Boatbuilding crews are hard at work building the AC Class race boats (often called AC50). The hulls are built in three pieces. The lower section has most of the structure, including the cockpit floor and the reinforcement for the daggerboard cage. The upper section has cutouts for the crew cockpits. The 2.7 meter long bow section unbolts so the hull can fit in a 40 foot container. The skin of that bow section is the only part of the yacht required to be built in the country of the yacht club it represents. Oracle and Team Japan are having their boats built at Core Builders in New Zealand. Team New Zealand is also building their boat in New Zealand, at Cooksons. Artemis Racing, Land Rover BAR and Groupama Team France are all building their boats in their home countries, using tooling furnished by Core Builders.
Upper half of an AC Class hull – the “deck.” It will be joined with the lower hull section and the bow section will bolt on. Thanks to Richard Gladwell of Sail-World for the photograph. Richard has many more photos and lots of detail in two articles, here and here.