What would you do if someone was going to throw a piece of Team New Zealand Americas Cup history in the bin? You couldn’t let that happen right? Especially if you had the skill set to make it into something really special. Any loyal kiwi would have done the same ( see what I did there? Loyal?! )
Rescued from the rubbish, this is a mast with history. It is the old America’s Cup Team New Zealand rig from the 2000 campaign which made its way to Spain to compete as the French challenger in 2007. The French never made the finals so the rig never saw true America’s Cup competition. It was left in the yard when the competition finished and the Teams left. For the next 12 years sat forgotten in an abandoned yard.
When the building was eventually bought by new owners in 2019 they were keen to clean the mess and that meant the rig was destined to be chopped into pieces and thrown in the bin. It may sound wasteful (we certainly think it is) but the reality is that recycling a mast like this is difficult. There are not many people with the skills, the vision, or the time to transform something like this into something new. In fact, it was only due to lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic that it gave us the chance to work on a project of this magnitude.
Hopefully this will give those of you who are interested, an insight into how a professional rigger sets up his mast configuration on his own boat.
If you want to see more discussion on our carbon fibre rotating rig here