Containers Return to Sail the Seas
The America’s Cup wins by Alan Bond’s Australia II in 1983 and Team New Zealand in 1995 and 2000 are undoubtedly hallmarks in Australian and New Zealand sporting history. The America’s Cup is the world’s premier yacht racing event consisting of a series races across the globe. The 34th America’s Cup will be awarded to the winner of the final race in San Francisco Bay in September 2013. In the lead up to the main event there will be at least 43 days of racing involving some of the fastest sailboats ever raced.
In support of this program, America’s Cup Race Management turned to Royal Wolf, to provide a “mobile” solution based on modified containers for their base facility, operations modules, team and media facilities.
The result is a stunning example of the use of modified shipping containers to deliver an innovative, efficient building design which is fully demountable, allowing the facilities to be dismantled, packed and shipped around the globe and relocated in readiness for the next race.
Brendon Greatrex, Royal Wolf Manufacturing Manager, said “The scope of the project was an ideal fit for Royal Wolf with our substantial experience in containerised solutions, drawing on success with accommodation projects, relocatable camps and event management.”
The base facility was conceived as a two storey structure with offices, workshops and an upstairs verandah with external stairs.
The operations modules were to house ablutions, wash stations, sail lofts, workshops and team facilities while the all important media facilities incorporated suites for commentary, editing, graphics, administration, production and computers.
The challenge was to come up with an integrated design for such a complex set of requirements based on the container module.
“Our manufacturing team did a great job in converting this vision into a reality, using 36 containers in 6m and 12m containers to produce a fully relocatable solution that met the customer’s needs perfectly” said Brendon Greatrex.
The building was delivered on time to Cascais in Portugal ready for the first race of the international series.
The Projects Division of Royal Wolf provides unique containerised solutions outside the realm of the standard product line. The team was established to ensure our customers benefit from a focused approach where a central point of contact can work to provide a tailored product ideal for the project needs.