tons, has also been transported from Göteborg to Valencia and arrived today. Two of the workshop containers that were at the shipyard at the Lindholmen Science Park will also go to Valencia.

Work to complete SWE 96 will now begin immediately. The boat has to be equipped with winches, hydraulics and electronics. Fin, bulb and mast are to be mounted. The outside of the hull, with the Red Bull symbol on the bow and the energy drink’s logo on the sides, will be finished. Only after that will she be ready to put in the water.

SWE 96 has been the result of more than 25,000 man hours of work so far. "It's impressive - you have to have respect for the skill that has been put into building this boat. It is both an advanced and an extreme boat, if you compare it to the two boats that we built for the America’s Cup in Auckland. It is unbelievable, so much has happened just in one generation of this boat class," said Magnus Holmberg when the boat was first put on display in Sweden.

Since then, Magnus Holmberg and his crew have had eight tough days of sailing training in a row on the water in Dubai. The winter training in the United Arab Emirates, with SWE 63 and SWE 73, will continue until SWE 96 is ready to sail in Valencia.