NZL 32

In 1995, Team New Zealand won the America's Cup in San Diego in the United States of America, sailing NZL 32 (Black Magic). After only eight years of competing for the pinnacle of international yacht racing, the team's success was a combination of meticulous planning, integrated teamwork and design, and strong leadership from Sir Peter Blake. Skippered by Russell Coutts, Black Magic won every race against Dennis Connor's Young America.

Design
Two boats were designed for the campaign (NZL 38 and NZL 32) and both were known as Black Magic. Both were significantly faster than all other contenders.

Laurie Davidson and Doug Peterson led the design team with Tom Schnackenberg as design coordinator. For this challenge, instead of the designer giving the crew a boat, the design team worked closely with the crew to determine what would help them win. Every crew member had an input, for example, in the deck layout, the winch positions, and the cockpit shape.

The design of both boats was also based on the cumulative knowledge of the designers and crew - knowledge that had been gained over thousands of hours of testing, sailing, and racing in previous America's Cups, Whitbread Round the World Races, Olympic Games, match-racing events, and off-shore regattas. The end result, according to Doug Peterson, was 'an all around boat. No breakthrough. Just solid all around.'

Materials
NZL 32 is made from modern synthetic materials. The hull and deck are composite constructions with a honeycomb Kevlar core (called Nomex), which is sandwiched between skins of laminated carbon fibre sheets bonded with an epoxy resin mixture. The mast is made from carbon fibre. The upwind sails are manufactured by laminating carbon fibre and Kevlar between sheets of polyester film (Mylar), while the downwind sails are nylon. The keel fin is made from steel, and the keel bulb has been cast from lead alloy.