Americas Cup Trimaran flies to a new home

When the big boss at Oracle says he’s wants a water feature in his man made lake, you give him a water feature in his man made lake. But when that water feature happens to be USA-17, the very same trimaran that won the Americas cup in 2010, things might not be as easy as you think.

Getting a thirty four meter yacht into a lake is certainly no small task. Not even the largest construction cranes would get it there properly. So the team at Oracle required the use of a helicopter. One very large, and extremely ugly helicopter with one purpose: lifting big stuff. The Erikson Skycrane air-lifted the yacht from San Francisco to its new home of Redwood Shores, right outside the Oracle HQ in just a few hours.

Now supported by small platforms which lift the hulls from the water, and give it the illusion of ‘heeling to victory’, USA-17 will sit in what’s being called the Oracle Pond for several years, until it eventually deteriorates or gets shipped off and strung up on the roof of a museum.

Check out the video and watch in awe as the 34m of carbon fiber goes sailing over skyscrapers and highways, then into a tiny pool.