SUI 100 reaches Valencia

Alinghi's second boat arrives at America's Cup central

SUI100, Alinghi’s latest racing yacht, rumbled into Valencia on Friday evening under dark skies and torrential rain. The 25m boat has taken approx 20,000 hours to complete and the best part of four years of development. Michel Marie, shore crew coordinator for Alinghi looks back over the path to SUI100: "At the beginning of this campaign, we created a ‘master plan’ with a series of events that would take us all the way to the Cup. This included of course two new builds. Back in 2003, Boat 4's estimated departure from Switzerland was the 26 January 2007 and it in fact left on the 24 January. This shows how well the project has been executed and demonstrates the excellent coordination between the two teams at Alinghi and Décision SA."

Ernesto Bertarelli, team syndicate head, said of the latest Alinghi racing yacht: "SUI100 is the culmination of much work from many different people: the designers, the boatbuilders - both Alinghi’s own and those at the Décision boatyard - and the sailing team of course. I am very proud to see SUI100 finished and on its way to the 32nd America’s Cup. With this boat, we are taking another step towards fighting to win the Cup again."

With the racing yacht safely tucked away in the Alinghi boatshed in Valencia, work will begin on preparing it for sailing when the team return from Dubai. Dirk Kramers, Chief Engineer, is one of those on site in Valencia, he comments: "Décision boatyard and the Alinghi boatbuilding team have done a wonderful job and now the boat is here, we will put the finishing touches on and incorporate all the lessons we have learnt from training and testing in Dubai. When the boat hits the water, she will be the best that she can be and we are looking forward to testing her in the lead up to Louis Vuitton Act 13."