On Friday ‘Le Black’, the 41ft Alinghi catamaran built in 2000 for racing on Lake Geneva, was relaunched by helicopter from the yard facility in Villeneuve in Switzerland.

This high performance light air speedster designed by Jo Richards and Sébastien Schmidt is far from the future 90ft monster multi-hull that is to be built for the 33rd America’s Cup, but has been undergoing modifications by the Alinghi shore crew for use by the design team as a research tool with the Deed of Gift Match in mind.

"The original objective of this boat when it was first launched in 2000 was to compete against trimarans in strong wind and against catamarans in light air", commented Pierre-Yves Jorand, member of the sailing team and who is a regular onboard. "Eight years later, the whole team is very happy to see such a successful boat back on the water. It is the perfect platform for team training and is not intended in any way to be used for racing."

The 41ft catamaran has a winning pedigree having claimed the Bol d’Or four times consecutively from 2000 to 2003.