Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team’s second new boat for the 32nd America’s Cup, ITA 99 is currently en route to Valencia from Green Marine in Lymington (UK), where it has been undergoing the final fit out.

ITA 99 will travel by truck from Lymington to the UK shores where it will be ferried across to Spain and then continue on to Valencia. Once the yacht arrives at the base in Valencia, the keel and the mast will be mounted, and then she will be ready for her first sail.

Silvio Arrivabene, Team Manager explains: “During last summer when we were planning the construction of ITA 99, the biggest unknown variable was time. Now after five months of extremely hard work we are very happy to see ITA 99 in transport to our base in Valencia. All of the team has done an enormous – and fantastic – job to have the boat arriving in the same period as all of the other second boats of the bigger teams.”

In December, Mascalzone Latino-Captialia Team retired the ‘old’ ITA 77 and in January started sailing again with ITA 90, the first of the two new boats constructed for this campaign.

Skipper Vasco Vascotto is ready for the final push commenting: “The year 2006, both technically and sportingly, was an extremely positive year for Mascalzone Latino: for us it was a continuous progress. We reached and exceeded our objectives. Boats like the ones for the America´s Cup need a lot of time in the water to be brought to their maximum potential, and I think that we have really spent a lot of time on the water. ITA 99 is the result of two years of research and development work, and from how much we have learned from racing with ITA 77 and with ITA 90.”