Ray Park has some first-hand knowledge of the America’s Cup and has been involved in building racing boats for decades.

Now working as a shipwright at Spar Yard Marine Solutions/West End Yachts, in Dockyard, Ray worked on Perpetual Loyal, which won the Sydney to Hobart race in 2016 and was skippered by Tom Slingsby, the Oracle Team USA helmsman and tactician.

But Park, an Australian was also involved when Australia II, owned by Alan Bond, won the America’s Cup in 1983, ending the United States’ 132-year hold over the Cup.

“I helped to make the pattern for the wing keel for Australia II,” Park said. “That was an incredible boat, but the boats now are awesome. It is like the Formula 1 of the boat racing.”

One of the reasons he applied for a job in Bermuda was because the America’s Cup is here and he has already done some work with Team Japan’s entry into the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, as well as Artemis Racing.

“The America’s Cup is a global spectacle that will bring Bermuda to the world’s attention,” Park said. “Fremantle, in Australia, hosted the America’s Cup in 1987 and it boosted the economy there and it will do the same in Bermuda.”