Rita is launched13 Feb 2017Rita with the Land Rover BAR America’s Cup teamThe ambitions of Land Rover BAR to win the 35th America’s Cup – and bring the trophy back home to Britain after 166 years – have taken a step forward with the launch and christening of the team’s America’s Cup class race boat Rita.Code-named R1, the boat represents three years of design and build including four test boats.Sir Ben’s wife Georgie and daughter Bellatrix christened Rita – the same name as all 19 of Sir Ben’s previous boats – in Bermuda where the team is preparing for the America’s Cup event in May.The team will now continue with its intensive testing and development programme that will include in-house racing against test boat T3.”The launch represents the sum of all the team’s efforts to bring the America’s Cup home and we’re delighted to get her in the water here in Bermuda,” said Sir Ben. “We’re a start-up team, and we had to build not just the boat but the design and engineering team, the facilities and the processes to get to this point today.”Richard Hopkirk; Land Rover BAR engineering manager added: “We believe this is the most sophisticated and best prepared British challenger, with a total campaign design effort of 50,000 hours and a construction effort of 35,000 hours for Rita.”The boat is supported by high-tech hydrofoils, 67m of rope on board, 130m of hydraulic pipes and more than 1200m of electronic and electrical cabling connecting 190 sensors and four video cameras.

via Boating Business | Rita is launched.