TEAM SHOSHOLOZA LAUNCHES THE FIRST NEW BOAT OF THE 32ND AMERICA’S CUP
The South African Team Shosholoza has become the first team to launch a new generation America’s Cup Class boat, built to Version 5 of the class rule. At a ceremony in Valencia, Spain on Thursday evening, RSA 83 was christened ‘Shosholoza’ by Rita Barberá, the Mayor of Valencia.
Team founder and leader Captain Salvatore Sarno was beside the Mayor as she broke the traditional bottle of champagne over the shiny bow of the glistening new boat. For Captain Sarno, this is the latest step on a long journey towards the America’s Cup that has captured the hearts of sailing fans around the world, so much so that his team is being called ‘the soul of sailing’.
After the formalities were completed, an emotional Sarno stood alongside the glistening new boat, and spoke of the affection he feels for his team.
“My biggest satisfaction is that tonight, after I spoke, my sailors came up to me and said thank you…we will never let you down. And that’s all that I want. Of course I want to win the America’s Cup, but this has already given me immense satisfaction.”
The new boat appears strikingly narrow, but principal designer Jason Ker says he doesn’t expect it to be extremely different from the other boats it will be competing against. In fact, Ker says he looked to many of them for inspiration.
“It’s similar in some ways to the better boats from the last America’s Cup. There are bits that are similar to Team New Zealand, some bits that are like Oracle and some similarities to Alinghi. We’ve taken a pretty good look at those three in particular. We haven’t tried to re-invent the wheel.”
For Ker, a first time America’s Cup designer, the ceremony was a special moment.
“As a designer, to see your first America’s Cup boat in the water is pretty special. I’ll probably have to pinch myself for the next few days,” he said. “It’s been a whole lot of hard work for the past nine months and now we’re just really seeing it all take shape for the first time.”
Although the hull was lowered into the water for the ceremony, RSA 83 won’t be sailing until the middle of next week, giving the team just over two weeks to get it up to match pace. Skipper Geoff Meek says there is still plenty of work to do on the final fit-out. But he’s excited about the prospect of being more competitive in the six Louis Vuitton Acts this year, with a faster boat.
“It’s a fantastic moment for us. Now we have a boat that, while it might not be that quick in June – as we don’t have a lot of time to get it up to speed – by Sweden we expect to be fast,” Meek said. “I think that will help us in the sense that the better teams will have to be more aggressive with us on the starts if they think that we’re faster than in the older boat, and that’s how we’re going to learn.”
Team Shosho loza sailed in all three Louis Vuitton Acts in 2004, using an older generation boat than the rest of the fleet, and as a completely new team, they struggled at times to keep pace with the bigger, more experienced squads. Now, with RSA-83, they will be the only team competing with a new boat in 2005, and that should help the South Africans compete on a more equal footing with the mid-fleet teams. Shosholoza RSA 83 will sail its first race on the 16th of June when the 2005 America’s Cup season begins with the Louis Vuitton Act 4 in Valencia.
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