Ladies of Louis Vuitton Act 12

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the dozen boats sailing off Valencia for Act 12.  It's tempting to think all ACC's now look alike, forced into one corner of a more restrictive class rule, but clearly the twelve design teams have different perceptions of what's fast in v5.0.

Obvious differences include bow shape, stem entry angle, sheer, and transom. The boats appear below sorted in descending order by sail number with some just out of the box, some from the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup, and one, ITA-59, the former Alinghi trial horse and Be hAPpy, first sailed in the 2000 LVC trials.  FRA-60, formerly NZL-60, was the winning defender of the 2000 America's Cup, sweeping the Italian challenger 5-0.

Published in cooperation with Pierre Orphanidis and the Valencia Sailing Blog.
All photos ©2006 Pierre Orphanidis/Valencia Sailing

ESP-88
Desafío Español

USA-87
BMW Oracle Racing

ITA-86
 Luna Rossa Challenge

NZL-84
 Emirates Team New Zealand

RSA-83
Team Shosholoza

CHN-79
China Team

ITA-77
Mascalzone Latino
 Capitalia Team

SUI-75
 Alinghi

GER-72
 United Internet Team Germany

SWE-63
 Victory Challenge

FRA-60
 Areva Challenge
 

ITA-59
 +39 Challenge