America's Cup: Team NZ launch test boat

Boatbuilder George Jackich prepares the former illbruck boat before launching at Viaduct Harbour yesterday. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Branded in the new Team New Zealand colours, the first German-built America's Cup yacht felt the water ripple under her hull for the first time yesterday in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour.

Built by the illbruck syndicate for last year's Cup, a lack of finance meant the yacht was never completed, and as a result the lime-coloured hull lay in a boatyard in Germany for two years before it was acquired by Team New Zealand.

The yacht's owner, Michael Illbruck, head of his family's international company, illbruck GmbH, which makes automotive and building products, has loaned the yacht to Emirates-sponsored Team New Zealand for as long as they require.

Designed by Michael Richelsen, now with Alinghi, and Friedrich Judel and Torsten Conradi from Judel/Vrolijk, the yacht is similar in shape to Alinghi and Oracle, which makes it an ideal testing boat for the New Zealand syndicate.

The main difference between the illbruck boat, which will now be known as NZL68, and the black boats used in the last cup NZL81 and NZL82, is the width. NZL68 is considerably narrower.

"It puts us in that design space and I think it helps energise a team because they have a new boat, new gear, new equipment," Team New Zealand managing director Grant Dalton said. "You can't measure that as such, but it is one of the things that is important culturally."

The yacht, expected to venture out to the Hauraki Gulf for the first time today, is also in the new version of the design rules.

The rules, which specify design features, are altered after each Cup. The 2007 event will be held under version five of the America's Cup-class rule.

Apart from the hula, NZL81 has also been changed into the new version, and will join her stablemate out on the water next week.

Dalton estimates his team spent 7000 hours on the illbruck hull, which had a lot of structural changes so it could be fitted with the same rigs, keels and bulbs used on the black boats.

Illbruck was due to attend the launch yesterday but the recent death of his father, Willi, meant he was unable to make the trip.

The Illbruck name is linked to a long line of racing yachts, all called Pinta, a name which NZL68 now sports on its stern.

The family were also behind the illbruck syndicate that won the 2001/02 round-the-world race.

In typical yacht-launching tradition, Dalton doused the boat in champagne yesterday.

Illbruck will be pleased to hear his boat appears to be structurally sound having survived the force of the cork flying out of the bottle and into her hull.

Most of Team New Zealand's 95-strong team are now in Auckland, where they will remain until April.