Lewmar winches for China Team's CHN 95

by Lewmar media on 3 Mar 2007 Lewmar has supplied its latest Carbon winches to China Team for its first ever America's Cup Class boat - CHN 95 - built in China. After an intensive six-month build programme, the boat was craned into the water in Valencia on Friday, 17th February.

These are the initial comments of the designers and boat-builders as they crawled through the hatches to inspect inside…

'As we speak, we're just checking a few things inside...It's the first time that the boat is loaded with the keel. Before, when you lift this boat, you lift the keel and the hull follows. Now, we have the boat in the water and there's 20 tonnes pulling there and the mast is pushing as well so there is a lot of loading there. It's nothing to compare with what will happen out there, but there are a few tests we do here, load the winches slowly, listen for cracks and if all goes well this afternoon we might go for a little spin!'

China Team represents the Qingdao International Yacht Club, and is the first Chinese team in the long history of the America's Cup. Chaoyong Wang, the chairman of a leading Chinese venture capital firm, leads the team. He has formed a partnership with Le Défi, a French challenger in the last two editions of the America's Cup, to acquire their knowledge base and assets, including two America's Cup Class boats from the last event. China Team's alliance with Le Défi gives it a tremendous head start as a new team, which is integrating Chinese sailors into the programme.

http://www.lewmar.com

http://www.china-team.org