by Elliott Wilson
Spectators watch from the Anacortes Marina as BMW ORACLE Racing’s roughly 90-foot-by-90-foot trimaran is launched by crane Monday into Fidalgo Bay.
ANACORTES — Big launches are not unusual in Anacortes. But the 90-foot-by-90-foot trimaran launched by BMW ORACLE Racing on Monday was so bizarre that spectators could think of no watercraft to compare it to.
“It would fit in the center of the baseball diamond,” Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell said of the boat built for the next America’s Cup. “ ... If it wasn’t in the water, you could mistake it for a space ship.”
Only team members, construction staff, a few locals and family members were invited to watch Monday’s launch up close. But many others gathered at the nearby Anacortes Marina and just outside the fencing closer to the launch site.
Closer in, there was applause and excitement as Melinda Erkelens, a team member, broke a bottle of Moët et Chandon champagne on the boat’s sprit, and team members stepped aboard the yacht.
The boat was built along the Anacortes waterfront, with help from Sedro-Woolley-based Janicki Industries, for the next America’s Cup sailing regatta. However ongoing litigation between the U.S.-based BMW ORACLE Racing team and the Swiss team Alinghi has called into question when and where the next America’s Cup will be and whether the boat will ever sail in it.
With three hulls and huge stretches of netting to connect them, the boat is like no other yacht ever raced in the America’s Cup. The closest, a catamaran sailed by the U.S. team Stars and Stripes in 1988, sailed to one of the easiest victories in Cup history.
BMW ORACLE’s boat is expected to be much faster. But Monday it moved only by crane, as it was lowered into the water and then slowly spun around, and by tow, as it was later guided to Lovrics Shipyard.
“We went from a boat in the shed this morning at 9 a.m. to a boat that has now got the mast in and is on the water,” team spokeswoman Jane Eagleson said, noting that she was surprised with the speed of the progression.
A statement from the team later in the day said sea trials should begin in early September, after its rigging is complete and the boat has been load-tested dockside.
• Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .
