Former Team New Zealand boat designer signs with US challenger

Marcelino Botin designed the Team NZ entry for the 2007 America's Cup. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Former Team New Zealand boat designer Marcelino Botin will work with the New York Yacht Club's challenge for the America's Cup in 2021.

Botin Partners Naval Architecture have signed an agreement to design the NYYC entry for the 36th America's Cup in Auckland, which sees the entries move back to monohulls from catamarans.

Botin joined Team New Zealand as a principal designer in 2004, designing NZL-92 that went onto win the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007.

He stayed on with TNZ until 2011 where he also designed Team New Zealand's Camper sponsored VOR70 entry in the Volvo Ocean Race.

"Botin Partners has been the premiere monohull designer for the last decade," said Terry Hutchinson who is CEO and skipper of the NYYC entry.

"We have had a great relationship with the Botin design office through five TP52s, and it just feels like a natural fit."

The Botins are almost royalty in Spain. Marcelino's great grandfather, Emilio, became chairman of the Santander Bank in 1909, a position that has remained in the family ever since.

In 1999, the bank merged with Banco Central Hispano, creating the Santander Central Hispano, now one of the biggest banks in the world.