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Alinghi 5 sailing first time, 20 July 2009

Photos, ©Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi (click on images to view larger)

Le Bouveret, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The long-awaited new Alinghi sailcraft hit the water at the eastern end of Lake Geneva today to much excitement: the weather was glorious,  and legal tussles faded into the background as the magnificent-looking boat had its maiden sail. The Swiss America’s Cup Defender, Alinghi 5, was watched by hundreds of spectators as it went out on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, for the first time at noon, Monday 20 July.

The boat is a 90 foot multihull which took 100,000 man-hours to build. It was put on the lake 9 July and its first foray onto the lake today was in a light 5-7 ESE ‘Vauderon’, according to the Swiss weather service, Meteoswiss.

Strategist Murray Jones, who is running the trials on the new boat, said afterwards:

“We went out this morning with a list of objectives to work through: testing the boat, checking the structure, doing some manoeuvres and seeing if the sails would all sheet and it went pretty well; we ticked off just about everything. There are a lot of systems on the boat that are complicated and new, but it was fantastic.

“To fly the boat upwind and downwind with gennaker was awesome for the first day of sailing. The boat is a tribute to the designers and the boat builders. To deliver a boat of this complexity that works straight out of the box on the first day is impressive; really impressive.”

Alinghi will be sailing on Lake Geneva for the next few weeks as the team tests the new boat and learns to work with it.

(Ed. note: a spectator’s view from across the lake shows how large Alinghi is compared to other sailboats on the lake)