America's Cup challenger wings it

SAN DIEGO - It took all of one hour for the America's Cup to look decidedly 21st century.

In a preview of what the 33rd America's Cup might look like once the lawyers finally give way to the sailors, challenger BMW Oracle Racing debuted a radical 190-foot wing sail on its monster trimaran during a shakedown cruise yesterday afternoon on San Diego Bay.

Helmsman Jimmy Spithill steered the space age-looking craft up and down the harbor, past the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and back again. When the 90-by-90-foot trimaran hooked into a breeze, the windward hull lifted out of the water and accelerated as if Spithill were opening up a throttle.

The trimaran, known as BOR 90 and soon to be renamed USA, will face two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland in a best-of-three showdown that almost certainly will be sailed in Valencia, Spain.

Earlier yesterday, Alinghi confirmed to a New York judge that it is preparing to hold the showdown in Valencia starting Feb. 8.

There are still issues to resolve before bickering billionaires Larry Ellison of Oracle Corp. and Ernesto Bertarelli of Alinghi can ship their multihulls to Valencia for the nautical grudge match in the fastest, most extreme boats ever built for sailing's marquee regatta.

The biggest is Alinghi's appeal of the judge's rejection of its original choice of a Persian Gulf port. Also, the judge needs to approve an expert panel's report, including whether it's safe to sail the carbon-fiber giants in Valencia in February.

If those matters are resolved, then a twisting two-year court case will have steered the America's Cup right back to where it left off in July 2007 - in Valencia.

The legal tussle faded to the background as BMW Oracle Racing debuted the wing sail, which is slightly less than two-thirds of a football field long.

Nothing of the wing sail's scope has been seen in the America's Cup before. Dennis Conner used a wing sail on his catamaran in beating New Zealand off San Diego in 1988, but it wasn't anywhere near as big as BOR 90's.

In a process that took nine hours, the wing was wheeled out of its shoreside assembly tent and lifted by two cranes onto the trimaran. After load testing and other adjustments, the big boat slipped its mooring lines less than 12 hours after emerging from the tent.

Described as the world's biggest wing, it will be tested as a replacement for a traditional soft-sail rig.

"It was just amazing," Spithill said on the dock afterward. "It was a big day, and obviously there was a fair bit of anxiety and a little bit of stress. Really, when you think about what we did today, I mean, that wing was just sitting here in the early hours of the morning. We were able to get it on the boat, get it in position, get off the dock, get it vertical, and then to go out and sail around in a tight harbor like that and fly a hull. That's just a fantastic day."

Complete with flaps, the wing sail is about 47 feet longer than the wing of an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner. It weighs 7,700 pounds and is 6,725 square feet.

The wing debuted a week after BOR 90's 200-foot carbon-fiber mast came crashing down and smashed apart on the aft beam while sailing on the Pacific Ocean. No one was injured.

If the wing works, the Americans won't need a traditional rig.

The wing is built of carbon fiber and Kevlar, and covered with a skin of light, shrinkable aeronautical film.

The trimaran seemed to accelerate and maneuver better with the wing sail than with a regular rig.

The legal bickering aside, the competition for the oldest trophy in international sports is expected to be, for the course of the best-of-three series, the most extreme of extreme sports.