Oracle's AC72 Wing Sail leaves NZ

Oracle Racing's new 38m-long wing and the cross structure for the first of Oracle's AC72 multihulls has left the manufacturer Core Builders Composites in Warkworth for shipping to San Francisco and the Pier 80 base of the Cup defender.


"That's $6-7 million of kit going out the door," said Core Builders Composites general manager Tim Smyth as the radical wingsail left the factory.
The wingsail took six months to build - at 25,000 man hours - and there will be more assembly work to do once it arrives in San Francisco. The wing's flap elements have already been shipped across, and once all the pieces are joined together, the wingsail will be ready to be fitted into Oracle's first AC72 multihull, designed for the 2013 America's Cup. Under Cup rules, the hulls of Oracle's yachts must be built in the United States; Oracle plan to launch their first yacht in July.