America's Cup: Second AC40 leaves builder bound for INEOS Britannia
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 1 Oct 20:05 PDT
2 October 2022
An AC40 is packed to leave McConaghy Boats. The foiling monohull plus foil arms is designed to fit in a 40ft flatpack container. September 2022 © McConaghy Boats
A second AC40 has exited the McConaghy Boats build facility in China, destined for the America's Cup Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia.
Although there is no confirmation from the team, it is expected that the AC40 will be shipped to the team's temporary sailing base in Mallorca, Spain, for commissioning.
The team has a test boat "T6" known as a LEQ12 under the Technical Regulations governing the 2024 America's Cup, as any yacht between 6-12 metres long, "capable of producing meaningful design or performance information for use either directly or indirectly in the design, construction, or sailing of an AC75 Class Yacht".
The T6/LEQ12 yacht allows the team to test new hull shapes and anything else contributes to the AC75 design process. The AC40 has a one-design hull, which if altered, must be put back into its one design configuration for the America's Cup Regattas using AC40s. The T6 has been built by Carrington Boats, who built then INEOS Team UK's two AC75's for the 2021 America's Cup.
Emirates Team New Zealand has taken delivery of the first AC40 and is sailing that in Auckland. The subsequent boats go to the America's Cup Challengers in order of Acceptance as listed here
McConaghys say a new AC40 will be produced every five weeks, and once the eight AC40's have been delivered to the America's Cup teams, then the production will be open to private buyers.
The AC40 will be sailed by Youth and Womens teams in a schedule announced earlier this week, of which the latest Notice of Race is here. The first event - the Qualifying for the Youth America's Cup gets underway on September 26.
The British America's Cup team recently announced the Athena Pathway Programme , a new pathway for female and youth sailors which aims to level the playing field in high-performance foiling sailing