© Chris Cameron/etnz

Emirates Team New Zealand design team member, and catamaran guru, Pete Melvin.

Pete Melvin is considered one of the world’s leading designers of racing multihulls. He’s also a multiple class world and national champion. His company Morrelli & Melvin has designed boats ranging from the record setting 125-foot PlayStation maxi-catamaran to two different world championship-winning A Class catamarans. His partner Gino Morelli was involved in Dennis Conner’s ’88 Cup program with the Stars & Stripes catamaran, and in 2008 Pete began working with Oracle Racing as a sailing coach before moving into design analysis.

These days, you don’t even need lemons to make lemonade. Well at least not directly. Some Countrytime and some water, and you’re good to go. Millions of kids do it each summer. Trying to put a positive spin on the disastrous pitchpole of Oracle Team USA’s AC72 in mid-October was much harder.

© Nigel Marple curtesy Luna Rossa Challenge

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Steve Erickson, Luna Rossa’s Sailing Team Manger, is in charge of Luna Rossa’s technical and sailing development program and works in close co-operation with the Design Team. Following the recent launch of its AC72, Erickson got us caught up on next steps for the Team which relocated to New Zealand after the World Series events in San Francisco this summer.

© Chris Cameron/ETNZ/ACEA

Dean Barker at the wheel of Emirates Team New Zealand's AC72. They were the first to launch and the first to get their 72 up on foils. But there's a lot of work between now and the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup in July 2013.

For the four syndicates still committed to putting an AC72 on the line for the 34th America’s Cup, it’s a busy time.r While the primary focus shifts to the 72-footer, which each team has launched or will launch shortly, the America’s Cup World Series rolls on, with another event in San Francisco starting today. While each team’s learning curve in the one-design 45-footers has plateaued, there’s a lot that can be learned about what it’s like to race high-speed catamarans on such a windy and tidal racecourse.