''Alinghi 5'' is a ( LWL), beam sloop-rigged catamaran built by Alinghi for the

33rd America's Cup The 33rd America's Cup between Société Nautique de Genève defending with team Alinghi against Golden Gate Yacht Club, and their racing team BMW Oracle Racing was the subject of extensive court action and litigation, surpassing in acrimony even ...

. The boat was launched on 8 July 2009 when the hull was lifted from the construction shed in

Villeneuve, Vaud Villeneuve () is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle. As of December 2018, it had a population of 5771. Geography Villeneuve has an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.7% is used for agricult ...

by a

Mil Mi-26 The Mil Mi-26 (russian: link=no, Миль Ми-26, NATO reporting name: Halo) is a Soviet/Russian heavy transport helicopter. Its product code is ''Izdeliye 90''. Operated by both military and civilian operators, it is the largest and most po ...

helicopter and carried to

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial la ...

. ''Alinghi 5''was subsequently moved again by helicopter to

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, Italy. At the end of September 2009, the boat was shipped to

Ras al Khaimah Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) ( ar, رَأْس ٱلْخَيْمَة, historically Julfar) is the largest city and capital of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. It is the sixth-largest city in UAE after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain ...

, the venue selected by the defender for the

. At the end of October 2009, the New York Supreme Court (the

court of first instance A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...

) ruled that the venue of

was not compliant with the Deed of Gift. After various discussions,

Société Nautique de Genève The Société Nautique de Genève is a yacht club based in Geneva (Switzerland). It was founded in 1872 with the goal of developing nautical sports and high level sailors. Currently the club has about 3000 members. The club held the America's Cup ...

(SNG—the Defending club) agreed that the venue would be

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Spain. An appeal by SNG regarding the venue was rejected and ''Alinghi 5'' was shipped at the end of December 2009 from Ras al Khaimah to Valencia, where she arrived on 5 January 2010.

Characteristics

Grant Simmer Grant Simmer (born 1957) is an Australian sailor and yacht designer who has competed in multiple America's Cups. He sailed as navigator on ''Australia II'' when it won the 1983 America's Cup. He stayed with Alan Bond's syndicate and was navigato ...

, ''Alinghi 5'' was built in Villeneuve, Switzerland, by Alinghi-Décision and required more than 100,000 hours of work. The mast is approximately tall the original shorter mast was replaced by a taller one in October 2009). An engine installed at the back of the boat provides power for the winches. When sailing upwind, the boat can sail at less than 20 degrees off the apparent wind. During a training run, ''Alinghi 5'' covered to windward and back in 2.5 hours in winds, so her average

velocity made good Velocity made good, or VMG, is a term used in sailing, especially in yacht racing, indicating the speed of a sailboat towards (or from) the direction of the wind. The concept is useful because a sailboat cannot sail directly upwind, and thus often ...

was , about 1.9 times the wind speed. ''Alinghi 5'' sails so fast downwind that the

apparent wind Apparent wind is the wind experienced by a moving object. Definition of apparent wind The ''apparent wind'' is the wind experienced by an observer in motion and is the relative velocity of the wind in relation to the observer. The ''velocity ...

she generates is only 5–6 degrees different from when she is racing upwind; that is, ''Alinghi 5'' is always sailing upwind with respect to the apparent wind. An explanation of this

phenomenon A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried ...

can be found in the article on

sailing faster than the wind High-performance sailing is achieved with low forward surface resistance—encountered by catamarans, sailing hydrofoils, iceboats or land sailing craft—as the sailing craft obtains motive power with its sails or aerofoils at speeds that are ofte ...

. The design of the yacht was influenced by that of racing catamarans developed for regattas on

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial la ...

. As of 2018 ''Alinghi 5 was being stored at Marina Sur in Valencia, Spain.

Racing results

The first race of the

2010 America's Cup The 33rd America's Cup between Société Nautique de Genève defending with team Alinghi against Golden Gate Yacht Club, and their racing team BMW Oracle Racing was the subject of extensive court action and litigation, surpassing in acrimony even ...

took place on 12 February 2010. ''Alinghi 5'' lost the race to the challenger, '' USA 17''. ''Alinghi 5'' was ahead by 1:27 at the start, but was behind by 3:21 at the windward mark and by about 10 minutes at the finish. Her official finish time was 15:28 behind the winner because ''Alinghi 5'' had to perform a penalty turn, having failed to stay clear at the start. Winds were . ''Alinghi 5'' reached the windward mark in 1h32, so her velocity made good was about , or about 1.7 times wind speed. ''Alinghi 5'' took 69 minutes to reach the downwind mark, so her velocity made good downwind was about , or about 2.3 times wind speed. On 14 February 2010, ''Alinghi 5'' also lost the second race, and thus the America's Cup, again by a considerable margin, even though she appeared to sail better upwind than on the first day, thanks to a fuller mainsail combined with a smaller jib. ''Alinghi 5'' was behind by 0:24 at the start, by 0:28 at the windward mark, by 2:44 at the gybe mark, and by over 2 minutes at the finish. Her official finish time was 5:26 behind the winner because ''Alinghi 5'' had to perform a penalty turn, having entered the pre-start area too soon. Winds were . ''Alinghi 5'' reached the windward mark in 59 minutes, so her velocity made good was about , or about 1.8 times wind speed. The course was a triangle, so the velocity made good downwind was only , or about 1.5 times wind speed. ''Alinghi 5'' averaged , or about 3.4 times the wind speed, on the faster first triangular leg. Most observers stated that ''USA 17''s rigid wing sail had given her a decisive advantage. She could be seen on Google Maps while trialing o
Lake Geneva
but disappeared with the imagery update of 2011 (she can be still be found using the Historical Imagery tool of Google Earth). Using the Measurement tool in Google Maps renders her 110 feet LOA and 75 feet beam.

References

External links

www.americascup.com
{{Sailing vessels and rigs America's Cup defenders Individual catamarans Individual sailing vessels Sailing yachts built in Switzerland 2000s sailing yachts Sailing yachts of Switzerland 2010 America's Cup Alinghi