Toy boat is becoming real boat.

After 16 months of tinkering with computer simulations and watching scale models bob around in water tanks, construction has begun on the actual yacht the Bangor-based America’s Cup syndicate PACT 95 is hoping will carry it to victory next year in the world’s most famous sailing race.

Eric Goetz Custom Sailboats of Bristol, R.I. is scheduled to complete and deliver the 75-foot, 20-ton International America’s Cup Class racing vessel to the PACT 95 compound in San Diego by early December, according to syndicate general manager John Marshall. The $12 million vessel has already been named Young America.

“There isn’t much to see, they’re only about 10 days into construction, but it’s safe to say the design is substantially different from the boats that sailed in ’92,” Marshall said Monday from Newport, R.I.

PACT 95 is one of three defense syndicates approved by the San Diego Yacht Club to compete for the one U.S. spot as defender of the America’s Cup. The international competition will be held off San Diego in May 1995.

Kevin Mahaney of Bangor, who won a silver medal in the soling competition in the 1992 Olympic Games, will skipper Young America.

Bruce Nelson, head of the PACT 95 design team, is perhaps most famous for co-designing the infamous catamaran Stars & Stripes that defended the Cup in ’88. Current design rules are more restrictive in keeping with the 142-year tradition of the competition – single hulls only – which meant Nelson’s innovations for Young America had to be more subtle than in the past.

That doesn’t mean PACT 95 isn’t pushing the design envelope, according to Marshall.

“We’re dealing with space age materials in the hull, which means the advantage goes to the stronger and lighter design. The keel design is wide open. There’s a lot of freedom there,” said Marshall, noting Young America is being designed specifically for the tricky, prevailing conditions off San Diego – light winds and heavy seas.

While specific design details remain secret, construction of the vessel will include technical and material contributions like something for NASA. A partial list:

Science Applications International Corporation of La Jolla, Calif., is applying hydrodynamic analysis and experimental design to develop boat speed. Ford Motor Co. is providing support to the carbon fiber hull construction. Boeing Corp. is lending aerospace technology to aid keel design. And Cray Research is providing use of its super computers to simulate and analyze the complex flow around the appendages.

Under the rules, each America’s Cup syndicate is allowed to build or purchase a total of two boats. For its second craft, PACT 95 has purchased an Italian boat that won the foreign trials for the ’92 Cup race.

“We’ll sail that boat beginning in August, which will give us an excellent base of comparison for the boats that sailed in the last race,” said Marshall. “We’ll apply what we learn to Young America. We’re confident the new boat will be a notch faster.”

Once the new vessel is completed, well-known artist Roy Lichtenstein has been commissioned to paint the hull design. Lichtenstein has already selected a mermaid motif.