We can do a hula: Alinghi

By JULIE ASH

All eyes will be on Alinghi's boatshed next week to see whether their racing yacht emerges with a hull appendage.

After winning the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series, the sailors were given the week off while their boat SUI64 went into the shed to undergo "changes".

The hull appendage, nicknamed the hula by Team New Zealand, adds volume and length to the hull, potentially increasing speed.

Team New Zealand's hula could give them a definite speed advantage over their Swiss rivals.

The question now is whether Alinghi will add their version of the appendage before race one of the America's Cup on February 15.

"It is an option that we will do something similar but I wouldn't say today that is what we are going to do," said Alinghi principal designer Rolf Vrolijk.

"We are happy with the way the boat is going now. We know how it performs and how we can improve.

"We just have to make a decision as to what we are going to do."

Alinghi have modified the hull shape of their second yacht, SUI75, and have been testing an appendage on that.

"In certain areas and in certain conditions it is efficient," said Vrolijk.

"We actually came to a hull shape which we have modified quite a lot and we think we have improved the effective length of the hull."

He denied speculation that SUI75 had failed to meet measurement requirements in recent months.

"SUI75 has never had a measurement problem. We were actually quite happy with other people thinking it has a measurement problem because they missed out on what we were doing with the boat.

"We were doing some quite substantial changes to the hull."

While Team New Zealand created their boats with the hula in mind, Alinghi considered the idea early on but were not convinced it was within the rules.

But once they were aware Team New Zealand were pushing it hard and that Oracle were also onto the concept, they took it back to the drawing board.

"We did the homework and some testing but we weren't convinced it was legal. So we didn't spend the first year testing it on the water."

Vrolijk said it would be easy enough for Alinghi to attach a hull appendage before the first cup race.

But they may not have enough time to train and be fully confident the modified boat is faster than SUI64, which won 25 of its 28 races in the challenger series.

"We would need a few days, but it is not impossible," he said.

"We have parts available to do it.

"The shape they [Team New Zealand] showed is not an extreme shape. It is not that far away from SUI64 in terms of volume distribution.

"If we want to we could match something that is very similar to theirs, but that is not normally how it works.

"We don't want to match them - we want to beat them."

For the hull appendage to be legal it must not touch the hull except where it is attached.

"Team New Zealand have come up with smart ideas of how to shape the hull, which is good and it simplifies the thing a bit.

"It is easy to make it not touching but you have to reduce the gap as much as possible, and that's what is difficult," said Vrolijk.

"But we have made our own conclusions and we have the option to use it.

"It is now up to the design team and crew to decide how they want the boat to be changed for the next stage."

The Alinghi syndicate and Team New Zealand will unveil their yachts for the best-of-nine America's Cup series on February 11.

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