Emirates Team New Zealand still scrambling while Luna Rossa launches second boat

The spat continues between the America’s Cup defending team and the challengers, as Emirates Team New Zealand scrambles to keep its spectators’ grandstands in play.

The defender Emirates Team New Zealand tabled a proposal with the challenging teams in the America’s Cup in an effort to resolve the issue of usage of the inner harbour, and return racing to the inner city race courses.

Seemingly, the proposal was that the defending team will not sail in the area defined as Course B&C on the race days when the challengers couldn’t race there, to eliminate any extra sailing time or perceived advantage the defender might have.

The proposal has been rejected, say Emirates Team New Zealand, by Luna Rossa who reportedly told the home team that the proposal was ‘far from fair and is not acceptable’.

Emirates Team New Zealand has expressed surprise at Luna Rossa’s comment, saying that the Italian team has ‘no justifiable rationale’ to do what the home team want.

Emirates Team New Zealand is now referring the dispute back to the Arbitration Panel and requesting formal mediation.

Meanwhile the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team has launched its second AC 75.

The hull, built at the Persico Marine shipyard in Nembro (Bergamo), reached Auckland on October 6th on an Antonov cargo plane, the largest transport aircraft in the world. In the few days that separated the arrival of the boat from the launch, the foils, the on-board systems and instrumentation were installed and set up in record time to be ready to sail right after the first load tests, which started one hour after the launch.

Luna Rossa Boat 2 is the natural evolution of the previous project, developed on the basis of the data collected during the intense navigation period in the Gulf of Cagliari, and elaborated by the design team, with the close collaboration of the sailing team whose feedback was essential to the process. As on Boat 1, the new hull will also feature technology details designed in partnership with Pirelli. Among these, thanks to this company’s ability to create innovative materials for tyre technology, is a component, used for all parts that touch the water, that adds performance at the highest speed range.