Alinghi chooses catamaran for America's Cup duel

America's Cup defenders Alinghi have chosen a giant catamaran to meet US rival Oracle's challenge, the Swiss press revealed yesterday.

The slender craft with two 27.4 metre (90 foot) long hulls is the Swiss team's response to the huge trimaran that Oracle launched last year during the legal battle over the duel, that Alinghi eventually lost.

The catamaran was pictured - in separate shots because of its size - inside a tent at the boatyard on Lake Geneva in western Switzerland where Alinghi was putting the finishing touches ahead of an expected launch this week.

It includes an even longer, fixed central boom for a headsail and draws on some designs used for lake racing to allow a wide variation in the sail volume and rigging, Dutch designer Rolf Vrolijk said.

"What you can gain in speed with the hulls is in the end less important than the gains from the rigging and the sails," he told the Tribune de Geneve newspaper.

Bankrolled by billionaires Ernesto Bertarelli and Larry Ellison respectively, Alinghi and Oracle are due to fight out their duel on the open seas by next year.

The venue for the race - which is up to Alinghi - has yet to be decided.