Artemis Racing's new race yacht, “Magic Blue”, was christened today by Torbjörn Törnqvist's wife, Natalia, at a special celebration in Bermuda. The Swedish team is the fourth of six teams to launch their AC50, with teams from Britain, New Zealand, USA having launched during February.
The launch sees the culmination of more than three years of intense design and development work, which began almost immediately after the finish of the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco.
The new America’s Cup Class (ACC) yacht, which measures at 15m (or 49.2ft), is a development from the AC72s raced in San Francisco, retaining the wing sail and hydrofoils, which enable them to fly over the water at incredible speeds.
The design differences, or areas left for the teams to explore and innovate in the new Class, lie in the design of the appendages (foils and rudders), aerodynamics, and the onboard hydraulic and electronic control systems.
The hydraulic systems are required to be completely powered by human effort and combine traditional sailboat engineering with aerospace technology. Artemis Racing is thankful for support from a number of technical partners including Altair and Tactair.
The change of venue to Bermuda brings a host of new challenges with the varied, shifty conditions. The boats are flying and maneuvering better than ever before thanks to several years of additional development time along with supporting rules changes. This summer’s event is expected to be the most competitive and exciting America’s Cup in recent history.
The construction of Artemis Racing’s ACC began in January 2016 at Sune Carlsson Båtvarv, next to the team’s yacht club KSSS, in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden. The hulls were then flown to the US, and delivered to the team’s build facility in Alameda, CA, where the pod, beam and end plate were installed.
It was then shipped to Bermuda, where it was reassembled and the final installation of the hydraulics and electronics took place.
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