America's Cup
The 33rd America’s Cup was wrought with court action and litigation. It is said to have surpassed even the 1988 America’s Cup in animosity and acrimony. The 33rd America’s Cup race was between Societe Nautique de Geneve defending with the team Alinghi against the Golden Gate Yacht Club and their team, the BMW Oracle Racing. The match eventually took place as a one-on-one Deed of Gift match in huge, specialized multi-hull racing yachts. The Golden Gate Yacht club won the match as their yacht, the USA 17 powered by rigid wing-sail craft.
BMW Oracle Racing raced a 90-foot trimaran that they named “USA 17″. It is claimed that the rigid-wing construction is what provided the USA 17 with its decisive advantage.
The USA 17 is a carbon composite trimaran that was built in Anacortes, Washington. It took over 130,000 man-hours to build the 113 feet long yacht. With a mast height of 185 feet, this yacht had an outlying hull of almost 6 feet.
Abordage is a company that specializes in building exquisite models of the yachts that race in America’s cup. They also custom built other ships to order. At GiftsNautical, we sell all the America’s Cup model yachts that Abordage has built so far. While, Abordage has yet to make available a model of the USA 17, check back at www.giftsnautical.com every so often to see if it’s out. In the meanwhile, check out the model yachts of past winners of the America’s Cup…
