New hull has America’s Cup in a stir

AMERICA’S Cup holders Team New Zealand stole the limelight from challengers Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing, when they revealed a radical new hull design at an unveiling ceremony yesterday.

Switzerland's Alinghi and US software billionaire Larry Ellison's Oracle will contest the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers final from Saturday, with the winners of that best-of-nine race series to meet Team New Zealand in the America's Cup next month.

At yesterday's unveiling, biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi and Ellison's Oracle displayed relatively similar designs of elegant, narrow boats with minor differences in keel configurations.