Security isn't what it used to be at the America's Cup. For instance, any media member with a hidden camera could have taken pictures of Oracle Racing's hull under construction Tuesday.
Inside the team's cavernous Pier 80 headquarters, technicians were working on a hull for one of the gigantic AC72 wing-sailed catamarans that will be used in Oracle's America's Cup defense next year in San Francisco Bay.
The media people were ushered into the area marked "TOP SECRET" in red, 2-foot-tall letters. They saw the two halves of the 72-foot hull being built from several layers of carbon fiber in huge molds. The layers are compressed at high temperatures. Eventually, the two halves will be glued together.
If operatives for a competing syndicate could have taken part in the sneak preview, structural engineer Kurt Jordan said, "They'd be looking at the shape or the curvature."
Competing teams "used to be ridiculously secretive," said Oracle Racing boss Russell Coutts, who -- with four wins -- is the most successful skipper in America's Cup history. Teams used to have "15-foot high barriers" around their operations, he said.
By Cup rules, the hulls have to be built in the countries that their racing teams represent. The wings of the Oracle boats are being built in New Zealand and will be brought to the Bay Area in sections beginning next month. The boats will be launched in July.
Parked outside by the water was the huge main structure of USA-17, which won the 33rd America's Cup in 2010 over the Swiss boat Alinghi 5 in Valencia, Spain. USA-17 is expected to be on display on the San Francisco waterfront during the America's Cup World Series this summer and the 2013 races.
That's assuming the Board of Supervisors ratifies an agreement with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison's group. Under the deal, the group would pay at least $55 million to repair aging piers for use during the racing events in return for long-term development rights to waterfront properties.
With the city officials still deliberating, Coutts said: "I'm not sure the Board of Supervisors realize what they've got here. I'm not sure San Francisco realizes how lucky it is to get the America's Cup."
So far there are only three entries in the Louis Vuitton Cup next year: Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa of Italy and Artemis of Sweden. Cup officials hope to have more entries by the June 1 deadline and have spoken recently about considering a revised format for the challenger series.
Coutts said he thought there would be at least one and as many as three more entries, and that the number would have been higher if it hadn't been for the global recession.
"It would be nice to have 20 other teams out there," he said. "It would be great to have teams from China and Korea and France and these other countries ... but if we don't, it will still be a spectacular race."
The afternoon portion of Tuesday's media event emphatically demonstrated that point when Oracle's two AC45 catamarans were put through their paces.
The two 45-footers, versions of the 72-foot boats that will race in the Cup, launched from Pier 80. They headed north under the Bay Bridge, turned the corner and sailed toward Alcatraz. As the winds increased, onlookers received a riveting preview of the speeds of these boats.
The catamarans zipped past the island, and soon each boat leaned on one hull with five sailors hanging off the other sides, 10 to 15 feet in the air.
The crews performed a variety of maneuvers, coming to a stop at times, restarting and taking runs straight at Crissy Field. It will be an exciting part of the Cup races when boats charge toward the shore before making a hairpin turn and heading back into the bay.
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