CONFIRMED AMERICA'S CUP 72 (AND 45!!) WINGED CATS

America’s Cup transformed by radical changes

New class of boat and annual series of racing among introductions

VALENCIA, Spain (September 13, 2010) – The America’s Cup, sailing’s most iconic event, has been re-energized and rejuvenated, ready for 2013 and the future.

The best sailors in the world will race on the fastest boats with the introduction of an exciting wingsail catamaran.
To build interest and audiences ahead of the 34th Match in 2013 is a new annual World Series, commencing in 2011.
A clear vision for the future led to analysis of the best practices in other major sports. Six months of dialogue with potential teams and stakeholders followed, resulting in the transformed competition details that were released today.

Highlights include:
 New, exciting class of boat, the AC72 wingsail catamaran
 New annual World Series starting in 2011
 New Youth America’s Cup from 2012
 Transformed media for television broadcast and online
 Shorter, action-packed race format
 Race delays minimized – new boat and venues with reliable wind
 Independent race management and fully empowered International Jury to avoid show-stopping disputes
 Effective cost-cutting measures
 Branding freedom for teams
 One global website for all team and racing content

The annual America’s Cup World Series has been designed to create exposure and commercial sustainability for teams and their sponsors. The series featuring the cutting-edge catamaran will deliver exciting racing to new audiences ahead of the America’s Cup Match in 2013.
The AC72 class will be raced from 2012, and a second new boat will be used in next year’s competition for the America’s Cup World Series. Also powered by a wingsail, the AC45 is a scaled down one-design version of the AC72, and will provide a fast-track for competitors in wingsail technology.
“We believe this new format and new boat will put the America’s Cup back at the pinnacle of our sport. These changes will give equal opportunity to competitors and long-term economic stability to all teams and all commercial partners. We promised fairness and innovation and this is what we’ve delivered,” said Russell Coutts, CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing.

The Regatta Director of the independent organization America’s Cup Race Management, ACRM, will be appointed jointly by the Challenger and Defender board members. A financial model for the next Defender to maintain this vision of independent race management allows teams and partners to plan long-term involvement.

“I think that we need to acknowledge that the Defender has kept its word. The America’s Cup is going to have fair rules and a truly independent management of the racing,” said Vincenzo Onorato, President of Mascalzone Latino.
“This change should’ve happened years ago in my opinion. I can see why this important development could last for many years in the future,” Onorato said.

Limits on the number of boats, sails, equipment and support boats, as well as the introduction of no-sail periods will bring significant cost savings for all competitors. Crew sizes will be reduced to 11 members from 17.

For the first time onboard cameramen will be part of the innovative media model that is designed to significantly enhance the television broadcasts and internet content in an effort to grow audiences and bring added value to teams and partners.

In releasing the Protocol, the Defender has forfeited some of the rights traditionally enjoyed by the holder of the trophy in the interest of making the competition more balanced and fair. Majority approval of the competitors is required to amend the Protocol.
“During our six months of planning we spoke to the teams, to commercial partners, to media and to the fans. A clear and compelling vision emerged – that to capture and communicate the excitement our sport can produce, we need the best sailors racing the fastest boat in the world,” Coutts said.
In an effort to develop the next generation of best sailors, the new AC45 will be used for the Youth America’s Cup beginning in 2012, a new initiative to provide young sailors a pathway to the America’s Cup.

With today’s release of the Protocol, class of boat and year in which the match will be held, three of the four cornerstones for the 34th Match are in place. The final piece, the venue, is scheduled to be announced by the end of the year.

I thought the announcement was due later tonight.

What is this going to do to the extreme 40 class??? They got a really good thing going!

What is this going to do to the extreme 40 class??? They got a really good thing going!

 Shorter, action-packed race format
 Race delays minimized – new boat and venues with reliable wind


There's two great changes right there! This announcement is quite amazing to me, I had thought that because the last one was such a blow out, they might go back to monohulls, but this is really great news for development of wings on cats! I wonder if these guys watched that C cat regatta just before they made up their minds?

Ben Hall must be smiling ear to ear!

Kids are great crew, light, strong, fearless and best of all..expendable!

Ask anyone from Team Child Abuse!

Like I tell my kids when I threaten to kill them, "Hey, I can alwyas make more, look just like you too..."

Both of the rendering look A LOT like the Nacra CF20 (with hard wings, ofc)

While I think doing it on cats is great, I also think using the wing is going too far.

Time will tell and it will certianly be interesting.

Watching the flat-earthers over at the SA AC forum is hilarious.

Pretty sure they did mean "youth" - protocol was written in English!

From Fischers piece at Sail-world, questioning Coutts:
"In addition to the AC World Series there would be a Youth America's Cup from 2012. This would be held in the AC-45 catamarans, and while age limits have yet to be defined, the crew will have to be from the nation of its challenging yacht club."

Speculation is that they intend to set the limit at age 25

Watching the flat-earthers over at the SA AC forum is hilarious.

http://cdn.americascup.com/AC34-Protocol-9-Sep-2010.pdf

Here's the protocol, probably already posted. I didn't look. I expect it's in there. I think I read somewhere else that it was like Jake said , a minor league thing.

It makes me wonder if this is the reason that the general populous has a hard time relating to sailing as a sport. Most sailboats they see are very mundane slow pigs and while yes, a Melges 24 can be exciting, from the outside it seems like a lot of work with a lot of hands to go 16 knots. For some reason, sailing is stuck with the most visual part of our racing done in minivans while the automotive equivalent of Formula 1's are the odd ball multihull outsiders. I would have a hard time identifying with that pecking order too.

Watching the flat-earthers over at the SA AC forum is hilarious.

Why do you think they chose that size? it seems awfully big/expensive - from construction to maintenance to shipping to storage; won't it preclude some teams from competing due to expense? It seems they could have gone smaller and made the event more accessible to more teams.

Any ideas? Is it so that spectators can see them more easily from shore? Is it because that is more comparable to the ocean racing multi's and good designs are already present?

Gotta think that this will add pressure to bring Cats back to the Olympics....

I'm excited for the AC34, but sad at the same time - because if its a bust its just going to vindicate these nay-sayers.

I don't think a competition between 72ft winged cats designed to a tight box rule under mutual consent can bust. This AC scheme seems to be professionally designed to yield a profitable show and that can't be done without interesting races.

If they were smart enough to switch to multihulls against the wishes of the majority of the sailing community, they should be smart enough to make money - and that is first requirement to get to the AC.

So the America's Cup is dead as far as history goes. It has been converted to " The Big Little AC " and all the SA's on Hobie Cats are thrilled as they now feel they are at the top of the heap. Well it is a heap alright. A heap of dung with no provenance whatsoever. Queen Victoria would say, not who is second, but rather, what kind of crap is that pretending to be an ocean racing boat? Where is the accommodation? Where are the big waves? Why can't multi hull guys just go get their own Cup ie create a new one, and leave history alone. The Cup died with the last multi series. It should have been banned from the get go, but the NYYC went limpus dickus and let it be taken away without a whimper. Enjoy drag racing you multi freaks. Enjoy interminable delays because there is wind and waves. Enjoy a joke which will not attract the public. At least in mono's the public could pretend race and enjoy a cottage life with their kids. Multis on the beach are for kids and fun but they are not multi use boats for families. At least in golf you can play the same courses as the pro's. No longer in sailing. Why can't these multitards not realize there is more to sailing than just flat out speed. After the next cup it will be in hydropters (sic?) and then Russian surface airplanes that glide 2 feet off the water. And then why not helicopters that can land on water? Where will it end? Hopefully NYYC will come out with a " continuation" cup for those with education and an historical memory.

Yeah Ding,

I'm so biased against those monohulls, which is why I sailed on one for 3 summers straight every wednesday night.

My purpose was to show people what kind of mentality exists out there - stacked against multihulls for no good reason other than the fact that there's no keel.

This is precisely the kind of perception I'm talking about. I thought we had beat it out of people - but I guess not.

From SA AC forum:

This poster on SA (probabledave) is trolling for a fight, largely to use against the MH community. This guy and his ilk, are looking to discredit our interest by branding us as ungentlemanly yachtsmen.
The best we can do is take the high ground, not engage such Philistines as this, and recognize the irony that this same crowd sabotaged the Tornado in the Olympics, only to see the Elite yachtsman of the sailing world embrace the catamaran in the America's Cup.

Karma is a bitch...

It sure would be great if all the catamaran classes showed their support by running a match race regatta next year.

...a little birdie said exactly the same thing earlier today...Are you racing Roton this weekend?