Oceanic Consulting Corporation, a Newfoundland-based ocean engineering firm, has been awarded a contract to evaluate the design of the racing yacht for Switzerland's 2003 America's Cup Challenge. Oceanic's contract will be ongoing until late 2001, with model tests being conducted at the National Research Council of Canada's Institute for Marine Dynamics (NRC-IMD) in St. John's, and with technical services support from Memorial University of Newfoundland. The Swiss team chose Oceanic based on a proven track record in performance evaluation of racing yachts and state-of-the-art model testing capabilities. In the 1995 America's Cup, one of the fastest challenger boats was designed using model test results produced at NRC-IMD.