Emirates Team New Zealand’s new round-the-world race yacht CAMPER has arrived in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour.
She left the builder’s yard in Auckland at 4.30am Sunday; just a year after project was announced.
The 70ft yacht was trucked to the team’s Viaduct Harbour base where it will be commissioned this week.
The build started at Cookson Boats in August last year, taking close to 35,000 man-hours. Over the next few days, keel, rudder, dagger boards, mast and rigging will be fitted and electronic, electrical and hydraulic systems will commissioned.
CAMPER will be sailing on the Waitemata Harbour by the end of the week before setting off for sea trials during which the yacht will call at five east coast ports at the end of April and in early May.
The yacht will leave Auckland on April 25 for Tauranga. Other ports include Gisborne (April 29), Wellington (May 2), Dunedin (May 5) and Lyttelton May 7-8.
CAMPER’s mission is the Volvo Ocean Race, a 38,000 nautical mile race around the world that starts at Alicante, Spain, at the end of October.
Auckland is a stopover port. The fleet will spend three weeks in Auckland in March-April 2012.
Sunday was almost a year to the day that Camper, the Spanish footwear brand, and Emirates Team New Zealand confirmed their entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011/12.
CAMPER was designed by the Emirates Team New Zealand design team led by Nick Holroyd with principal designer Marcelino Botin.
Emirates Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton: 'This is a great day for us as a team. Everyone has worked hard to meet all our deadlines. They have delivered CAMPER on time, just nine months after we first started the build.'
'To be able to stand back and see the amazing job that they guys have done and now see her in her full livery, is quite humbling. I am very excited about going out sailing towards the end of this week.'
For Camper, this is their first foray into ocean racing, and the company’s Founder and Chairman, Lorenzo Fluxá, said:
'This is quite an historic moment for everyone at Camper and the start of a new adventure for our brand. The boat build has been a great experience for all of us, so precise in its execution that all we can do is congratulate all those involved in bringing ‘ the CAMPER’ to life.'
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