BMW Oracle’s New Training Platform

Anticipating a Deed of Gift challenge against Alinghi for America’s Cup 33, BMW Oracle Racing launched an Extreme 40 catamaran in Valencia on Wednesday as part of their workup to what may be an October series. The new-to-them high-tech Extreme 40 arrived some three weeks after Alinghi took a pair of sisterships for a spin, literally — tacking in front of the Oracle base in Valencia’s harbor. The maneuver was recorded on video and displayed on Alinghi‘s web site, in a less than impressive display of gamesmanship.

The high performance catamaran is the product of a collaboration between Olympic Tornado medallists Australian Mitch Booth and Frenchman Yves Loday, and is one of 11 built to date — originally to provide what proved to be a crowd-pleasing sideshow at the stopovers in the last Volvo Ocean Race. Since then the boats have been sailing in a circuit sponsored by worldwide mutual fund provider iShares that’s taken them around Europe in an eight-event series in 2007. The 40-ft catamarans are a blast to watch as they are capable of speeds approaching 40 knots and spectacular capsizes.

Oracle reportedly has another Extreme 40 on the way for tuning purposes. But that’s not the only new ride on its way to the garage. It’s rumored that they’re expecting delivery of a brand-new TP 52 built to a Reichel-Pugh design for this year’s Med Cup TP 52 circuit. With those three new boats they should have plenty to keep the sailing team busy in the Mediterranean while the legal team continues the dialup in the New York Courts.