www.Parctel.com: Emirates Team New Zealand revealed on Sunday what it had been hiding under the ‘skirts’ of their 2007 America’s Cup yachts NZL 92 and NZL 84 – and it turned out to be 100% pure New Zealand.
At 9.30am on Sunday, 1st April, the skirts came off all yachts competing in the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup. Media, members of rival syndicates and the public were given free access to all bases for four hours.
The skirts hid arcane design detail of hulls, keels, rudders and bulbs – jealously guarded design secrets that are now revealed to the world.
Equally secret for members of Emirates Team New Zealand were the designs painted on the bulbs of NZL 92 and NZL 84. Team New Zealand started the bulb decoration tradition in 1995 with its now famous flames on NZL 32.
And in 2007, the world now knows that NZL 84 sports a dashing paint job inspired by the New Zealand icon Buzzy Bee, a wooden toy that was first manufactured in the mid-1940s. Buzzy Bee has delighted generations of New Zealanders ever since.
Emirates Team New Zealand has chosen the distinctive Buzzy Bee design for NZL 84’s bulb. Every New Zealander can identify with Buzzy Bee, Grant Dalton, Managing Director of Emirates Team New Zealand, says. “It seems fitting that a simple wooden New Zealand toy should grace the bulb of a hi-tech America’s Cup class yacht.”
Emirates is the title sponsor of Emirates Team New Zealand one of the leading teams mounting a challenge for the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007, the world’s oldest sports trophy and premier yachting event. Team New Zealand held the Cup for eight years until 2003. Its bid to regain the trophy from its current holder - Team Alinghi of Geneva, Switzerland - will culminate in 2007 in a series of regattas off the Mediterranean city of Valencia, Spain.
Grant Dalton, Managing Director of Emirates Team New Zealand pictured with Emirates Cabin Crew Members, Sara Ehsani Zonoz (left) and Margarita Perdomo (right) at the unveiling ceremony the all the yachts competing in the 2007 America’s Cup, which took place in Valencia, Spain, on Sunday 1st April
XML Feeds
