The United Internet Team Germany is looking forward to the beginning of the new year.

For the restart of training in January its new yacht Germany I will be ready for action again. To continue the preparations for the crucial races of the 32nd America’s Cup effectively, the team has shortened its Christmas holidays and will be back for training in Valencia on January 8.

Stability problems of the keel construction have been the reason for the delay of sailing with the first America’s Cup yacht ever built in Germany.

After the first successful sailing tests in August, the keel fin, which is the connecting part between the hull and the 20 ton weighing keel bomb, proved not to be strong enough. Therefore a new keel fin was ordered and produced. Now the last optimizations on this component are necessary.

"After the recent tests we decided to increase the degree of hardness once more", said Syndicate Head Michael Scheeren. "The keel fin has to withstand very high loads, so we want to take no risk".

Meanwhile the sailing team seizes the last days before the Christmas holidays to prepare for the crucial races of the 32nd America’s Cup in spring 2007. In these trainings with GER 72 the team keeps on improving the processes on board and the manoeuvers.

At the moment second skipper David Dellenbaugh is at the helm during training.