April 23, 2008 at 05:14 PM
· Tagged with puma, transport, volvo-ocean-race
PUMA Ocean Racing’s new boat for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 prepares to move out of the Goetz Custom Boats facility Tuesday morning in Bristol, Rhode Island on its way toward Newport Shipyard. What normally takes 25 minutes for passenger cars took more than 2 hours as the wide load and 70-foot boat had to navigate over a closed 2-lane bridge, around streets signs, through narrow turns and over curbs. A dense layer of fog on the historic Mt. Hope Bridge, made for an especially tricky but photo-worthy drive. At 6:25 with the sun slowly rising, PUMA’s new boat arrived at the Newport Shipyard.
Photo by Sally Collison/PUMA Ocean Racing.
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April 23, 2008 at 11:19 AM
· Tagged with china, dinghy, ecole-navale, longtze, sport
The “Grand Prix Ecole Navale” which will be held in Brest (France) from the 8th till the 11th of May. This three-round race will be the biggest gathering of sportboats in Europe. About 140 of the newest generation sailing boats are expected. Among them a flock of Open 750’s, Melges and Mumm 30s. But the star of the event will be the first Chinese-build sportboat ever: the Longtze Premier.
This boat measures 6m80 ong and almost 3m wide and needs a crew of 4 or 5 to handle it. Luc Gellusseau, Operations Manager of Team China in the last America’s Cup explains: “When we raced the Cup under the colours of China, the idea was to become involved in the development of sailing in China, by enabling the Chinese to sail at the top level as well including them in the construction of the yachts. As a result, we decided to manufacture a Sportsboat: the Longtze Premier. It was built entirely in China in a yard more familiar with the construction of dinghies.”
No less than 5 Longtze’s will be present at the Grand Prix for the first appearance of this promising new Chinese export product. At about 26000 euro for a complete package including racing sails, the boat is quite well priced as well. The Longtze also fits in a standard container, so shipping is quite easy. Find out more about them on their website.
We look forward to the results and reactions of the crews that get to sail them in Brest.
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