Yachting: Alinghi airlifts yacht over the Alps to the sea
Now that must have been quite a sight!!
Yachting: Alinghi airlifts yacht over the Alps to the sea
2009-08-07 08:04:19.278 GMT
LE BOUVERET, Switzerland, Aug 7, 2009 (AFP) - America's Cup
defender Alinghi began a spectacular airlift of its giant yacht from
landlocked Switzerland over the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea on
Friday, dangling beneath the world's biggest helicopter.
After some two weeks of trials on Lake Geneva, where it was
built, the new 90-foot high-tech catamaran is being flown about 300
kilometres (186 miles) to the Italian port of Genoa for its first
sea trials.
Under bright skies, Alinghi 5 was lifted off Lake Geneva here by
a MI-26 heavy lift helicopter, flown in specially from Russia, on
the end of long cables.
The mast was airlifted by another helicopter.
Alinghi 5 headed for the 2,469 metre (8,100 foot) Great St.
Bernard peak on the Swiss-Italian border, before a refuelling stop
at Biella in northern Italy, team members said.
It was then due to hop over a final mountain ridge before being
deposited at the Italian Yacht Club's base on the Mediterranean
after a four hour trip.
Alinghi, with its home port in Geneva, was the first team from a
landlocked country to take part in sport's oldest trophy in 2000,
when it won the America's Cup at its first attempt.
The two-times winners announced this week that their duel
against US challengers Oracle for the 33rd America's Cup should take
place in the United Arab Emirates at Ras al-Khaimah next February.
After a lengthy legal battle to force acceptance of its
challenge, Oracle, bankrolled by US billionaire Larry Ellison, has
contested the choice of venue, but it was not clear what action the
San Francisco-based team would take.
The Americans have been testing a similarly huge trimaran off
the US West Coast for several months, setting the stage for an
equally spectacular sailing battle next year.
pac/at/lth
-0- Aug/07/2009 8:04 GMT