Larry Ellison Is Recycling His Old America's Cup Yacht For Science
Robert Johnson for Business Insider
Now that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has won yet another America's Cup yacht race, what's he going to do with the whole shipyard of boats he used to win?After all, the point of the America's Cup race is to discover the fastest sailboat on the planet. And that means that for every race series, teams use new designs (traditionally selected by the winner of the last Cup).
Well, some of them could wind up in the recycling pile one day. At least that's what's happening to the Oracle boat used in a previous, America's Cup race, way back in 2003.
Oracle and Boeing are collaborating to recycle 7,000 pounds of carbon fiber from Oracle's USA-71 boat. They say this is "a first-of-its-kind effort for what will likely be the largest carbon structure ever recycled," according to Boeing's press release.
While carbon fiber has become a popular material used for all kinds of things, bikes, cars, boats, it's not easy to recycle. Various researchers have been working on it. Now Ellison's boat will be part of Boeing's research.
Could the famous AC72 yacht that just won the 2013 race, and that Ellison himself helped design, wind up recycled? Maybe not.
Ellison might be extra motivated to recycle the old 2003 boat, instead keeping or selling it. He didn't win the race that year.