Oracle Team USA’s new Bermuda base at the Royal Naval Dockyard was intended to be the main focus at yesterday’s traditional roof wetting ceremony.

But most of the discussion and attention centred around the team’s impressive wing-sail foiling AC45 catamaran housed inside the boatshed, which stole the thunder.

Those in attendance at the ceremony had the privilege of being among the first on Island to get a glimpse of the multihull boat comprising of the latest technology.

“It’s amazing the extent at which engineering, hydraulics and aerodynamics are all sort of pulled together on these things,” Grant Gibbons, the Minister of Economic Development, told The Royal Gazette. “This is an aircraft.

“This sport has evolved so much and it’s so nice to have Bermuda at the cutting edge of how this is evolving.”

Alan Burland, who represented Bermuda at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles competing in the Tornado catamaran — a forerunner of the America’s Cup Class catamarans — said: “It’s right at the cutting edge of sailing and I wish I was 20 years of age right now. It’s the very best technology; the most advanced systems and technology is in these boats and what the America’s Cup now is a race of who can come up with the next best wing or foil.”

Mr Burland, president of BCM McAlpine, one of the companies involved in the construction of Oracle’s Bermuda headquarters, added: “It’s absolutely fantastic to see how far sailing has progressed in the last ten to 15 years and I think Oracle, in particular, have to be credited with focusing the world on the really fine-tuning of sailing with the foils, wing-sail and it’s showing how efficient sailing really is.”

Peter Durhager, the America’s Cup Bermuda (ACBDA) chairman, was also in awe of Oracle’s AC45.

“It’s cool in the shed but it’s going to be even cooler out on the water,” he said.

“When people begin to see these things foiling off the water doing 50 miles an hour it’s going to blow their mind.”

Before moving their operations from California to Bermuda, Oracle’s turbocharged AC45 underwent sea trials on San Francisco Bay.

“Each day of sailing in San Francisco we went faster and faster and almost hit 46 knots in under 18 knots of breeze — and we were supposed to be taking it easy,” Matt Cassidy, the Oracle captain, said.

“We weren’t supposed to be pushing the boat that hard and we got those speeds so with a little more time in the boat I think you are going to see some really amazing speeds in the Great Sound.”

The AC45 uses innovative wing sail designs and hydrofoils that enables it to reach high speeds.

Once the catamaran reaches speeds of around 20 knots it rises out of the water and the weight is transferred onto carbon fibre foils which reduce drag and allow the boat go between 10-15 per cent faster.

The wing-sail catches huge amounts of wind and are shaped just like an aircraft wings.

In the same way as an aircraft wing, the sails take advantage of the Bernoulli principle, in which a difference in pressure on either side of the sail will create lift, or in this case forward motion which push the AC45 through the water.

It is believed that the modified version of the AC45 has the potential to go three times faster than the actual wind speed.

“I’ve been sailing for a long time and this is by far the most complicated boat I’ve been on,” Mr Cassidy added. “It’s a giant computer and it’s amazing how complicated this thing is.”