New York Yacht Club American Magic became the fifth America’s Cup team to reveal – or at least partially reveal – their AC75 when their new ‘B3’ briefly appeared out of the team shed in Barcelona today.

The team kept observers guessing, with no full boat images released in the press release, although the America’s Cup ‘recon’ programme – created to remove the ‘spying’ element which has traditionally been a big factor in Cup preparations – showed the boat more fully and there are whole boat images on the America’s Cup social pages.

First whole boat view of the new American Magic AC75. Photo: Job Vermeulen/ America’s Cup

I spoke to Paul Goodison, who’ll be co-helming the new American Magic AC75 with Tom Slingsby, earlier today, and he hinted that their team had taken a different design approach to the second iteration of the America’s Cup rule. 

“When you look at [the other teams’ boats] and it’s really interesting. The ones we’ve seen so far are very, very similar in concept. 

“I’m not sure how much I can say – but our boat is slightly different and I think it’s going to be really interesting when the world gets sight of it to see what they think. 

“I’m very excited about what the guys in the design office have come up with and what we’ve thought of, and it’s going to be really interesting when we first get to line up with the other guys.”

American Magic AC75

First impressions of the new American Magic AC75 are certainly that it is different to what we’ve seen from the previously launched designs (Alinghi Red Bull Racing, Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Britannia). The hull lines are notably smoother and more organic – some observers noted that it bears more than a passing resemblance to the shape of a whale.

Although it’s hard to judge without being able to view the deck, the freeboard appears lower – and it’s not immediately obvious where the cyclors’ pods are sited. Whereas some teams have shrouded their foils or launched their new AC75 with legacy foils, American Magic was first shown with truncated foil arms and no end sections fitted at all.

American Magic’s new AC75, with truncated foil arms. Photo: Job Vermeulen/ America’s Cup

The American Magic ‘B3’ had been built in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, before being flown to its current home in Barcelona on an Antonov AN124 giant cargo plane. The team report that the two-and-a-half-year development and build process totalled over 108,000 design hours and 65,000 construction hours.

A further phase of commissioning and testing will be completed before B3 has its official naming ceremony and inaugural sail.

The Anerican Magic team limited views of their new AC75 on its first day out of the shed. Photo: AmaliaInfante.com/American Magic

Second boat launch strategy

American boat is one of the later to be unveiled, and three teams – Emirates Team New Zealand, Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – are already sailing their second generation boats. However, Goodison said he was confident that the team’s earlier practice time in its previous iteration boat, Patriot, would give them an advantage when it comes to getting the complex AC75 up to speed.

“I guess the teams that launched the [first generation] 75s this campaign and have already done a lot of the big boat sailing should hopefully be at an advantage when it comes to sailing. 

The Anerican Magic team limited views of their new AC75 on its first day out of the shed. Photo: AmaliaInfante.com/American Magic

“On the [new] 75s, you see both Team New Zealand and Alinghi Red Bull that have launched so far, they’re only a couple of days in and they’re sailing their 75 pretty well. And obviously, I think that’s a testament to the work that they’ve done earlier in the year in their big boats. 

“We spent a fair bit of time at the beginning of this year in the 75. And I think that time, just ironing out a lot of the teething problems from the systems side – some of the new mainsheet systems, some of the new jib systems, some of the new hydraulic systems, the bikes on board – we hopefully have debugged a lot of teething problems. 

“So hopefully, the first couple of days, we’ll get commissioning out of the way and be putting our foot on the gas pretty early.”

Helmsman Paul Goodison. Photo: NYYC American Magic

We’ll have a closer look at American Magic’s AC75, and all the new America’s Cup boats, over the coming weeks.

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The British America’s Cup team has become the fourth challengers to unveil their new AC75. INEOS Britannia revealed their AC75 in the early hours of morning, as the foiling monohull – which is code-named RB3 – emerged from the INEOS Britannia base in Barcelona in preparation for having the rig stepped in readiness for its first ever sail. 

Team Principal and Skipper of the Challenger of Record,  Sir Ben Ainslie said RB3 would be “on the water very soon”.

COO David Endean confirmed the team will first perform some initial tow testing and systems checks before hoisting sails.

The British America’s Cup team’s AC75, code named RB3, came out of the shed for pre-sail preparation on Saturday 20 April.

The British America’s Cup boat was built by Carrington Boats in Hythe, on the south coast of England, before being transported to Brackley, in Northamptonshire, which is the centre for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, where the F1 Team’s Applied Science division partnered with INEOS Britannia for the design and build. On 2 April, RB3 left Turweston for its journey to Spain, arriving at the INEOS Britannia Barcelona base on 6 April, delivered by GAC Pindar.

The build has been a two-and-a-half year project, and the team now has less than four months in order to get to grips with the new sailing yacht ahead of the first Preliminary Regatta races for the AC75s on 22 August.

The INEOS Britannia shore team working on the AC75 race boat ahead of first test sails. Image: 37th America’s Cup recon

Ainslie said: “This is a big day for the team. We have been keeping RB3 under wraps for such a long time that it’s almost surreal to see her out of the shed and in public view here in Barcelona. 

“Thousands of hours of work have gone into this boat and so it’s great to finally reveal her to the world. Things are really stepping up in the campaign now, and we are looking forward to launching RB3 and getting out on the water very soon.”

British AC75 unveiled

Not all of RB3 has been unveiled – the foils appear to have ‘socks’ concealing the lower arms (teams are allowed to conceal their foils until the boats are first launched in water) – and there was no rudder in place. The eye-catching livery also has something of a ‘dazzle ship’ effect in the dark. However, the early shots suggest a flared bow, and a fairly bulbous ‘bustle’ under the hull, with a finer skeg running underneath it, which stops forward of the expected rudder position.

Bow on view of INEOS Britannia’s new AC75 showing the boat’s ‘bustle’

AC75 ‘bustles’ are designed to achieve an end plating effect between the boat and the sea, effectively sealing the boat to the water’s surface for aero and hydrodynamic efficiency – but balanced against additional drag during take-off and touch-downs. Of the four boats so far, RB3 initially looks to be among the most substantial, with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s appearing to be a finer, slimmed down design.

Each of the AC75s unveiled so far has also removed volume aft – in part a response to rule changes which mean that runners are no longer required – with RB3 showing radically sloping topsides from what we assume are the top of the cyclor pods down to the transom, meeting with a very flat under section.

The boat’s unveiling also showed the suspended aerial gantry which the team has built above the deck of RB3, a learning from its partnership with INEOS Mercedes to make key maintenance work more efficient in order to reduce time required in the shed.

INEOS Britannia has built an aerial gantry suspended above the race boat pit lane area, inspired by their partnership with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, to improve efficiency in repairs and maintenance

We’ll have a fuller analysis of the different AC75s’ hull shapes, and what the teams are aiming to achieve in the challenging waters off Barcelona, coming soon, plus more images of RB3 once the boat has been made public in daylight.

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America’s Cup boat launches are coming thick and fast, with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli becoming the third team to launch an America’s Cup AC75 boat in the last couple of weeks.

The Italian team launched their AC75 from their home base in Cagliari, Italy on Saturday 13th April. This follows Alinghi Red Bull Racing unveiling their boat on 5th April and Emirates Team New Zealand launching theirs on 11th April.

Teams are only allowed to build one America’s Cup boat this cycle, so this is the AC75 which Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli will race later this year when the event begins. As we have seen with the previous two launches most of what can be observed at this early stage can be attributed to the tweaks that have been made to the AC75 rule for the 37th America’s Cup, which has seen changes such as the reintroduction of cyclors and changes to the rig which has removed runners.

Photo: c/o Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

On the former point the Luna Rossa boat features deep pods in which the cyclors are able to tuck in, almost unseen, behind the helm and trim teams. This should help provide the ultimate aerodynamic efficiency that all teams are striving for on boats that easily generate 50 knot apparent wind speeds over deck. We have seen similar deep pods on both of the other AC75 launches to date and these are a development of what we saw last cycle – particularly on Emirates Team New Zealand‘s winning boat.

Article continues below…

First America’s Cup boat revealed ahead of 37th AC later this year

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America’s Cup Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand launch their AC75

Last weekend saw the unveiling of the first America’s Cup boat of this cycle as Alinghi Red Bull Racing revealed…

Also a feature on all boats so far is a slender ‘bustle’ or ‘skeg’ running the full length of the hull. These look to have become both deeper and more slender in the new generation AC75s with speculation that this development path is in no small part a response to the wavy conditions likely to be seen in the America’s Cup venue, Barcelona.

Compared to the previous two launches when looking at the imagery side-by-side, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli boat looks to sit between the other two boats. Where Alinghi Red Bull Racing features very angular slab sides and a sudden cut of of those sides a way forward of the stern, Emirates Team New Zealand’s boat features much more organic lines, with a smooth taper of its hull sides towards the stern.

Luna Rossa features more prominent slab sides than the New Zealand boat, but does not feature as many curves and lumps. However, it still follows a slightly more organic shape than Alinghi offering.

Initial observations are hard to make without seeing the boats in the flesh, but bow volume is likely to be a key area of difference between the boats and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli themselves say that their bow offers ‘perhaps slightly less volume than we’ve seen on Emirates Team New Zealand and certainly less [volume] than Alinghi Red Bull Racing.’

Photo: c/o Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

One area that will be of interest when we see this boat in flight will be the mainsail arrangement. In the 2021 America’s Cup Luna Rossa had a very sophisticated under deck boom, that was a very impressive asset and one the team spend many design hours refining.

As it was a hidden development, details are still scant, but given this was a strength of their America’s Cup finalist boat last time out we’d be surprised if there was not some development of this system hidden away under the deck.

When Alinghi unveiled their boat we were not able to see the team’s foils as they did not plan to launch the boat and step the mast – at which point it is against America’s Cup rules to use covers to hide parts of the boat. But as both Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli actually launched their boats we were able to see both sets of foils.

However, this is an area teams will be keen to keep as secret as possible as late as possible, so there are not many conclusions to be drawn about these foils yet, other than each team was sporting what might be termed an incremental development of the foils which they used in the last Cup cycle.

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Last weekend saw the unveiling of the first America’s Cup boat of this cycle as Alinghi Red Bull Racing revealed the boat they will sail in the 37th America’s Cup later this year. Now, just a few days later, America’s Cup Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, has also shown their AC75 launching it and stepping the mast ahead of their official launch and naming next week.

The Kiwis rolled their boat out of the shed on Thursday 11 April 2024 from their home base in Wynyard Point, Auckland. “It is always a pretty significant moment for any team. The first time their race boat emerges from the shed and sees the light of day.” said Emirates Team New Zealand COO Kevin Shoebridge.

“These moments are some of the most revealing of any campaign. So much of any America’s Cup campaign goes on behind closed doors and with the utmost secrecy protecting designs and plans, but there always comes a time when you need to show some of your cards. And although what we have revealed today is not all of our cards, it sure gives everyone an indication of our design path.”

Photo: Emirates Team New Zealand

It might seems surprising to some that this launch comes so quickly after last weekend’s unveiling by Alinghi Red Bull Racing, but as Shoebridge notes: “We have had today in the calendar for a long long time as the date that we would wheel the boat out to step the rig.”

Indeed, all teams have been looking to launch their boats around this time for many months, and the expectation is that we will see the America’s Cup challenger from 2021, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli launch their boat this coming weekend from their base in Italy.

Article continues below…

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Emirates Team New Zealand AC75

In the 2021 America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand clearly had the fastest AC75 and it was widely acknowledged that the simulator and computational design advantage that saw the Kiwis win the 2017 Cup had been carried over into that cycle.

As such it’s fair to assume that, though other teams may have closed the gap, this new boat from the Kiwis is going to be pretty quick out of the box.

At this early stage there are limited images of the boat and it’s hard to draw any truly technical conclusion – but watch this space for our full analysis.

What we can see is that a number of similarities with the Alinghi AC75 – and these are trends we expect to see from many boats going forward. The Emirates Team New Zealand America’s Cup boat features a similar bustle / skeg arrangement with a taper down to a very fine full length skeg.

Photo: Emirates Team New Zealand

At the aft end of the boat, the Kiwi option has been to dramatically taper down the hull sidewalls towards the transom. On one level this is different to the Alinghi option of an abrupt sidewall cutoff, but the outcome of reducing weight in the transom is essentially the same and these developments are borne of a rule change that removes runners from the AC75 class.

Elsewhere, there is a clear focus on both aerodynamic efficiency, and hull volume both to deal with splashdowns and to meet the hull volume requirements of the class rule. Both of these are the likely reason for a number of lumps and bumps throughout the hull.

Finally, as they wanted to step the mast we got a look at the Emirates Team New Zealand foils. Again, further analysis on this will come shortly but these look to be relatively simple elliptical foils with upturned wing tips. And currently looks like an iterative development of the foils that the Kiwis used to secure the Cup in 2021.

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Never underestimate the influence of sailing heroes. “When they saw Ben Ainslie walk into the room it was like they’d been electrocuted,” said Greig City Academy director of sixth form and sailing co-ordinator Jon Holt, speaking about some of his students. “Just seeing Ben in person was a huge buzz for them. And when he and Hannah Mills then came over and gave them tips on the sailing simulator it was clear just how much this meant to them.”

The Greig City Academy needs little introduction, thanks to the impressive and sustained amount of work to inspire youngsters from way outside sailing’s normal catchment to get involved in the sport. From taking part in the Rolex Fastnet Race aboard their 45-footer Scaramouche, to dinghy racing at a variety of levels and venues, the Academy’s sailing programme continues to introduce waves of youngsters into the sport.

Crewmembers from Greig City Academy’s Project Scaramouche celebrating round the Rock in the Fastnet Race

This time though, Holt and his students were in central London, attending the official announcement of the British America’s Cup team’s sailing squad and major new sponsorship deal for the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup events later this year. They were clearly impressed and keen to master the pair of sailing simulators that had been set up.

But sometimes the admiration flows the other way. Having prised Ben off the simulator I reminded him about a comment he’d made about the Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and one sailor in particular, 19-year-old Marco Gradoni some two months earlier, at the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Jeddah.

“I stand by what I said then, it was one of the most, if not the most impressive things that I’ve seen in the sport,” he said, referring to the dominant performance that Gradoni and the three other crew aboard their foiling AC40 had delivered.

Article continues below…

“To be able to develop the skills so quickly from simulation to reality is super impressive. When I think back to my Olympic career and coming into America’s Cup match racing, it was a much bigger transition because you went from sailing a Laser to a massive displacement monohull with 18 crew. It took a long time to understand the nuances of match racing too.

“Now, if you sail a foiling Moth or a 49er or any high-performance dinghy there’s not a huge difference between those and getting on an AC40 or an AC75. I think that’s largely why we’re seeing a much faster transition and that’s great for the sport.”

But while the racing in Jeddah was impressive, it also made me wonder what the Youth America’s Cup might look like come the event itself this September. When other young teams get hold of their foiling 40s and drive them like they’ve stolen them, we could be in for a real treat.

The AC40 will be used for both the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups. Photo: C. Gregory / INEOS Britannia

On top of this, given the standard of female sailors being announced by various teams for the Puig Women’s America’s Cup that takes place during the America’s Cup itself, the same could be said for this inaugural event too.

As Ainslie and Mills set out the new British sailing squad and the solid financial support it has received from Cobham-Ultra, I realised I was still behind the curve when it came to understanding just how influential and far reaching the new age of high-performance sailing currently is.

“When Ben and I founded the Athena Pathway Programme one of our big goals was to put together a competitive team to challenge and win the first ever Womens America’s Cup,” said Mills. “Equally important was getting the next generation of young people, and particularly females, into the sailing and marine industry.

“Engineering is an obvious example but there are so many roles within the sport that we wanted to showcase the talent that’s out there as well as providing a pathway for them.

“In addition to this, with the modern boats the physical demands are far less of a limitation. All of the roles on an AC40 and at least half of them on an AC75 do not rely on outright physical strength so there’s never been a better time for women aboard these high-performance boats.

“But it’s the experience that’s missing, so we’ll have at least one female in the four crew for the youth event and hopefully other teams will adopt a similar approach to help create a base of women and youth sailors ready and able to step up to the America’s Cup.”

As the Academy pupils’ reaction demonstrated, having role models is key to that process.

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Alinghi Red Bull Racing has rolled out the boat which the Swiss team is hoping will bring them more America’s Cup glory (Switzerland under Alinghi is a two-time winner of the event) at the 37th America’s Cup at the end of 2024.

The unveiling of the hull took place during a glitzy evening event out of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing Port Vell base in Barcelona on 5th April 2024, but there is much left to be seen, such as the all-important foils and rig arrangement, which will be seen when the boat is first properly launched.

The AC75 was introduced to the America’s Cup in 2021 for the 36th edition of the event, which took place in New Zealand and which saw a successful defence of the trophy by Emirates Team New Zealand. As a brand new class in that edition of the America’s Cup teams were allowed to build two America’s Cup boats, but for the 37th AC teams are only permitted to build one new boat.

Key features, such as the foils, remain hidden until launch day

As such, this is the boat which will see the Swiss fight for the right to compete in the America’s Cup itself later this year.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing did not take part in the last edition of the America’s Cup and, as such, were permitted to purchase an old AC75 from competitors in order to get up to speed with the class, so when they launch, this will not be the first time the team has taken to the water in the unique foiling monohull design, having sailed on a number of occasions onboard the AC75 that they purchased from Emirates Team New Zealand as a training platform.

First AC75 out of the shed

With only a single AC75 allowed to be designed, built, and launched by each team, timing is crucial on order to give development time to teams to optimise their boats but also not to launch too early and cut design time short. Most teams should be launching their boats in the coming weeks, and we expect most to be on the water by mid-May 2024.

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But the Alinghi Red Bull Racing AC75 – named BoatOne – is the first we have seen this cycle and thus the first AC75 to be launched under slightly modified class rules.

The changes to the AC75 class rule for the 37th America’s Cup include the reduction in crew from 11 to 8 sailors as well as some other subtle changes which mean weight saving of about a tonne, which coupled with the increase in foil wingspan, should improve light air performance of the class – an issue last Cup cycle.

Other than crew numbers, key developments for this Cup cycle are: the reintroduction of ‘Cyclors’, which were first developed by the Kiwis for their successful 2017 campaign, but were outlawed for the 2021 edition; the boats no longer feature back stays; and crews will not cross the boats during manoeuvres.

The nature of these rule tweaks means we were not necessarily expecting the new AC75s to look radically different from those in the last cycle and from what can be seen of BoatOne at her unveiling, she looks to be a development, albeit a significant development, of many of the ideas present on the all-conquering Te Rhutai AC75, upon which Emirates Team New Zealand won the 2021 America’s Cup.

The radical- looking stern is a development of several features we saw in the last America’s Cup

A prominent ‘skeg’ or ‘bustle’ is a clear similarity here as are the slab sides of the hull from which the crew – likely cyclors – will sail the boat in an aerodynamically efficient fashion. All in all, from what we can see, this first AC75 can be summed up as a development of Te Rhutai taking many of the features that made that boat so fast and taking them a step further.

Plus there are some developments that come directly from rule changes, with a very open stern area with a good 10ft of open area and just carbon sidewalls that abruptly end, which should reduce weight in the transom and is something we expect to see in many teams due to the lack of back stays and no need for a ‘safe’ zone in which crew can cross the boats.

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As the oldest international competition still operating in any sport, the America’s Cup is a bucket list event for any sporting enthusiast. Dating back to around 1851, the America’s Cup now is watched by millions of people across the globe. If you’re thinking about attending the event this year, we’ve pulled together all the best hotels for your trip.

When is the America’s Cup?

For 2024, the opening ceremony takes place on August 22. The main event kicks off on the 12th October and you’ll find some smaller events running in June.

The main race will be just metres off the Port Olímpic harbour entrance, mid-way along the Barcelona beachfront.

Barcelona is a stunning city to host the next America’s Cup. Here is our list of hotels to get you close to the action and to get the most out of your stay in the city.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

America’s Cup: Barcelona Hotels – Premium

Hotel El Palace Barcelona
Downton Abbey elegance in an enviable location close to main tourist attractions. With excellent rooftop dining and impeccable service, it’s a nice haven from the hustle and bustle of city life.
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W Hotel Barcelona
A masterclass in modern glam with spectacular views from the roof terrace and pool. The W Hotel Barcelona boasts an Ibiza-cool beach club vibe. The only downside we can find is that it’s a fair walk from the city centre.
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Serras Barcelona
Wow! This 5-star boutique hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant and a rooftop infinity pool with an ideal location next to the sea in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter does have it all. It’s also where Picasso started his career. We love that rooms have private balconies, but some are a little snug.
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America’s Cup: Barcelona Hotels – Mid Range

Majestic Hotel & Spa Barcelona
Revamped classical luxe hotel is a good way to describe the Majestic Hotel & Spa Barcelona. It’s based in a great city centre location and has a roof terrace with a pool and bar. The service here is pretty old-school, but it can be a little slow.
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Sofitel Barcelona Skipper
5-star modern luxury next to Barcelona’s Olympic Port and just 100 yards from the beach, with two outdoor pools. Impressive sea and city views. Possibly a bit corporate for some.
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H10 Port Vell
With chic contemporary interior design and a handy location close to the port, you’ll find the H10 Port Vell. This hotel has a stylish roof terrace with a pool and excellent views. Plus, it’s within easy reach of the train station but because of its location, it can be a little noisy.
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Hotel Brummell
This charming 20-room boutique hotel with an outdoor pool features a pretty garden and a sauna. It’s very close to the Miró Foundation and The Grec Theatre if you fancy some sightseeing before your trip to the America’s Cup. It is intimate and chic but some rooms are a little compact.
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America’s Cup: Barcelona Hotels – Budget range

Yeah Barcelona Hostel
Located in the heart of the city and just a 10-minute walk from both Gaudi’s masterpieces La Pedrera and La Sagrada Familia. The Yeah Barcelona Hostel offers chic rooms, a rooftop plunge pool and great value for money. The only thing we wished for was that the menu had more variety.
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Praktik Vinoteca
Rustic chic with contemporary touches. The Praktik Vinoteca is based in central Barcelona within easy reach of most tourist sites. It has clean comfortable rooms, a resident wine expert and a terrace.
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Hotel BESTPRICE Gracia
The Hotel BESTPRICE Gracia is a great value hotel with spacious stylish and comfortable rooms. The central location means it’s close to many great bars, restaurants and key tourist attractions. Although it’s good to note that it’s a bit further out from the sea and port areas.

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Another AC40 streaked past the sea wall at 40 knots and I felt rather foolish. I’ve been following the development of these one design flying machines and reporting on their progress step by step since the concept was first announced.

I’ve sat in the cockpit of the Kiwi boat and been talked through the controls and shown how to get airborne, tack and gybe. I’ve even had a go in a couple of very realistic simulators to put theory into practice. And I’ve spent hours looking at the boats on the dock and even longer looking at footage of them in great detail when they’ve been training and racing.

Yet it’s not until you see one fly past for real that the penny really drops. These are insanely fast boats that are redefining what high performance really means.

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at the second of the America’s Cup preliminary regattas, the bottom of the race course was very close to a shoreline that is several hundred metres deep. So the fly-by each team performed before the start was spectacular and provided an opportunity for those on shore to get close to these beasts at speed. You could almost feel the vacuum they left behind and you could certainly hear the distinctive, spine tingling whistle of the foils.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and French challenger Orient Express. Photo: Ian Roman/America’s Cup

But this event was about far more than showing off impressive top speeds. It was an event that I and many others believe will go down as a benchmark in the development of racing on foils. It also delivered a serious shock to some of the big teams.

The three-day America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta kicked off with a steady 6-7 knot breeze, just enough to see the AC40s up on their foils. The action was close right from the start making it clear that teams had upped their game since the first event in Vilanova.

But it was the three races on day two that really grabbed attention. With around 15-16 knots of breeze the fleet was flying upwind at 32 knots. There’s nothing new in this, we’ve seen it before with the AC75s last time around and the SailGP flying cats. But what made this different is that everyone seemed to have figured out how to tack efficiently.

Typically, high performance cats, skiffs and foiling designs risk losing loads of distance through a tack – which in turn means they tend to minimise them and head out to the boundaries. This makes for little boat-on-boat engagement as teams bang the corners time after time.

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Not in Jeddah. All the teams have learned how to minimise the losses in a tack to such a degree that they were tacking up the middle of the course, throwing lee bow tacks underneath their opponents, or slam-dunking them from to weather.

The result was close action such as we haven’t seen since the days of the IACC lead mine monohulls. The pace at which the teams were locking horns was unbelievable. From closing speeds of 60 knots, to leeward squeezes and mark roundings that looked like the first turn in an F1 grand prix, the speed of the racing was incredible.

For the second and third races of the day, with a sea state building all the time, things got even more compelling. In these conditions it was easy to see just how on the edge these boats are, hurtling downwind at 43 knots as crews struggle to keep the drag down by flying the boat high, while also keeping enough foil in the water to avoid tripping up. Not everyone succeeded.

Ruggero Tito and Marco Gradoni impressed for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Talking to the crews afterwards they were clear this was new territory for all.

“We do these kinds of speeds all the time in training and have been doing this for quite some time,” Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Nathan Outteridge told me. “But doing it in a closely packed fleet of six boats that are all travelling at the same pace is a big step up. It’s taking us onto another level. The decision making has to be quick and precise.”

It’s easy to think the AC40 racing in Jeddah demonstrates how far this kind of sailing has strayed from the ‘real world’ for younger up-and-coming sailors. But the Italian performance countered this argument with 19-year-old Marco Gradoni one of two young helms who delivered a giant slaying performance to put Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli second overall.

High speed, close tactical racing and a new generation of impressive talent: if this is where the bar is now set, the Youth America’s Cup could be quite some event.

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The British team is seeking to win the first ever Women’s America’s Cup. It will also be aiming to defend its title as Youth America’s Cup winners, having won with the Land Rover BAR Academy at the previous Youth event in Bermuda in 2017 (no Youth America’s Cup event was held in New Zealand in 2020).

The Athena Pathway is headed up by Hannah Mills, the most successful female Olympic sailing medallist in sailing history. Mills has been an active part of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team in the strategist role on the F50 whilst also leading the British Youth and America’s Cup campaign.

Photo: C. Gregory / INEOS Britannia

Olympic talent for British Women’s America’s Cup team

While Mills will take one wheel of the AC40, the other named female helms are Freya Black, aged just 22, who’ll be representing GBR at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the 49er FX class in the months before the Cup, and Ellie Aldridge, who’s also competing in the Olympics in the Women’s Formula Kite class, having previously competed at a high level in the 49er FX.

For the Women’s America’s Cup Mills will be reunited with Saskia Clark, with whom she won Olympic Gold in Rio 2016 in the 470. Clark will be on the AC40 as a trimmer.

Clark commented: “Very excited is an understatement. Hannah and I had a great Olympic career together and I’m looking forward to reuniting, taking all the learnings from our Olympic experiences and applying them into a broader team environment in a new class of boat”.

Hannah Mills will head u the British Women’s America’s Cup challenge. Photo: C. Gregory / INEOS Britannia

They are joined by Saskia Tidey, who’ll be competing at Paris in the 49er FX with Black, and Tokyo Olympic Silver medallist Anna Burnet, who is also set to represent Britain at Paris 2024 in the Nacra 17 mixed multihull class.

Hannah Diamond, who races with Mills on the Emirates GBR SailGP F50 and is also an experienced offshore sailor, also joins the Women’s America’s Cup Squad.

British Youth America’s Cup sailors

The Youth America’s Squad must be between 18 and 25 years of age. Nick Robins is an under-25 helm for the Youth team, having campaigned a 49er and also worked with INEOS Britannia as a data analyst, along with James Grummett, who’s also been campaigning for Olympic selection in the 49er.

Hattie Rogers, the current Waszp National, European female World Champion and International Moth female World Champion, joins the squad as a trimmer. Fellow Waszp sailor and former European champion Mat Beck and former 470/49er sailor Alex Hughes are also named as trimmers for the Youth AC40.

Nick Robins. Photo: C. Gregory / INEOS Britania

INEOS Britannia Skipper and CEO Ben Ainslie commented: “We couldn’t be prouder of what Athena Pathway stands for – giving youth and female sailors more opportunity in our sport. We have selected a high calibre squad and to have someone like Hannah leading them on and off the water is incredibly inspiring. We will certainly be setting our expectation high as we look ahead to the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup.”

The British squad a deep pool of talent to draw on – between the 12-strong squad they have won 6 Olympic medals and 22 World Championship medals. The Athena Pathway received over 300 applications for the squad, with selections held over an intensive 18-month trials period, including both on-water and simulator-based analysis.

The selection process was led by Olympian Penny Clark, who has worked extensively with the British Sailing Team as a coach from youth to international level, and Olympic 49er bronze medallist Chris Draper, an America’s Cup veteran who’s worked with many new teams in both the America’s Cup and SailGP arenas to accelerate foiling skills. The Athena Pathway trialled crew in a 26-foot ‘Easy to Fly’ foiling catamaran and the programme also has a fleet of Waszp dinghies.

Along with today’s team announcement, the Athena Pathway also announced a sponsorship partnership with UK/US engineering firm Cobham-Ultra, which operates in defence, aerospace and electronics sectors.

The AC40 will be used for both the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups. Photo: C. Gregory / INEOS Britannia

Women’s and Youth America’s Cup racing in 2024

The Women’s and Youth America’s Cup events will both be held in one-design AC40s, with the teams competing in Barcelona concurrently with the main Cup racing.

The British America’s Cup team took delivery of its second AC40 at the end of 2023, with the boats sharing duties as a test-platform for the AC75 as well as being the one-design class for the Youth and America’s Cup racing.

The Youth America’s Cup begins with practice racing from 19 September and official racing from 26 September until the final on 2 October. The AC40s then get immediately handed over to the women’s squads, with the Puig Women’s America’s Cup practice racing beginning on October 4 28, and racing running from 10 October until the grand final on 16 October (also the third day of the Louis Vuitton Match Race Final).

There are 12 teams entered in the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups. Besides the America’s Cup entrants – Emirates Team New Zealand, Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI), Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA), American Magic (USA), the French Orient Express Racing and British Athena Pathway – six further teams have entered from Spain, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia.

For both events the fleet will be split into two groups of six boats for an eight race opening series. The top six teams will then advance to a four-race series of fleet races to decide the top two boats, with the winner decided by a single winner-takes-all match race.

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The next America’s Cup will take place in Barcelona with six teams set to compete for sailing’s ultimate price from late August 2024.

Dates for the Preliminary Regatta, Louis Vuitton Cup and the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match have now been released with racing getting underway for the four-day Preliminary Regatta starting on the 22nd of August 2024.

The key dates for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup 2024 are:

• Preliminary Regatta: 22nd – 25th August 2024
• Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robins: 29th August 2024 – 8th September 2024
• Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals: 14th – 19th September 2024
• Louis Vuitton Cup Finals: 26th September – 5th October 2024
• Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match: 12th – 21st October 2024

It will be an intense 3-month racing period for the America’s Cup teams whilst for the Youth & Women’s America’s Cup teams, their separate events will be preceded by long days of official training before their racing begins in earnest.

All six America’s Cup teams will contest the Preliminary Regatta 22nd – 25th August and this will be the first time the new AC75’s will line up to provide some vital performance insight between the teams.

Just four days later, as written in the Protocol governing the 37th America’s Cup, the Louis Vuitton Cup will begin with two Round Robins which begin on the 29th of August 2024, with all six competing teams racing, including the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand.

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The double Round Robin racing is scheduled to finish on the 8th of September and will be the last time Emirates Team New Zealand, will race the against the Challengers before the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match, with their status as cup defender allowing them one of the two spots to compete for the Cup proper.

However, importantly, according to the Protocol the results from all races during the Round Robin stage between a Challenger and the Defender will not count towards the semi-final rankings. Which means, the top four Challengers will advance through to the Louis Vuitton Semi Finals stage, while the first challenging team is eliminated.

Photo: Alex Carabi / America’s Cup

The top qualifier will select their semi-final opponent and in each half of the semi-final draw it’s a first-to-five, best of nine race format.

The Louis Vuitton Cup Final will see the winning semi-finalists battle it out for the right to face Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match after a best-of-thirteen (first to seven) series.

The format for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match itself is also a best-of-thirteen races (first to seven) with an expected conclusion by the 21st October 2024. (Reserve days are scheduled for the 22nd October through to 27th October if required.)

If you want to see Cup racing in person this year, then be sure to check out our guide to the best America’s Cup hotels in Barcelona…

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Sir Ben Ainslie has announced he is stepping down as Driver of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team. Ainslie will continue his role as CEO of Emirates GBR but will hand over the wheel to double Olympic Gold medallist and America’s Cup teammate Giles Scott MBE.

Speaking after his final SailGP Event as Driver in Dubai, Ben Ainslie said it was “time for the next generation to come through”.

Ainslie said of the decision to step away from the role: “Like any big decision, there’s plenty that goes into it and a lot of factors at play. As the CEO of both Emirates GBR and the INEOS Britannia America’s Cup Team, and most importantly a husband and father, at some point you’ve got to realise that you can’t do everything.

The America’s Cup, which takes place later this year, looms large for many and Ainslie is the second SailGP driver also involved with the Cup to step down in recent months, with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Cup helmsman, Jimmy Spithill, also recently stepping away from the racing circuit to focus on Cup duties.

Ainslie and Scott have a long history, initially competing against each other to represent Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Scott pushed hard and it was an extremely close competition, but Ainslie was successful in selection and went on to secure his fourth Gold medal before retiring from Olympic sailing. The torch was then passed to Scott, who competed at the Rio 2016 games, winning Gold in the Finn class, before achieving the double at Tokyo 2020.

Scott said taking on the role of Driver for Emirates GBR from Ben Ainslie was “a big moment”.

“I’ve got some catching up to do, but the Emirates GBR Team is a great squad, everybody involved is hugely experienced and top quality sailors. I’ve got to step up to the mark and do the best job I can to fill those big old boots that Ben’s left behind.”

Scott has been behind the wheel for many of the SailGP practise sessions throughout 2023, so he should have a decent grasp of what it takes to get the foiling catamaran around the race course.  He joins the Emirates GBR SailGP Team as Driver, alongside Hannah Mills OBE as Strategist, Iain Jensen as Wing Trimmer, Luke Parkinson as Flight Controller, Matt Gotrel MBE, Neil Hunter and Nick Hutton as Grinders and Hannah Diamond as Reserve Sailor.

In his role as Emirates GBR CEO, Ainslie will manage the overall performance of the Team both on and off the water. Strategist Hannah Mills OBE will continue her development behind the wheel of the F50, helping towards her goal of becoming the first female Driver of a SailGP Team. This development continues next week in Abu Dhabi, where Emirates GBR has organised a Women’s Pathway Programme training day on its F50.

Mills will helm the session which will be attended by female athletes from other SailGP Teams to enable them to gain experience and develop in different crew roles.

On his time in SailGP, Ainslie said: “I’ve loved every minute of sailing in the League. We’ve had some great moments and some challenging moments, but I’ve just loved it. It’s the best sailing I’ve ever done in my career, it’s so much fun. We’ve got a great team at Emirates GBR that has a really exciting future and I’m still going to be part of it for many years to come.”

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The 2023 Rolex World Sailor of the Year awards were presented to Tom Slingsby and Kirsten Neuschäfer last night at a ceremony by World Sailing in Málaga, Spain.

The popular choices were decided by both an expert panel and a public vote, with Australian America’s Cup and SailGP skipper Slingsby separated from his nearest fellow nominee by a winning margin of fewer than 20 votes.

This is the third time Tom Slingsby has been named male Rolex World Sailor of the Year. After steering his Australian SailGP Team to a third consecutive title in the foiling racing series, he remains the only skipper to have won the SailGP trophy. A multiple world champion in dinghy classes, he is also skipper of American Magic, who won the first Preliminary event in the 37th America’s Cup cycle earlier this year, and will be challenging for the Cup next year in Barcelona.

Tom Slingsby at the World Sailing Awards 2023, Malaga, Spain on 14th November 2023. Photo: Mark Lloyd/World Sailing

Slingsby said: “I’m super humbled to be in this position. Previously when I’ve won this award, it’s been after a Laser world title or a Moth world title but this time it was purely sailing with teams.

“American Magic have had a rough journey so far in their America’s Cup campaign but it feels like we’re really turning a chapter and there are really exciting things to come.

“And then with the Australian SailGP team, these are some of my oldest and best friends in the world and I’m so fortunate to go sailing with them and I’d be nothing without those guys behind me.”

South African Kirsten Neuschäfer is the female 2023 Rolex World Sailor of the Year, after becoming the first woman to win a solo or non-stop around the world race when she finished first in the ‘retro’ solo Golden Globe Race earlier this year. Neuschäfer is famously diverted course to pluck fellow Golden Globe Race competitor Tapio Lehtinen after Lehtinen’s boat sank and he spent 24 hours adrift in the southern Indian Ocean.

Via video message, Neuschäfer said: “It’s such an incredible honour to be a nominee among such amazing, acclaimed and iconic sailors, but to win this award, to be given this recognition by such an esteemed panel of judges and by the public means so, so much to me. Thank-you to everyone who has believed in me and cheered me on.”

11th Hour Racing Team won the team of the year. Photo: Amory Ross/11th Hour Racing

Sailing team of the year, sustainability, and Beppe Croce Trophy

Other award winners include 11th Hour Racing, which was named Team of the Year after winning The Ocean Race.

The 11th Hour Racing Team, skippered by Rolex World Sailor of the Year nominee Charlie Enright, won the 2022-23 Ocean Race, becoming the first American team to win the crewed round the world race (formerly the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race) and also the first non-French team to win an IMOCA round the world race. The had very mixed fortunes in the race – struggling with damage early on before finding consistent form.

The American team also shared their spare rig with Guyot environment, which enabled the French team to stay in the competition, before – in a dramatic twist of fate – Guyot environment crashed into 11th Hour Racing at the start of the final stage. 11th Hour Racing were awarded redress which sealed the overall race win.

The team also had a strong sustainability agenda, with a number of initiatives to improve ocean health and carbon tracking during their race yacht build.

The Magenta Project won the 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award.

Dick Rose received the Beppe Croce Trophy for his dedication to the Racing Rules of Sailing which has spanned over thirty years, and the President’s Development Award went to the Andrew Simpson Foundation. The foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, having been started in memory of Olympic gold medal winner and America’s Cup winner Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson MBE who tragically passed away during a training accident in 2013 aged just 26.

AC40s sailing ahead of the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta 2023 Photo: Ugo Fonollá/America’s Cup

AC40 named boat of the year

The AC40 was named Boat of the Year, the foiling one-design, created by Emirates Team New Zealand, will be used for two Preliminary events in the America’s Cup cycle before being the race boat for the Youth America’s Cup and first ever Women’s America’s Cup next year. The innovative and technologically advanced yacht features self-tacking headsails and an autopilot control system that maintains stable flight.

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There is now just 1 year to go until the America’s Cup proper kicks off in Barcelona, where Emirates Team New Zealand will take on the winner of the challengers selection series to fight for the ultimate prize in sailing, the America’s Cup. It has been a long time since we last saw cup teams racing, but the Preliminary Regatta last month has served as something of a line in the sand for fans, who can now start to get excited about the build up to the competition.

With this in mind, the sight of America’s Cup sailors out of their aerodynamically sleek cockpits hanging off shrouds and standing on the bow of their AC40s trying to get boats moving in displacement mode was probably not the image that the organisers had hoped for after racing in the first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta came to a close over the weekend of 14-16th September. But it is the image many viewers will remember as the racing was marred by poor conditions.

Although racing was cancelled on day one due to no wind, was adversely affected on day two for the same reason and was forced to finish early on day three, there was still some thrilling action on the race course for those patient enough to keep watching through the lulls (both figuratively and literally).

What did we learn from the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta?

The simplest answer to this question is ‘not very much at all’. How teams perform in their one-design AC40 foilers bears very little resemblance to how they might perform at the America’s Cup proper in late 2024, when they will be racing their AC75 America’s Cup yachts which have a much more open class rule and which teams are developing behind the scenes right now.

But there is a little more nuance than that. American Magic, with two of the best foiling sailors in Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison won the event.

They have spent plenty of time sailing their AC40 – of which they now have two. Even if the team felt they came into the race a bit “underprepared” as Goodison put it as the sailors had been focussed on sailing against, not with, each other.

It may be a small surprise that Emirates Team New Zealand with the three generational talents of Peter Burling, Nathan Outteridge and Blair Tuke onboard did not win the regatta. They have also been sailing plenty in their two AC40s, but at least the Preliminary Regatta showed the all-powerful Kiwi team can be beaten.

A much bigger surprise, however, was the performance of the French Orient Express Racing Team who picked up third place having only launched their single AC40 in August this year, weeks before the event began.

However, it is interesting to note that with no other test platform on the water and no AC75 either, this team spent a significant amount of time working on an AC40 simulator, so they are not quite as unfamiliar with the platform as their launch date might suggest.

This move to simulator time is a theme we have seen in recent America’s Cup as teams develop computer platforms to help with the design process, but we’ve not often seen them used for upskilling in pure sailing skills terms.

Elsewhere, the two teams that have focussed on technical development of their own test platforms (called LEQ12s) in Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Britannia were fourth and sixth respectively.

For their part INEOS stated their disappointment with the team’s Giles Scott admitting they should have done better despite their limited time sailing an AC40.

Sandwiched between these two were Alinghi Red Bull Racing, who have put a great deal of time and effort into updating and sailing the AC75 they purchased from Emirates Team New Zealand to better understand the platform while they design another boat for the 2024 America’s Cup.

America’s Cup weather worries?

One thing that can be learned from the first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta are the conditions likely to be experienced at the start of the next America’s Cup – or at least the challenger series, which will take place at a similar time 50 miles up the coast in Barcelona.

The timing of this event firmly puts it just ahead of the windiest winter season, with the lightest wind month being August and the windiest month typically around January. As such the spectacle of foiling boats struggling to make it round a race course might well be something we see some of in the early parts of the challenger series – and the Youth and Women’s AC both set to use AC40s and both scheduled ahead of the AC itself.

With the America’s Cup itself taking place in October, winds should in theory be a little stronger. It is worth noting that as Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand will not need to compete in any of the racing ahead of the Cup itself, and so could well see a significant advantage from not needing to focus so hard on very-light wind performance.

Of course, this is sailing and everyone is at the mercy of the elements to some extent.

American Magic out two-boat testing. Photo: Paul Todd/America’s Cup

Test platforms and training

Every team entered into the 2024 America’s Cup needs to purchase a one-design foiling AC40 for racing in the Preliminary Regattas and to ensure they can enter teams into both the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups (both of which will use AC40s).

All teams set to take part in the 37th America’s Cup now have AC40s on the water, however, some have had them on the water longer than others, and some have two out on the water sailing.

Although the AC40 is a one-design class and must adhere to strict rules for the Preliminary Regattas and the Youth and Women’s AC, outside of these events they are allowed to be modified in order to conduct testing ahead of the launch of team’s single allowed AC75 America’s Cup boat – though they must be able to be returned to their one-design configuration for racing.

Photo: Martin Keruzore/OERT

The French Orient Express Racing Team were the last team to enter this America’s Cup and were also the last to get an AC40 – only launching it in mid-August. And as such hold the difficult duel position as both last team to enter the Cup and the team with the least time on the water. But an impressive showing in the America’s Cup Preliminary regatta at least shows they have the sailing chops to mix it with the rest of the field.

By contrast, Defenders of the America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand were the first to launch an AC40 back in 2022 and were the first to conduct two-boat testing once their second AC40 was launched. Neither of these outcomes are a surprise, with a single builder of AC40s, teams were allocated a build slot based on their order of entry to the 37th America’s Cup.

In terms of boat launches, teams have taken a number of different approaches. With a wait for AC40 delivery and time of the essence (as ever in the AC), some teams chose to build their own training boats.

Boat terminology has become a little confusing, but test platforms are generally referred to as LEQ12s (short for ‘Less or Equal to 12m’ the parameters for a test platform as defined by the America’s Cup rules, to limit teams building platforms too similar in size to an AC75).

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli training in their LEQ12.

The two teams which have chosen this route are Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. To add a little more confusion to the nomenclature, Luna Rossa refer to their boat as simply LEQ12 while the Brits have named their ‘LEQ12’ T6. Both of these were launched in late 2022.

For both of these teams, their LEQ12 has been the primary test platform, with both also adding AC40s to their roster of boats following the launch of their LEQ12 test platforms.

To further confuse the issue, if teams take an AC40 out of one-design configuration that too becomes (officially) an LEQ12. This is because there are limits on the number of parts any team can design and own. So an LEQ12 can have a certain number of test foil shapes (for example) and this same rule applies to foils on a non-one-design AC40.

INOES Britannia launched their LEQ12 bristling with sensors. You can make out one camera here, above and aft of the foil arm buried in the hull, surrounded by carbon there are hundreds more load, speed etc. sensors. Photo: C.GREGORY / INEOS BRITANNIA

In addition to AC40s and LEQ12 test boats, teams are also able to sail their AC75s from the 36th America’s Cup, though with limitations on when they can be sailed. These limitations vary somewhat with teams that took part in the last America’s Cup, who already have AC75s, more restricted than new entries, who were able to purchase an AC75 and sail it earlier in the cycle.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing are a new entrant in this Cup cycle and they purchased Emirates Team New Zealand’s first AC75 from the 2021 Cup cycle and relaunched it in August 2022 immediately getting some time on the foiling monohull under their belts. They have since relaunched once again after adding some further developments.

They have split their time between AC75 sailing and AC40 sailing, once their own one-design was delivered, and have recently been two-boat tuning with the delivery of their second AC40.

Sailing ‘legacy’ AC75s will be a key part of the build up to the next America’s Cup, with teams only allowed to build one new AC75 this time around (two were permitted for the 2021 Cup).

Emirates Team New Zealand training on an AC75 with cyclors now returned to Cup sailing . Photo: Job Vermeulen / America’s Cup

“The rule that you can only build one AC75 this campaign is to save cost, but it’s a big change from the America’s Cup that I grew up with, in the old IACC class monohulls,” explained Jeff Causey, INEOS Britannia’s boat operations manager. “Back then, it was all about two-boat testing. Every team that could afford to designed and built two boats, and then lined them up against each other for countless hours of side-by-side tuning out on the water. We don’t have that available to us this time.”

The USA flagged team, American Magic has taken a similar approach to Alinghi Red Bull Racing, getting plenty of time out on the water onboard their AC75 from their base in Pensacola and sailing their first AC40 there too, before moving out to Barcelona earlier this year where they got their hands on their second AC40 allowing them to get some two boat testing and training under their belts.

It should be noted that the AC75 rules have been slightly tweaked for this edition with ‘cyclors‘ once again allowed and some changes to the foil arms and sail control systems – among other tweaks, such as reduced crew numbers. And we have seen teams making changes to their legacy AC75s to reflect this, with many teams opting for cyclors at this early stage.

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The second day of racing for the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta was something of a mixed bag. Three solid fleet races in full foiling conditions were followed by an attempted two-boat match race, which started as the wind died.

With a 10-minute time limit for the two competing boats, American Magic and Emirates Team New Zealand, to reach the top mark the final match race was looking unlikely from the start. After a painful exhibition of the two teams nursing their AC40s upwind – crew on the bow, hanging from the shrouds, doing everything they could to dampen the pitch and roll of the AC40s hulls as they wallowed in the water – the race was abandoned. Swiftly afterwards race organisers confirmed that all racing had been abandoned for the day.

Teams tried everything to get the most from their boats in the extremely light winds

This awarded American Magic the Preliminary Regatta win by just one point.

But the day had started very differently. With around 10-12 knots of south-easterly breeze and a rolling swell at 1500hrs, the AC40s were fully powered up and flying under their J2s (headsail choice is mandated by race committee). The first race start was a stormer – the fleet all hitting the line at speed, French Orient Express Racing Team looking to repeat yesterday’s success with another port start.

Emirates Team New Zealand and American Magic took up the early battle for the front, each slam-dunking tacks on their opponents, until New Zealand team’s height and speed took gave them a direct line to the port top mark, building a lead that was never under threat. American Magic took second, with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli taking third from the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing.

The second race was another showcase start, the French team again showing their willingness to get their AC40 fully in the mix despite their limited time in the boat with a heart-stopping approach at full speed at the committee boat end.

The American team dominated the race, coming off the line at pace to pull away. Behind them were place changes and tacking battles – Luna Rossa and Alinghi evenly matched, while the French made it hard work for Emirates Team New Zealand to get past them. With Emirates Team New Zealand finishing 4th, the third fleet race of the day would determine who would go through to the final match race of the Preliminary Regatta.

The points calculations were further complicated when it became apparent that Alinghi Red Bull Racing wouldn’t be racing, as they parked up with hydraulic issues while the other five boats lined up to start.

Yet again American Magic delivered another super-smooth performance. Meanwhile, though Emirates Team New Zealand had evident pace, they also showed a few chinks in their boat handling with a major splashdown that let several boats past. The Kiwis had to hunt hard to overhaul Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Orient Express Racing Team, who were duking it out for second. At the finish it was American Magic 1st, from Emirates Team New Zealand, with Orient Express Racing Team rounding off a superb first event with a 3rd.

The deciding race may have been abandoned, but there was plenty to glean from the day’s fleet races about the team’s relative performances.

A day of learning for the America’s Cup teams

American Magic and Emirates Team New Zealand were, without question, a notch above – unsurprisingly given both teams have been training using two-boat AC40 programmes.

Paul Goodison, American Magic helm, told Yachting World after racing: “We’re over the moon, obviously. We weren’t shy about saying this was a performance regatta and we needed to put our best foot forward to get the team on a roll, and to deliver it is a really good feeling.

“It’s interesting but we missed some of the fleet practice races that all the other teams did a few weeks ago, to focus on our development side because we had a couple of key milestones to make. So we were actually a little bit worried that we hadn’t done the time [in the AC40s] coming into this event – mainly because the four of us onboard usually sail on two different boats so we’re going against each other more than sailing with each other.

“So one of the biggest things we’ve had to work on the last week is basically the communications, because when you can’t see half the race track you need to communicate what you want to do with the other guy and be sure you’re on the same page. And I felt like we did a pretty good job of getting further down the path with that, and today I feel like we gelled really well as a four.

“I think the biggest thing for us winning here is that’s it a whole team thing, it just lifts the spirits. Some people in the shed have been working very very long hours to get us out on the water in the smaller boats, but also at the same time getting the AC75 ready to sail at the end of this month. So they were all working their balls off to give us the opportunity to go sailing every day! And being able to pay them back by showing them were good enough to take it the best guys was important.”

Another team that was delighted with their performance – and who will no doubt have ruffled a few feathers among the longer standing teams, were the newest entry. The French Orient Express Racing Team finished 3rd overall and were in the mix from the very start despite only taking delivery of their AC40 in mid-August. Helm Kevin Pepponet told Yachting World afterwards:

“There were some close calls today – we got a penalty with Luna Rossa, the second start was pretty intense for us, but we are handling the boat better day after day, and we are getting much more confident on the boat and in the team. Of course we have a lot of work to do to catch the top two. American Magic and Emirates Team New Zealand were a way ahead and today there were pretty impressive, but we have another event in just one month – and the Cup itself will be totally different. It gave us a lot of confidence launching this America’s Cup campaign and there is a really good dynamic in the team.”

Others will have been disappointed. INEOS Britannia made little secret of the fact they were under prepared in the AC40s, having instead been focusing on their LEQ12 development boat, but they were consistently off the pace, scoring three 6th places and two 4ths over the weekend.

Helmsman Giles Scott admitted: “We’re licking wounds, as expected after the day we had. We know we were a little bit unprepared but let’s be honest, we should have done better that we did this weekend, we can’t shy away from that.

“So yeah, we’ve got to have a good look at ourselves and, with regards to the AC40, use Jeddah as a bit of a milestone. And also just go back and review where we’re at in terms of the bigger picture, and looking forward to racing in the big boat. Because there’s been good lessons here – really, really good lessons. We’ve come away bitterly disappointed and with our tails between our legs for sure, but we’ve been in some pretty dark places before and the key is how you rebound from it.”

The second America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 29th November to 2nd December 2023, again in the AC40s.

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It was a day of firsts in Villanova, some 30 miles along the coast from Barcelona today: the first races in the 37th America’s Cup cycle, the first ‘proper’ races in the new AC40 one-design class, and the first chance to see how the new teams – and new crew combinations – compare with one year to go until the Cup proper.

This first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta event has a slightly different feel to the usual Cup events – something of a matinee performance. The practice races earlier this week were a chance for teams and organisers to iron out a few teething problems, while the event also had a pleasing air of informality – there are no paid for spectator stands, instead racing is free to view from the beach, and the team bases are equally matched marquees without any glossy hospitality quarters.

Although today began hot and still, by lunchtime the flags were fluttering well and the 200-plus Pati Catala dinghies (a classic local design that has no tiller or rudder, but is instead steered by trimming the mainsail and shifting bodyweight) were racing off the beach for a special celebration regatta in moderate breezes.

Coming off the foils can see an AC40’s boat speed halved compared to a boat in flight mode.

At the pre-start for Race 1, all teams were burning around on their AC40s with ease. The on the water view from a team chase RIB was a frankly eye-opening indication of the closing speeds that can occur with six foiling AC40s in confined water. They may be just 40ft, but with some teams reporting hitting over 50 knots in practice sails (see Matt Sheahan’s column in the current issue of Yachting World for more), these are not toothless mini-models, but a genuinely impressive class in their own right.

When there’s breeze, that is…

America’s Cup AC40s first race

Sadly by the start of Race 1 the wind had dropped, and with around 7-8 knots at the gun few teams were positioned for a clean foiling start. With just 1 minute 40 seconds to go the French Orient Express Racing Team had dropped off their foils and were sluggish in the water, but recovered impressively to cross the line at speed on port, and keep going, maintaining flight and pace to round the top mark in first.

Close behind them was Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, who traded places for 1st place as the breeze began to fade and the AC40s came off their foils onto a low-riding displacement mode. The remainder of the race was characterised by the curious sight of crews climbing out of their stream-lined, aero-efficient cockpits to stand on the bow to lift the AC40 transoms out of the water.

With a shortened course the leading French and Italian pair crawled down to the finish line, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli with right of way on starboard. But as the boats made their final gybes the Italians picked up a penalty for their foil coming too close to the French. This gave the French Orient Express Racing Team the first ever event win in the AC40s. In a final twist, it turned out that Luna Rossa had started incorrectly and were DNS. [In a final, final twist, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was then reinstated 2nd place later that evening]

The French team went into this race as the outsiders, having only taken delivery of their AC40 in mid-August. They were, unsurprisingly, delighted with taking the first win.

Orient Express Racing Team trimmer Jason Saunders commented after racing: “Yeah, we’re surprised. The training hadn’t been going as well as that.

“We’d actually been struggling a lot in those [light] conditions and we’ve spent a lot of time analysing the data, analysing the footage that we’ve got, and we’re just super happy for the whole team, because it’s a massive team effort to be able to help us to progress. And today we were able to put that into place and we showed that we certainly improved. Once we’re up and foiling, we’re able to match with the best. That’s pretty positive for day one.”

Low riding mode

With a fading breeze racing the start of Race 2 was delayed, and it looked very likely that racing would be abandoned for the day. However, by 5pm some boats had headed to the top of the course and were foiling unassisted, with other teams using their chase RIBs to tow their AC40s to get them up to speed before casting off in flight mode, and the race committee quickly followed suit by setting off Race 2.

The start area, however, was still in a patch of much lighter wind, and one by one the AC40s fell off the foils in the pre-start. All but one, in fact, with Alinghi holding flight mode to cross the line on foils and pull away in a completely different race. Behind them the French made another good start with INEOS Britannia behind, both firmly stuck in low-rider mode.

Halfway up the first beat, however, Emirates Team New Zealand got back up on foils and, racing at twice the boat speed of all the other teams (Alinghi also having dropped back down), essentially sailed rings around them, approaching the top mark for the final time while other had barely rounded it for the first.

Emirates Team New Zealand was noticeably able to get their AC40 foiling earlier when other teams were in low-rider displacement mode at the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Villanova.

Getting back on the foils

One observation I heard in Villanova, which seemed confirmed by today’s races, is that Emirates Team New Zealand are often seen to foil first, in 5-6 knots of breeze, with other teams needing 1, 2 or more knots extra to get back up onto the foils mid-race.

For teams struggling to foil, the alternative is to sail in VMG displacement mode, sailing the most direct route to the mark. With shortened races, such as today, this also gives the advantage of protecting their position on the course as teams are scored according to their placing on the water if they do not finish the race.

There seemed to have been some confusion over how these points were awarded for those watching the TV commentary, but there was no doubt the teams were racing for rankings on the water no matter how they would be finished (a bit like a Whiskey flag to award tail enders in a dinghy fleet with a result).

The AC40 crews using body weight to get their boats moving when not in foiling mode. Photo: ACEM

Ben Ainslie, skipper and Principal of INEOS Britannia, explained that it’s a balancing act between knowing when to best sail as fast as you can in displacement mode, and when to try and get back onto foils:

“We were actually not in that bad shape sailing around in displacement mode [in the second race]. We were in second place, saw New Zealand had go back on foils, decided to try and pop up, but we didn’t make it and got overtaken.”

“You got to make sure you’ve got some runway, you’re not too close to the boundary going into it. Then you’re trying to figure out is there enough wind, you’re looking at the wind speed on the boat, also looking at the wind on the water and what the other boats are doing, have they got up or not?

“And of course, there’s a lot of technique in it. The Kiwis are very good at it – kind of not surprisingly, they got great sailors and they spend a lot of time in the boat. So, yeah, we’re certainly in catch up mode on that.

“It’s a lot of things. It’s to do with the setup of the boat, of course, the aero side of things, but also the foils. And then, like any other boat, really, it’s just very subtle. We all know how difficult sailing any boat in light airs is. It’s a very subtle technique: when to trim on the sails, when to try and accelerate and when to try and lift the boat out of the water, drive, the pitch of the boat. It’s really dynamic and takes a lot of choreography.”

Does that stance look similar to the one above? The local Pati Catala vintage catamaran dinghies are sailed with body weight rather than a rudder. Photos: ACEM

Today might not have showcased the AC40s’ real potential on their debut, but it did prove that the Kiwis are not actually invincible, and that no team – even the least experienced – can be discounted.

Tomorrow there’s a more solid breeze forecast, and bigger sea state forecast, which is likely to deliver the teams a whole new set of boat handling challenges.

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The six competing teams in the 37th America’s Cup are set to get their first chance to line up competitively against one another at the first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta, from 14-17 September 2023.

The event, which sees the America’s Cup teams move 50km up the coast to Vilanova i La Geltrú from the main event base in Barcelona, includes four days of racing in the AC40 one-design foiling monohull.

Racing begins with official practise on Thursday 14 September, followed by three fleet races on 15 and 16 September, and then two further fleet races on the Sunday before a single match race final. Coverage will be live-streamed via americascup.com as well on The America’s Cup YouTube channel.

The AC40s lined up to test the tech ahead of the Preliminary Regatta, but are yet to officially race. Photo: Ugo Fonollá/America’s Cup

As it is held in the supplied AC40s, rather than the America’s Cup final designs of the AC75, the Preliminary Regatta will have little direct bearing on the Cup match proper, which takes place 11 months later. However, it is a good opportunity for the teams to bank some foiling race practice, and perhaps glean some indications of whose preparation schedules have been the most fruitful so far.

As with any one-design fleet, the AC40s will put a premium on boat handling, so the one thing the Preliminary Regatta will give some indication of is clues to the sailing teams’ preparation level.

“All the teams are looking forward to lining up in the AC40 against other teams because it’ll give us a good read and a good yardstick on just how our sailors are doing in terms of their technique and the sharpness of their racing skills. It’ll also give us some good feedback on some of the things that we think are fast about the way you sail an AC40; everything from bustle clearance to sail trim. We’ll get a chance to measure those things when AC40s line up against other AC40s,” explains Jeff Causey, INEOS Britannia’s boat operations manager.

Jimmy Spithill explained that even within the one-design there will be variations in set up: “The hardware is exactly the same as the others, and it really comes down to the teams using the controls: cant, ride height, the trim of the boat. Obviously sails and technique, there’s a lot of little things there.”

However, INEOS Britannia’s Leigh McMillan cautioned: “We’re certainly going to put some more time in the AC40s. But the Cup itself, and designing and having a fast boat for the America’s Cup, has got to be our absolute goal. It’s not all about the AC40 for now!”

How do the America’s Cup teams stack up?

Photo: Job Vermeulen/America’s Cup

Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)

The Defenders moved their team from New Zealand to Barcelona this July. Nathan Outteridge and Pete Burling have been taking the dual helms of their AC75 and two AC40s. The Kiwis have performed consistently in the Practice Racing in Barcelona with a tight-knit team that trust in their process.

Photo: Ugo Fonollá/America’s Cup

INEOS Britannia (GBR)

The British squad moved from their winter training base in Palma, and have been trialing a T6 test boat and AC40. Giles Scott is sailing team manager for skipper Ben Ainslie. But it has not been the strongest display from the team in practise racing so far, with execution of manouvers in the AC40 looking less than polished.

Photo: Alex Carabi/America’s Cup

Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI)

Vilanova Preliminary Regatta will be the first time Ernesto Bertarelli’s famous Swiss team takes part in an America’s Cup race since 2010, now skippered by Hans- Peter Steinacher. Combined helms, Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin have formed a dynamic partnership, rooted in steady progression, and Alinghi Red Bull Racing have surprised to the upside in the practice regattas.

Photo: Paul Todd/America’s Cup

American Magic (USA)

Australian Tom Slingsby and Brit Paul Goodison are among the sailing squad headliners. The US team has secured some of the highest number of hours in the AC40s thanks to a two-boat programme. They chose to sit out the first few days of the recent practice regatta, preferring to complete their aero and foil testing schedule, but when they came to the racecourse, they were sensational and already look ones to beat in the one-design class.

Photo: Ivo Rovira/America’s Cup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA)

Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni return on the twin wheels of the Italian AC40, though Spithill cautioned they have had less time racing against other boats than some other teams. However, Luna Rossa have been unafraid to ride very different modes to the others and at times have shown unbelievable boatspeed.

Photo: Martin Keruzore/OERT

Orient Express Team (FRA)

The newest team on the block, the French squad were flying on their first AC40 test sail after launching mid-August, skipper Quentin Delapierre crediting the time they put in on the simulator. Whether they can challenge for the title in Vilanova is a tall ask with so little time in the AC40 compared to the more established teams but they should put up a good fight.

America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta schedule

The format of the Regatta will consist of up to 8 fleet races followed by a single Match Race Final between the two highest scoring Competitors in the fleet racing.

Racing will take place on:

• Thursday 14 September Official Practice
• Friday 15 September Race Day 1 – 3 Fleet Races
• Saturday 16 September Race Day 2 – 3 Fleet Races
• Sunday 17 September Race Day 3 – 2 Fleet Races, Match Race Final (1 race).

Racing is scheduled to be between 1530 and 1730 hours each day, though this can be changed if conditions so require.

In preparation for the first preliminary regatta Vilanova i la Geltrú in just 1 month’s time, four teams lined up for the first AC40 races to help test the new RMS and broadcast systems. Photo: Ugo Fonollá / America’s Cup

How to watch the America’s Cup preliminary regatta

The America’s Cup races will be live-streamed across the official America’s Cup website: www.americascup.com as well as available to watch on YouTube in most territories.

This may not be available in territories where broadcast rights have been sold, but as yet there is no information available about broadcast deals, so it is safe to assume most territories will have Youtube access to racing.

The America’s Cup Social Media channels on Instagram, Facebook, and X (Twitter) will also be fully activated and updated throughout the racing with a mix of multi-media. Daily race reports will be available on the America’s Cup website after racing.

You can also follow all of our coverage on Yachting World’s America’s Cup mini site.

For those wishing to watch in Barcelona, the America’s Cup Race Village will offer spectators the chance to experience the unique buzz and atmosphere of the regattas off the water.

The Race Villages free throughout all America’s Cup events, with large maxi screens to view the racing action live with commentary plus event and team activations alongside an array of food and beverage stations.

The Race Village in Vilanova i La Geltrú, will open at 11:00 daily and run through to 20:00 with live racing between 15:00 to 17:30 and sailor presentations and interviews after the racing each day.

When is the next America’s Cup preliminary regatta?

After this first America’s Cup Preliminary regatta, teams head to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a second regatta between 29th November to 2nd December 2023. The third and last preliminary regatta will be held in August 2024 in Barcelona.

As with the first event, the regatta in Saudi Arabia will have racing in AC40s, but the final preliminary event in 2024 will see all the America’s Cup teams race in their new AC75s for the very first time.

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Several years after Emirates Team New Zealand successfully defended the America’s Cup back in 2021, we are about to see racing in this cycle for the first time. But what have teams been up in the last couple of years as they look ahead to the 2024 America’s Cup?

The first official event of the 37th America’s Cup will take place from 15th September 2023 as the five America’s Cup teams gather in the Catalonian port of Vilanova i la Geltrú for the first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta.  The racing itself will take place in the One-Design AC40 class, which might make for entertaining racing, but will show us very little about where each team is in their technical development path towards the ultimate goal of winning the 2024 America’s Cup.

So what have the teams been up to since the last America’s Cup in 2021?

INEOS Britannia and Orient Express Racing Team training in their AC40s

America’s Cup test boats and AC40s

Every team entered into the 2024 America’s Cup needs to purchase a one-design foiling AC40 for racing in the Preliminary Regattas and to ensure they can enter teams into both the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups (both of which will use AC40s).

All teams set to take part in the 37th America’s Cup now have AC40s on the water in preparation for the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta. However, some have had them on the water longer than others, and some have two out on the water sailing.

Although the AC40 is a one-design class and must adhere to strict rules for the Preliminary Regattas and the Youth and Women’s AC, outside of these events they are allowed to be modified in order to conduct testing ahead of the launch of team’s AC75 America’s Cup boats – though they must be able to be returned to their one-design configuration for racing.

Oreient Express Racing Team were the last to launch an AC40

The French Orient Express Racing Team were the last team to enter this America’s Cup and were also the last to get an AC40 – only launching it in mid-August. And as such hold the difficult duel position as both last team to enter the Cup and the team with the least time on the water.

By contrast, Defenders of the America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand were the first to launch an AC40 back in 2022 and were the first to conduct two-boat testing once their second AC40 was launched.

Neither of these outcomes are a surprise, with a single builder of AC40s, teams were allocated a build slot based on their order of entry to the 37th America’s Cup.

In terms of boat launches, teams have taken a number of different approaches. With a wait for AC40 delivery and time of the essence (as ever in the AC), some teams chose to build their own training boats.

Boat terminology has become a little confusing, but test platforms are generally referred to as LEQ12s (short for ‘Less or Equal to 12m’ the parameters for a test platform as defined by the America’s Cup rules, to limit teams building platforms too similar in size to an AC75).

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli training in their LEQ12 in Cagliari

The two teams which have chosen this route are Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. To add a little more confusion to the nomenclature, Luna Rossa refer to their boat as simply LEQ12 while the Brits have named their ‘LEQ12’ T6. Both of these were launched in late 2022.

For both of these teams, their LEQ12 has been the primary test platform, with both also adding AC40s to their roster of boats following the launch of their LEQ12 test platforms.

To further confuse the issue, if teams take an AC40 out of one-design configuration that too becomes (officially) an LEQ12. This is because there are limits on the number of parts any team can design and own. So an LEQ12 can have a certain number of test foil shapes (for example) and this same rule applies to foils on a non-one-design AC40.

Emirates Team New Zealand training on one AC40 and one modified AC40 (officially a LEQ12). Photo: Ugo Fonollá / America’s Cup

In addition to AC40s and LEQ12 test boats, teams are also able to sail their AC75s from the 36th America’s Cup, though with limitations on when they can be sailed. These limitations vary somewhat with teams that took part in the last America’s Cup, who already have AC75s, more restricted than new entries, who were able to purchase an AC75 and sail it earlier in the cycle.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing are a new entrant in this Cup cycle and they purchased Emirates Team New Zealand’s first AC75 from the 2021 Cup cycle and relaunched it in August 2022 immediately getting some time on the foiling monohull under their belts. They have since relaunched once again after adding some further developments.

They have split their time between AC75 sailing and AC40 sailing, once their own one-design was delivered, and have recently been two-boat tuning with the delivery of their second AC40.

Sailing ‘legacy’ AC75s will be a key part of the build up to the next America’s Cup, with teams only allowed to build one new AC75 this time around (two were permitted for the 2021 Cup).

“The rule that you can only build one AC75 this campaign is to save cost, but it’s a big change from the America’s Cup that I grew up with, in the old IACC class monohulls,” explained Jeff Causey, INEOS Britannia’s boat operations manager. “Back then, it was all about two-boat testing. Every team that could afford to designed and built two boats, and then lined them up against each other for countless hours of side-by-side tuning out on the water. We don’t have that available to us this time.” 

American Magic out two-boat testing. Photo: Paul Todd/America’s Cup

The USA flagged team, American Magic has taken a similar approach to Alinghi Red Bull Racing, getting plenty of time out on the water onboard their AC75 from their base in Pensacola and sailing their first AC40 there too, before moving out to Barcelona earlier this year where they got their hands on their second AC40 allowing them to get some two boat testing and training under their belts.

It should be noted that the AC75 rules have been slightly tweaked for this edition with ‘cyclors‘ once again allowed and some changes to the foil arms and sail control systems – among other tweaks. And we have seen teams making changes to their legacy AC75s to reflect this, with many teams opting for cyclors at this early stage.

Emirates Team New Zealand training on an AC75 with cyclors now returned to Cup sailing . Photo: Job Vermeulen / America’s Cup

Testing, data collection and simulators

Two boat testing provides a clearly defined development path for those who choose to do it and can be used to either validate technical data (e.g. how well different foils perform) or team performance using identical kit to race each other.

This type of A/B testing has been key to producing a fast boat and a well oiled sailing team since time immemorial. However, the America’s Cup is at the very forefront of technology and gone are the days of relying purely on such simple tools.

It’s widely accepted that one of Emirates Team New Zealand’s key advantages back in 2017 when they wrested the America’s Cup from the hands of then Defender, Oracle Team USA was the Kiwis’ reliance on simulation tools. And an accurate simulator has remained the holy grail of the AC world ever since.

INOES Britannia’s LEQ12 is bristling with sensors. You can make out one camera here, above and aft of the foil arm buried in the hull, surrounded by carbon there are hundreds more load, speed etc. sensors. Note also the two differing foil shapes. Photo: C.GREGORY / INEOS BRITANNIA

It is here where we are likely to see the key benefits for those teams who have got together with F1 teams – Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Red Bull) and INEOS Britannia (Mercedes).

The key thing here is that teams will want to capture as much data as possible from their test platforms in order to validate their simulator findings. Put simply the closer to real-world sailing you can make your simulations the better and this relies on adjusting the simulation output based on how well it corresponds to real world scenarios.

As such we have seen boats bristling with sensors and cameras all sending high quality data back to huge data banks largely in order to calibrate simulators.

Foil mounted aft with a bulb protruding forward as we saw in the last Cup.

Foils and sail controls

The upshot of a good simulator is that it significantly reduces the need for real world testing of ideas. In short, why design and build a foil to put through two-boat testing when you can build thousands of simulated permutations of different foil types?

But we have seen teams testing different foil shapes in the real world too, with some teams electing to A/B test foils on a single boat by running different foil configurations on port and starboard – something we saw a lot of in the last Cup cycle.

From what can be observed from the testing to date, there seems to be a consensus around the foil wings themselves sitting as far aft as possible on the foil arms, usually with some kind of bulb projecting forward. This is the style of foil Emirates Team New Zealand used in their successful defence of the AC last time out.

Sail controls will once again be a significant development area.

Once again, though foil shapes are a key area of development with flat elliptical foils a popular option, Y foils on display as well as curved foils (somewhere between a flat and Y-shaped foil) and the recent return of a W foil by the Brits (trialled and eventually dropped by them before the last Cup).

While foils were a key visual difference between the boats last time around, sail control setups were also a marked area of differentiation. Some teams had boomless setups, some had a boom, Luna Rossa had a sort-of-boom hidden underneath the deck and INEOS used (and then abandoned) an articulating boom.

There was a lot more experimentation beyond the booms and a significant amount of development was hidden within the boat and between the sails.

All of these differences were in order to get the twin-skin mainsail to be as powerful as possible to provide drive for the AC75 to get up on it’s foils and then allow rapid depowering and aero efficiency once foiling and contenting with apparent wind speeds of around 50 knots.

It looks as though sail controls are once again going to be a significant area of development. More so than the foils, sail controls and systems are very well hidden but we have already seen a mixture of boom and boomless setups on test boats and there are rumours that this is a rich seam of development once again this time around.

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American professional sailor Terry Hutchinson has been called many things in his 40-year career racing sailboats. Brash. Outspoken. A horse’s you-know-what. And they’re among the less incendiary labels – comments typically lodged from competitors who are turned off by Hutchinson’s histrionics on the racecourse or envious of his success as a tactician.

Those who know him best, the owners and sailors he races with, the beneficiaries of his talents, use more complimentary words. Intense. Driven. A softie. Emotional. An amazing talent. A close friend.

Words don’t phase Terry Hutchinson. Say something negative to his face, he’ll likely shrug his shoulders and reply with a more biting comment back about your own character. He’s developed thick skin over the years. If it’s on the more complimentary side, he may return the favour, but still with a dash of bite. He falls on the brutally honest side of commentary, a trait developed through years of working at the back of the boat where a single word can determine a whole campaign’s fate.

“I’ve known Terry a long time, since he was a young guy in Annapolis, maybe around 12 years old,” says Gary Jobson, America’s Cup-winning tactician and mentor to Hutchinson. “Every time you hear about Terry, he’s at or near the front of the fleet. He’s very intense on a sailboat. He focuses hard, winning is really important to him. He doesn’t take any prisoners.”

“Terry is very good at what he does. He’s one of the best tacticians around,” says New Zealander Warwick Fleury, mainsail trimmer on Quantum Racing. “No matter what the programme is, America’s Cup or TP52s or whatever, he absolutely gives 100%. I don’t think he differentiates between classes. When the race is on, it’s 100% effort. I really enjoy sailing with him.”

Terry Hutchinson has built a résumé that places him in the top echelon of sailing professionals. He has an ability to attract the best sailors to the programmes he runs by offering them a chance to win and earn good money, while giving them control of their area. It’s incumbent on each sailor to pull their weight and push the team forward. “Win as a team, lose as a team” is his mantra.

With Hutchinson as tactician Quantum Racing won the 2022 Rolex TP52 World Championship off Cascais, Portugal. Photo: Nico Martinez

Terry Hutchinson – Target driven

Terry Hutchinson started sailing at the community-minded West River Sailing Club on the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, and later moved into double-handed 420 dinghies. His first major title came at age 16, when he won the US 420 Nationals, and he graduated as a back-to-back (1989/90) College Sailor of the Year at Old Dominion University, no easy feat in a field of big egos.

Hutchinson has since won in the Farr 40s and TP52s, Melges 24s, Maxi 72s and IMS Worlds, J/24s and J/70s (his own current boat). He is currently skipper and president of sailing operations of the American Magic America’s Cup team, the New York Yacht Club team challenging for the America’s Cup. His career appears to be following the plan he laid out aged 22, shortly after graduating.

“I set three goals for myself,” says the 55-year-old Hutchinson. “I wanted to win the J/24 Worlds. I wanted to win the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. And I wanted to win the America’s Cup.”

He ticked off his first goal, winning the desired J/24 Worlds in 1998. It was also his first world championship; he’s since won 16 world titles in a variety of classes.

‘He’s very intense. He focuses hard, winning is really important to him. He doesn’t take any prisoners’. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Ten years after that win, he won his first Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award for his role as tactician guiding Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the 32nd America’s Cup off Valencia, Spain in 2007.

The team dominated the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series, beating Italy’s Luna Rossa, with James Spithill on the helm, 5-0 in the final. It was the only shutout victory in the history of the Louis Vuitton Cup, but was followed by a narrow loss to Ernesto Bertarelli’s Swiss defender Alinghi. The third goal on his career trifecta list – an America’s Cup win – would have to wait.

Terry Hutchinson went on to earn a second Rolex Yachtsman of the Year award in 2014 for winning the Farr 40 and TP52 Worlds in the same year. Neither class lacks talent.

“I think very highly of him,” says Hap Fauth, a team principal of American Magic and owner of the Maxi 72 Bella Mente, which Hutchinson has helped to two Maxi World Championship wins (2015 and 2016). “The crew responds well to him; they either love him or hate him. If they hate him, they’re probably not around long. But he works hard at getting the best out of the team. He’s less individually focused and more team oriented.”

Article continues below…

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“Terry’s an amazing person and unbelievably talented,” says Doug DeVos, also a team principal of American Magic and owner of the TP52 Quantum Racing (six-times world champions).

“How he approaches sailing and executes it is amazing. He’s a great team leader. He brings people together and gets the best out of them. He’s also relentless. He never throws in the towel.
“His intensity is fun,” adds DeVos. “In one race we had the boat in the wrong position, and I was complaining about it. He looked at me and said, ‘You’re the one with the tiller in your hand. If we’re in a bad spot, maybe you need to do something and move it to a better spot.’

“He wasn’t throwing me under the bus but challenging me to be better.”

Patriot crashing out of the 2021 Prada Cup. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Bouncing back

His record in big boat racing speaks for itself. But all great athletes have their setbacks on their way to the apex, and for a sailor who can spend more than 300 days on the water every year bouncing from regatta to regatta, Hutchinson has had his share.

In 2004 Terry Hutchinson lost the Congressional Cup, a high profile US match racing event in California, to Ed Baird. His team led Baird by more than one minute at the final windward mark, but on the run to the finish Hutchinson got stuck between the offshore Santa Ana wind and the new onshore breeze and sat, furiously becalmed, while Baird sailed around them to win.

At the awards ceremony on the ritzy Long Beach Yacht Club veranda, Hutchinson dropped a curious off-the-cuff remark, of the type he’s known to have a penchant for. “Well, what can I say,” he said to the audience, smartly bedecked in blue blazers, “cover me in sh*t and put me in a room full of flies.” Eyebrows were raised.

“I think the comment was borne of exasperation that we’d sailed a great regatta and then barely finished within the time limit,” he recalls with hindsight.

Hutchinson’s first role as skipper of an America’s Cup team came with Artemis Racing for the 34th Cup in San Francisco in 2013, but he never made it to the starting line. He was fired eight months before the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series even began. Problems with the Artemis first boat led to finger pointing between the sailing and design teams. It ultimately fell on Paul Cayard, the team leader, to let Hutchinson go.

Skipper of Artemis Racing for America’s Cup World Series. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget/Getty

“The Artemis thing was tough,” says Cayard, who had also given Hutchinson his first Cup role as mainsail trimmer with America One in 2000. “There were serious problems with the design team and the product they gave us, and he was a bit of collateral damage.

“It worked out for him because we went nowhere after he left. Now, he’s one of the top guys in the world in the sport. We all create our own paths. He found his path.”

Time of crisis

Terry Hutchinson’s most dramatic fall occurred in Auckland at the 36th America’s Cup. After four years of training, testing and waiting out Covid, American Magic (with Hutchinson as skipper and Dean Barker helmsman) arrived in New Zealand brimming with confidence. Their navy-hulled Patriot showed hints of world beating form, the fastest of the challengers in the early World Series and the only team to overhaul the Defenders, Emirates Team New Zealand. The team’s opening run, however, was undone by one of the most spectacular crashes in America’s Cup history.

On 17 January, 2021, American Magic led Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in a round robin match of the Prada Cup. Hutchinson described the wind conditions as a “fairly benign 12-13 knots” approaching the last windward gate. But as the crew tacked to round the left-hand mark, the wind shifted left and a 23-knot puff hit.

Coming out of the manoeuvre the new leeward side running backstay was not eased quickly enough, pinning the mainsail. Supercharged, the AC75 literally took off. The boatspeed on the live video feed showed Patriot topping 45 knots as it went airborne. The boat flew so high that the leeward foil came clean out of the water, the bow over 30ft in the air.

American Magic leaps out of the water seconds before a capsize which effectively ended their hopes in the 36th America’s Cup. Photo: COR 36 | Studio Borlenghi

But once the leeward foil cleared the water, Patriot stopped accelerating and crashed down hard on its side, punching a gaping hole in the hull which rapidly flooded the boat. Hutchinson, in the port hull cockpit, was trapped underwater, pinned by the mainsail. His safety harness wouldn’t release. He might not be here today if not for quick work by his grinding mate Cooper Dressler, who cut Hutchinson’s tether, allowing him to surface.

“At the time you’re thinking, ‘This is not good’. I was swallowing water,” recalls Hutchinson. “That was a tough one. I owe Cooper and Sea Tow forever, they got me out of the boat. We practised and trained for capsizes, but what got us was the fact the boat had a hole in it. Our side of the boat sank, and we weren’t prepared for that. Cooper and I were in the narrowest part of the cockpit, pinned by the mainsail. It’s a moment I prefer to forget.”

Once all crew were accounted for, the realisation set in that Patriot was sinking. The team only grasped there was a huge hole in the hull when one of the tenders picked up a floating piece of carbon. The hole was caused by a section of transverse structure slicing through the boat like a guillotine. “The boat’s designed for a certain amount of impact, but I can tell you we were well beyond the threshold,” Hutchinson said after the incident.

Patriot only remained afloat thanks to the frantic work of American Magic’s support RIBs, joined by other teams. It took hours to stabilise the situation, but the 75ft foiler – that took 80,000-man hours to build – was saved.

New York Yacht Club’s American Magic racing against Ineos Team UK

Devastated by the incident, Terry Hutchinson galvanised the American Magic team. Patriot’s hull had to be rebuilt and the entire electronics package replaced. With a lot of help from the Cup community, the American Magic team was back on the water just 10 days later for the semi-finals of the Prada Cup. Though they were quickly eliminated, Hutchinson received high praise for his leadership that saw the team bounce back from a near-sinking.

“I think Terry did a spectacular job not only responding to the terrible situation but holding the team together throughout the repair process,” says Fauth. “We knew that when we got back on the water, we wouldn’t be very competitive, but we did it, and I give Terry lots of credit for that.”

Full oversight

Terry Hutchinson’s ability to bounce back is something that his TP52 team mate Warwick Fleury also lauds him for. Check Quantum Racing’s scorelines: they’ll have bad races, bad days here and there, but rarely two in a row. “That happens so often that you can’t discount it; you almost come to rely on it,” says Fleury. “After a bad performance, it’s just about inevitable that the next day will be better. He probably doesn’t sleep at night worrying and thinking about it. But that sets him apart. What sets great sportsmen apart from very good ones is the ability to perform under pressure.”

Hutchinson will head up American Magic in thr 37th America’s Cup, though in an off-boat role. Photo: American Magic

Soon, Hutchinson and American Magic will have a chance to demonstrate how they can come back once again. The 37th America’s Cup will take place in September 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, with the first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta this September.

New York Yacht Club American Magic is a rebuilt team, with new sailors and new designers and a new CEO (Mike Cazer, former COO at Amway Corporation, while DeVos is co-chair of Amway). Hutchinson’s role has also been redefined. He still carries the skipper’s title but will not be part of the sailing crew, while his role as president of sailing operations sees him facilitating communication between the sailing team and design team. He’s the big overseer, leaning on his experiences to support the sailing team and interject where appropriate, striving to keep the whole effort moving forward.

“We have to do whatever it takes to win, full stop!” says Hutchinson. “If I can serve the team better in the chase boat, then so be it. I am a competitive person and the opportunity to win is what we all seek. I am certain achieving the goal will be a culmination of 25 years of work and the champagne will taste the same!”

Thick skin and all, Hutchinson’s ability to keep looking forward is his greatest strength. Life, after all, is a collection of experiences from which you grow. Winning the 37th America’s Cup would be his greatest bounce back ever.

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Recent years have seen a proliferation of sailing films arriving on streaming platforms, with Netflix taking the lead on producing original content but there are many other sailing films on offer on the streaming services that can fulfil your sailing addiction from the couch.

So if you are looking for a documentary about the America’s Cup, thrilling dramas based on true life events then look no further (And just because I was banned from mentioning it in full, here by my fellow staff, you can find Waterworld for rent on Amazon, or on Netflix in some territories… just sayin’)

Best sailing films on Netflix

Untold: The Race of the Century

Another big Netflix production to be released last year, this documentary on the 1983 America’s Cup is bursting with iconic footage and up-close interviews with major players. The story of the 1983 America’s Cup is legendary to those with even a passing interest in sailing, seeing John Bertrand’s Australia II crew beating Dennis Connor’s American Liberty crew to wrest the America’s Cup from the New York Yacht Clubs grasp for the first time in 132 years – the longest winning streak in sporting history. 

Even though we all know what happens, it’s still edge of the seat stuff and you can’t help but be reminded (or introduced to) the dizzying drama, which so captured the world and the Australian nation that it led the then Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke to claim: “Any boss who sacks someone for not turning up to work today is a bum,” following the famous victory.  

Maiden

This unflinching documentary film tells the story of Tracy Edwards’ all-female Whitbread Round the World Race campaign, through raw interviews telling of the personality clashes and huge pressures the team were placed under.

It’s an emotional watch, with fantastic footage from the maxi fleets racing mid-ocean: highly recommended.

True Spirit

The latest sailing film from the streaming giant, True Spirit, takes a look at the story of Jessica Watson one of the the most famous sailors from the late Noughties and early 2010’s phenomenon of multiple teenagers bidding to become the youngest sailor to sail around the world.  Jessica Watson, who set off from Sydney in 2009 aged 16, completed her loop of Antarctica – and a dip north across the Equator in the Pacific Ocean – to return an all-Australian hero after 210 days at sea.

The film is a dramatic retelling of Watson’s story and attempts to tread the fine line between staying true to her story and picking drama out of the narrative. Watson’s story is undoubtedly intriguing and any film taking on the challenge of conveying he long, slow, and arduous experience of the solo adventurer is always going to struggle to weigh realism with drama. But for the most par this stays true enough to the story to make for a satisfying viewing experience.

Adrift

Adrift is based on the book Red Sky in Mourning – Tami Oldham Ashcraft’s true account of sailing into a Pacific hurricane, dismasting, and then sailing solo under jury rig for 41 days alone to Hawaii.

The true story is astounding but the film plays pretty fast and lose with the facts. For pure entertainment it is still well worth hunting out and the terror of the extreme conditions does come across on the screen. You get to marvel as Tami manages to solve the catalogue of near voyage-ending disasters – no matter how implausible some of it might seem.

Pure escapism, and a reminder that when the chips are down there is usually a way out.

Best sailing films on Prime

Deep Water

This critically acclaimed documentary, by the makers of Touching the Void, tells the tale of the 1968 Golden Globe Race and how Donald Crowhurst falsified his position before mysteriously disappearing. There are impressive amounts of original footage to enjoy over 50 years later.

The Mercy

The 2017 cinematic telling of the 1968 Golden Globe Race, in which Colin Firth delivers a stand-out performance as the complex maverick entrant Donald Crowhurst. There’s a strong emphasis on the family narrative to draw in non-sailing viewers, but the yachting scenes were carefully researched and convincing.

It stands above many other sailing films as a pure viewing experience – helped along by Firth’s considerable talents. For those of us who already know the tragic story of Crowhurst there nothing here to fill in any of the gaps, as you’d expect from a broad-appeal drama, but you cannot help but be moved to relive the story once again.

Morning light

This was a real revelation when it came out and remains a solid documentary.

Fifteen young sailors embark on six months of training with the ultimate aim to sail a TP52 across the Pacific Ocean taking part in the TRANSPAC.

The premise is that this young, inexperienced crew (made up of 18-23 year olds) sailing Morning Light race the 2,300 miles against some of sailing’s top professionals.

The whole thing was funded by Roy Disney and remains a stunning testament to the rigours of racing and sailing offshore, and how much can be achieved by young sailors give a chance.

Best sailing films elsewhere

Chasing Tokyo

Chasing Tokyo is available to stream from the RYA and is an emotional watch. Filmed over a full year, it follows the British Sailing Team athletes as they readied themselves for the strangest Olympic Games in history – and the parents and partners who were left behind when the sailors headed out to Tokyo.

The film crews had unprecedented access to the sailors as they navigated lockdowns, covid testing, and disrupted preparations, and the medal hopefuls candidly shared their dreams and fears. It’s an insightful view of the strange balance of tension and monotony, life-changing highs and soul-crushing lows, of life as an Olympic athlete.

The documentary gives an intriguing glimpse inside the ‘medal factory’, the machinery of the British Sailing Team which has made it consistently the most successful Olympic sailing team in the world. The legacy of London 2012, and the importance of the team’s home base in Portland – with all its quirks and characters – stands out.

Must watch viewing for anyone with an interest in the physical and mental toll the Olympics can take on professional athletes.

Maidentrip

This one takes a bit of detective work to find, but the full documentary is hosted online and well worth a watch. In contrast to True Spirit, it’s made up of real videos shot by teen Laura Dekker as she sailed around the world in 2010.

Without cinematic production and following Dekker’s stopping route it’s a much less dramatic view of sailing around the world, though no less gripping for it, and a fascinating insight into a remarkable teen. Those who came away from True Spirit frustrated by some of the dramatic license taken may well want to watch this.

Wind

It’s impossible to watch  the Untold: The Race of the Century story – or indeed any America’s Cup film – without referring back to Wind, the 1992 movie telling of how America lost, and won back the Cup.

Like any Hollywood interpretation there are a few cringeworthy moments, and I wouldn’t recommend watching it with a sailmaker, but it’s a warm-hearted film with some great 12-Metre race scenes, and the memorable catchphrase “Hoist the Whomper!”.

If you enjoyed this….

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Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a huge backer of major sports teams, inducing the British bid for the America’s Cup, INEOS Britannia.

Formerly a chemical engineer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe became an investment specialist before founding the Anglo-Swiss petrochemicals giant INEOS in 1998. Over two decades Ratcliffe grew INEOS into an enormous multinational, the fourth largest chemicals company in the world, with a reported a profit of €3.5bn in 2021.

Ratcliffe’s previously worked with oil giant Esso, but in 1998 he formed INEOS to buy out BP’s chemicals division Inspec.

INEOS has rapidly built to become a giant in the chemicals industry and has helped Ratcliffe to become one of the richest men in the UK. He was listed as the richest man in the UK in 2018 Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of £21.05 billion.

Jim Ratcliffe and sports

Jim Ratcliffe was relatively unknown beyond the financial pages, despite his impressive wealth, until he and INEOS began to sponsor a variety of major sports teams and British sporting endeavours. Speaking in 2021 he said, “There are three of us who own INEOS, and we’re all from the North of England, just three normal blokes who like sport.”

Ratcliffe’s first major investment was in football, when he bought the Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport in 2017.

This was swiftly followed by one of his most ambitious partnerships, when Jim Ratcliffe – who is founder, chairman and majority shareholder of INEOS – and the company partnered with the most successful Olympic sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie, to try to win the America’s Cup.

In 2018 it was announced that INEOS would fund Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team in what was the biggest – and possibly the fastest – sponsorship investment in British sailing.

The £110m deal, aimed at winning back the Cup for the first time in its 167-year history, was signed a mere four weeks after Ratcliffe met Ainslie in a London pub and chatted over a drink. Ratcliffe later joked that it was “the most expensive gin and tonic in history!”.

The partnership was met with some controversy as INEOS is a major producer of plastics which sits at odds to sailing’s many clean ocean campaigns. Ratcliffe is also a proponent of fracking, was a prominent Brexit supporter, and moved to Monaco in 2020.

Photo: C. GREGORY/INEOS Team UK

Ratcliffe the team owner

Shortly after the announcement was made in 2018, Yachting World sat down with Ratcliffe and Ainslie at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, the club the British challenge represents, to find out more about their partnership – and how Ratcliffe sees his role as a major investor in sports.

“The America’s Cup sits in the ‘intriguing challenge’ box,” he told Yachting World. “It’s not a big INEOS thing, because INEOS is not a consumer brand so we’re not dependent on doing these kind of things – or F1 or anything else – for our business to be successful. It’s not going to help us sell petrochemicals or oil or gas.

“But it’s a sensational challenge really to bring the America’s Cup back to the UK. It’s just a British thing really, we’re Brits and it would be marvellous to see the Cup come back here – finally.”

“The America’s Cup is different, but it’s the equivalent to some of the business challenges we’ve had. Our approach is similar. 

“With Ben and the team we hover a bit like a shareholder. We like to have a sense of what’s going on and who’s doing what, and whether the money’s being spent sensibly, but it is a very light touch really.

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And as for his approach to backing a sports team? “It’s not that different to working in business really – it has to be fun, and you have to get on with people, otherwise why do it? Because we don’t need to do it. But there’s all those parallels with business: the journey, the challenge.

“If we buy a business we would hope to double the profits within five years, it’s a journey. This is no different really. The people are just as committed and intense in both.”

Ainslie added: “It’s been really fascinating learning how the INEOS business is run and how to relate that to a sports team with the core goal of winning the Cup. How everything comes back to that one core goal, those decisions and not getting distracted by other factors.”

Although the British team did not win the America’s Cup in 2021, the partnership was renewed and the team, now named INEOS Britannia, are currently building up towards the 2024 America’s Cup.

This time the team is also Challenger of Record, which means that Ratcliffe and Ainslie have increased influence over the event’s format.

INEOS cycling, Formula 1 and marathons

Shortly after this massive deal, in 2019, Ratcliffe – who is a keen cyclist as well as a passionate mountaineer – purchased the Team Sky cycling franchise, subsequently rebranded Team INEOS and then INEOS Grenadiers. They since won the 2019 Tour de France and 2021 Giro d’Italia.

With the use of cyclors, or pedal-powered grinders, on the America’s Cup AC75s there have been plenty of cross-overs between the cycling and sailing teams, with some of the America’s Cup team grinders training with Grenadiers in Palma.

Ratcliffe set out to make history in 2019 when he backed the INEOS 1.59 Challenge, a no-stones-unturned bid to smash the 2-hour marathon time. Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier at a special event in Austria, setting a new time of 1hr 59m 40s.

INEOS and Jim Ratcliffe also went into Formula 1 when, in February 2020, INEOS became principal partners of Mercedes AMG F1, signing a five-year agreement with the team.

The America’s Cup has often been called the Formula 1 of sailing, and it was no surprise when Ainslie’s INEOS Britannia team partnered with Mercedes AMG F1 in 2021.

The linking of one of the world’s most successful motorsport teams, with the British squad sailing squad, and the potential to share key personnel and design resources, was seen as a major advantage to Ainslie in his bid to win the America’s Cup. Other America’s Cup teams followed suit with similar partnerships.

Jim Ratcliffe and football

Ratcliffe has long been linked to a number of football clubs. He has owned of FC Lausanne-Sport, a Swiss Super League football club, since 2017 but he has also been linked to a number of Premier League football clubs.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Roman Abramovich forced him to put Premier League side Chelsea F.C. up for sale. Ratcliffe made £4.25 billion bid to buy the club but this was rejected.

Most recently, in January 2023 INEOS announced publicly that it had entered into the formal process of bidding for Manchester United after the current owners announced it was looking for new investors.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers and save at least 30% off the cover price.

The post Who is Jim Ratcliffe billionaire sports team investor? appeared first on Yachting World.