America's Cup Jubilee Preview

Everything from racing schedules to social extravaganzas for next week

Il Moro Di Venezia
1992 Challenger

Designer: German Frers
Builder: Tencara
America's Cup class
Sail no: ITA-25
LOA: 75 ft 4 in / 23 m
LWL: 59 ft / 18 m
Draft: 13 ft 1 in / 4 m
Sail area: 1,066.3 ft2 / 325 m2
Launched: 1992

The first challenger in the new America's Cup class boats, Il Moro de Venezia was the result of a no-expense spared campaign by Italian millionaire Raul Gardini.

Argentinian designer German Frers set up office in Milan to satisfy the nationality requirements of the America's Cup, and set about trying to get the best out of the new rule.

Like all the other designers at this stage, he was starting from scratch, with no history or benchmark to work from, just a big budget, and three years to work on the problem.

In the end, it is doubtful whether this boat was even the fastest of the challengers, only beating New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Cup final, when the Kiwis were de-railed by a controversial protest over their bowsprit.

In the Cup match, Paul Cayard did his best with what was obviously a slower boat than the defender, and managed to take one race off the Americans, winning the second encounter by just three seconds.


America 3
1992 Defender

Designer: America3 design team, headed by Doug Peterson
Builder: Eric Goetz.
America's Cup class
Sail No: USA-23
LOA: 75 ft 5 in / 23 m
LWL: 53 ft 1 in / 16.1 m
Beam: 15 ft 10 in / 4.6 m
Draft: 13 ft 1 in / 3.9 m
Sail area: 8,826 ft2 / 2,690 m2
Launched: 1992

The result of another big budget campaign, America3 was the first defender of the Cup built to the new class rules, formulated as a result of the fall-out from the "big boat" against the catamaran.

Technology was definitely the key-word in the design of this boat, and the whole programme around it.

In this first event under the new America's Cup class rule, there were no restrictions on the number of boats that could be built, a situation that was changed for the 1995 event, with both the defenders and the challengers going on a wild building spree to try and learn about this new class of boat.

All Bill Koch's equipment and data from the '92 campaign was passed on to the almost all girl team that he funded in '95, and used as a benchmark for further progress.

After the '95 series, most of the America3 boats and kit were sold to the new Prada Challenge from Italy.


Black Magic
1995 Challenger

Designer: Laurie Davidson & Doug Peterson
Builder: McMullen & Wing
America's Cup Class
Sail No: NZL-32
LOA: 78 ft 7 in / 24 m
LWL: 60 ft 6 in / 18.5 m
Draft: 13 ft 1 in / 4 m
Sail area: 1,207 ft2 / 368 m2
Launched: 1994

This was the second boat to win the America's Cup from the Americans, doing so in convincing style, under skipper Russell Coutts, it rout-ed Young America in the hands of Paul Cayard, chalking up a 5 - 0 score.

Before becoming the challenger, NZL 32 as it was generally known, had waltzed through the Louis Vuitton Cup losing only one race on the water.

The sleek black hulled boat was not radically different from the other challengers, or defenders, but the keyword in this Kiwi campaign, which was carried forward to the defence in 2000, was attention to detail.

Winning the '95 Cup gave Doug Peterson consecutive Cup victories, having previously headed the design team for the successful America3 defence in '92.

This boat was far superior to any other boat in the '95 series, and was the springboard into the design process for the 2000 defence of the Cup in Auckland.

While most of the other teams believed that by the end of the '95 series, they had worked out what made NZL 32 so fast, and with five years to the next match, could catch up, this turned out to be wishful thinking.


Luna Rossa
2000 Challenger

Designer: German Frers & Doug Peterson
Builder: Prada/Green Marine
America's Cup Class
Sail No: ITA-45
LOA: 78 ft 7 in / 24 m
LWL: 60 ft 6 in / 18.5 m
Draft: 13 ft 1 in / 4 m
Sail area: 1,207 ft2 / 368 m2
Launched: 1999

This was the boat with which Doug Peterson was hoping to make it three America's Cup victories in a row, and German Frers was hoping to finally move from the losers to the winners side of the fence.

Luna Rossa dominated the early rounds of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Auckland, going undefeated through the first round robin, and only losing one race, to Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes in the second.

There is no doubt that the silver painted hull, with the distinctive red Prada stripe was the best prepared of all the challengers that arrived in Auckland, but the others started to catch up in the third round robin, with Nippon and AmericaOne both beating Luna Rossa.

It looked as if Francesco d'Angelis and his crew might have peaked too soon when Paul Cayard's AmericaOne had moved to the top of the leaderboard by the end of the semi-finals.

Then in the most exciting Louis Vuitton Cup final ever, Luna Rossa battled her way into the Cup match by beating AmericaOne 5 - 4, in a series that wasn't decided until the last leg of the last race.

Despite the intensity of the Louis Vuitton Cup, it became evident in the first race of the America's Cup match, that the rest of the world had made little impact on the design advantage that the Kiwis had demonstrated in '95, and the black boat went on to retain the Cup in five straight races.

If good looks and graceful lines could win the America's Cup, then perhaps the next match would be in Italy, because without doubt Luna Rossa was the best looking boat in Auckland

See page 1 for information about the racing...
See pages 2,3, and 4 for boats to watch out for...
See pages 5,6, and 7 for people to watch out for...