America's Cup - ETNZ sailors meet their AC50 at Southern Spars

by Sail-World.com on 1 Nov 2016 As progress continues on their AC50, senior sailing team members from Emirates Team New Zealand visited Southern Spars’ facility last week to check on the yacht which they hope will help them bring home the America’s Cup.

Southern Spars have long been Emirates Team New Zealand’s go-to manufacturer for masts and wing-sails, but for the 35th America’s Cup, the association has grown to include the whole yacht – with the exception of the foils and cross beams.

Inside Southern Spars’ massive new carbon-fibre manufacturing plant in Avondale, which has produced wing sails for ETNZ and Luna Rossa as well as masts for many Volvo and America’s Cup teams, technical advisor Max Sirena and helmsman Peter Burling inspected the AC50 for the first time.

Max Sirena was pleased to see that Southern is putting as much into preparing the package - that includes hulls, bows, wing-sails and platform - as the sailing team is preparing to race it.

“It was fantastic to check in on the progress out at Southern Spars,” says Sirena. “It is an impressive facility out there, and you can see the quality of workmanship going into making what we hope will be the boat to win back the America’s Cup.”

For Burling, who will be competing in his first America’s Cup, it was an exciting moment to finally see parts of the yacht that he will steer around the course in Bermuda.

“The yacht is really coming along,” he says. “As the boat takes shape, everything gets a bit more real. In terms of the event, it is fast approaching. We can’t wait to get this thing out on the water.'

Sirena has a long professional relationship with the company. In his previous role leading Luna Rossa Challenge, worked closely with Southern who built two AC72 wing-sails for his America’s Cup 34 challenge. Burling, through his Olympic campaigns in the 49er, used one design spars produced in Southern Spars specialist manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka which produces strict one design spars for a number of Olympic and international classes.

The AC50 is a one design, with all teams building boats from tooling emanating from an IGES File (a digital file) issued by the Regatta Director that describes specific surfaces of an AC50, moulds or master patterns. Six boats are under construction or have already been built, with the majority having been constructed in New Zealand. Oracle Team USA has the option to build two AC50's but is believed to be only building one.

The AC50's cannot be launched until 150 days before the start of the Qualifiers in Bermuda, which on current scheduling puts the launch date at December 27, 2016.

Emirates Team New Zealand are expected to be the only team launching in their home country. The AC50 will leave Southern Spars and be taken to the Team NZ base for final fit-out before launching in early January.

About Southern Spars:

- 25 years in business
- 38 Whitbread & Volvo campaigns
- 15 World Superyacht Awards
- 1185 projects per year worldwide

• Specialises in the design and construction of carbon fibre spars and components, rigging and rig servicing.
• Industry pioneer, built its first carbon spar in 1990.
• Headquartered in Auckland.
• Operation extends to four corners of the world with centres in the USA, Denmark, South Africa, Spain and Sri Lanka, with headquarters in Auckland, New Zealand.
• Employs more than 350 staff worldwide.