Alinghi exhibition at the Leman Museum in Nyon

by JPJ for Sail-World on 5 Jan 2010
Sail-World's correspondent JPJ reports from the Alinghi exhibition at the Leman Museum in Nyon on 4 January 2010. He writes:

Yes it’s snowing in the northern hemisphere... close to the castle of Nyon (some 10 miles from Geneva, there is a Museum dedicated to Lake Geneva and for a couple of months there is a small exhibition about Alinghi 5. Outside in front of the entrance there is one of the famous S foils, which by the way means either they have a spare or they will stick to straight foils for the races?

Pierre-Yves Jorand who is Swiss and coach of the sailing team was there to answer questions about the boat . No big revelation there, we still don’t know the weight of the beast, but he reckoned they are probably some 10% lighter than Oracle, I am putting words in his mouth there mind you…

He explained that Alinghi 5 is a development of a previous Lake Geneva 41 feet cat that we call Le Black, it was used to test the different possibilities for the foils for example and that was the only real life testing they did before to build A5 as there was no time to do some tank testing.

Yes he confirmed that they pushed the boat to some limits in Genoa and RAK, broke some parts and made the corresponding repairs. He also mentioned the way they sailed in RAK sometimes with an asymmetrical combination (S foil on one side and straight foil on the other) and that to compare both alternative in similar conditions of wind and sea state.

He made some interesting comments on the adjustments of the mast (rake) and the longer bowsprit, they can therefore vary the center of effort of the whole sail surface which will affect the way the boat react.

Pierre Yves stressed the involvement of Swiss technology, either referring to the existing lake catamarans like the D35 or to the over 200 companies in Switzerland that supplied parts for A5, Suter Racing was one as they provided the engine, initially a snowmobile engine. Carbolink is another one that provided the carbon fiber cables that link the structure together with breaking limits close to some 80 tons.

The exhibit included a model at probably 1/60 scale with the short bowsprit . Around the room, some panels gave more information about the foils for example or the sails that where assembled in Alinghi’s sail loft in Villeneuve, Switzerland. And also to involvement of the Lausanne Polytechnic school (EPFL).

After this introduction, there was a conference where Pierre-Yves was questioned by a Swiss TV sport's journalist. No big revelation again, the boat will be ready to race come February the 8th. But chatting with some other members of the team, I was able to get confirmation that a meeting is planned for January the 12th in Singapore between Alinghi and Oracle with the head of the appointed jury. Will they agree on a best of 7 races? Are they going to discuss the CIC issue? the sailing conditions for the races? The measurement procedure? I would say probably, no specific agenda at this point but definitely plenty to talk about.

In any case, now that both teams and boats are in Valencia, we all want to see them racing. In the mean time here is the official Alinghi postcard