German team ready for Louis Vuitton Acts

by United Internet Team Germany media on 31 May 2005 An important step has been made to realise first ever German challenge at the prestigious America’s Cup (AC) for 154 years.

The technical department of United Internet Team Germany (UITG) has successfully modified
Mascalzone Latino (yacht ITA-72) to comply with the new rules set up for the 32nd Cup.

Reconstruction took place at Porto Ferraio Harbour on the Italian island of Elba and only took only six days.

The revamped and repainted white yacht will be shipped on a freighter to Valencia and is expected to arrive on June 1, ready for her crew to compete in the Louis Vuitton Acts 4 and 5.

Originally designed by Giovanni Cecarelli, Team Mascalzone Latino competed at the 2003 America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.

The German team purchased the yacht in order to be able to compete in the Pre-Acts in Valencia, followed by races in Malmö, Sweden and Trapani, Italy, later this year.

By early summer in 2006, UITG will present its own, newly designed and built America’s Cup yacht.

‘We have turned ‘Mission Impossible’ to ‘Mission Possible’,’ quipped Eberhard Magg, Technical Director of UITG.

Under normal circumstances, it would have taken up to more than two months for a complete redesign, but Magg and his team, some of them employees of the famous Kiel shipyard, Knierim-Yachtbau, worked up to 20 hours a day to realise the dream.

To be skippered by Denmark’s Jesper Bank, the UITG crew is expected to start practice on the Spanish coast from the beginning of June.

All information: http://www.united-internet-team-germany.de

*Amended by Sail-World