Photos: Oracle gets ready to race

A view of San Francisco and the harbor from the Golden Gate Yacht Club, home to the BMW Oracle Racing Team entered in 2007's America's Cup. Oracle Chief Larry Ellison is part of the racing team and will likely skipper the boat for at least a portion of the race, according to club members. Ellison belongs to the GGYC, which costs $1,000 to join and $90 a month for dues.

A piece of the BMW Oracle Racing Team's boat, carved out from its last iteration, was shown off by its maker, BMW. The outer materials are tightly woven carbon fiber with aluminum honeycomb inside, forming a stiff, strong mat for the sail boat. Materials like this went into the 27-ton boat that the team will race this year and next.

A piece of material that makes up the sail of BMW Oracle's boat for the America's Cup. It's a combination of woven carbon fiber and Mylar for strength and flexibility.

Christoph Erbelding, senior structural design engineer for the BMW Oracle Racing Team, demonstrates the technology and materials that comprise the boat the team will race in next year's America's Cup. Erbelding works in the Seattle headquarters of the racing team, where the first boat was built and the second boat is now being built. He is one of several engineers who work on computer simulations for optimizing the boat's lightness and strength.