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Team Shosholoza : south African team launches the first new boat of the XXXIInd America’s Cup

Valencia, 20th May, 2005 – 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.

25 november 2004 : Building starts on South Africa’s first ever America’s Cup racing yacht

Secrecy and high security has surrounded the local design and building of South Africa’s first state-of-the-art America’s Cup class racing yacht which started this week at an undisclosed boat yard near Cape Town. Building of the new 25 metre ultra hi-tech racing machine involves advanced “oven baked” construction techniques, while the structure itself has evolved from leading edge designs incorporating aerospace technology and research similar to that used in both aircraft and Formula One racing cars. The yacht, which will be launched in April next year,  will serve as a tune-up racing yacht for the South African America’s Cup Team Shosholoza and replace the current yacht Shosholoza RSA 48 which was always only intended for crew sail training.

The tune-up yacht will also be used as a development boat for a second new race yacht which will incorporate considerable more research, intensive tank testing and computer modelling. This second new yacht will be launched in 2006 and continuously developed through 2006 and into 2007 when Team Shosholoza will race in the America’s Cup proper off Valencia in Spain. Responsible for the design of the new yachts is a local team of naval architects led by leading British yacht designer Jason Ker. The highly skilled team includes specialist engineers, fluid dynamicists, experts in composite structures and other software experts previously involved in the South African aerospace industry. “The tune-up yacht will effectively provide Team Shosholoza with a faster boat to race against the leading teams on a more level playing field, while also giving the design and construction teams a”dry run“for the final race-boat,” said Ker. 

He said a yacht construction team of 15 specialist builders is running the project under build manager Tony Evans who has been involved with the construction of two previous America’s Cup Class Yachts. Work started this week on the deck mould frames while the hull moulds will be completed by the end of the year. Following the lamination process the hull and deck will be joined early next year. The lamination process involves “cooking” the structure in a vast purpose designed oven that is big enough to accommodate the entire hull. Dust free and spotlessly clean it has been specially built from steel frames, galvanised sheeting and insulated panels. “Resin impregnated fibres, which are also used in the building  of aircraft and Formula One Racing cars, are used in the building of the hull and deck and the lamination requires three or four stages of”oven baking“.”The baking is a totally computerised process and scientifically controlled by a specially developed software package, the sole purpose being to achieve a super light, ultra strong and stiff structure," said Evans.

The new yacht, which must meet America’s Cup class design rules which come into force in 2005, will be completed by April next year. A testing period will follow the fitting of the keel, rudder and mast with the official launch date set for Freedom Day, 27 April. The yacht will then be shipped to Europe for the 2005 America’s Cup Acts or precursor regattas scheduled for Spain in June, northern Europe in August and in Italy in October. “We are working to a very tight building deadline and literally don’t have a day to spare,” said Evans adding that the build team is already working on 12 hour shifts to ensure their goals are met. Captain Salvatore Sarno, the driving force behind South Africa’s debut challenge for the America’s Cup in 2007 says that while any nation can enter the America’s Cup it is only the most technologically advanced countries in the world that can effectively do so. “In South Africa’s case it presents us with the perfect opportunity to be showcased as a modern, dynamic, exciting country with the skills and technological expertise equal to the best in the world,” said Cpt Sarno.

* South Africa will be making its maiden bid for the America’s Cup in Valencia Spain in 2007.  It is the first African challenge in the 153 year history of this prestigious event and will sport a totally representative South African crew.