America’s Cup is coming back: meet in September 2023 for the first official regatta
THE PERFECT GIFT!
Give or treat yourself to a subscription to the print + digital Journal of Sailing and for only 69 euros a year you get the magazine at home plus read it on your PC, smartphone and tablet. With a sea of advantages.
The wait is coming to an end, the America’s Cup of sailing is ready to return and will do so as early as this 2023. In fact, the dates have been announced for the first preliminary regatta, which will be held in the Catalan town of Vilanova i la Geltrù from September 14 to 17, 2023.
Vilanova is located 45 km from Barcelona, the designated host of the 2024 America’s Cup, where all the teams will move and where Alinghi Red Bull Racing is already located. The September regatta will be run with AC 40s, not the 75s with which the Cup will be contested in 2024.
It will be a good preview of what these boats can show at the Youth and Women America’s Cup. And it will be the first time we will see all the teams in the next Cup on the water.
America’s Cup Vilanova i la Geltrù – Who will be there
All unions will be present at the first preliminary regatta in September. Defender Team New Zealand has seen an increase in challengers from last year’s edition, and will now have to contend not only with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, American Magic and Ineos Britannia, but also with Alinghi Red Bull Racing and the French K-Challenge.
The September event will be a first test of the sailing team’s qualities; it will be broadcast free-to-air with production guaranteed by the America’s Cup organization.
What Luna Rossa does
All unions have received AC 40s, the only one waiting is Luna Rossa, which was surprised by the exchange of construction slots among other teams, which relegated it to last place on the waiting list for the first hull.
In Cagliari, however, work continues with the prototype, tested again and again in strong wind conditions in which the Italian team seems quite comfortable. Alternating on board as helmsmen and flight controllers are Ruggero Tita, Francesco Bruni, James Spithill, Vittorio Bissaro and Marco Gradoni. The latter in particular is increasingly an important presence on the team, and it seems likely that he will be given the helm of the AC 40 ahead of the Youth America’s Cup.
Bissaro and Tita, rivals in the national team with the Nacra 17, have now settled into their roles and they will be the real change in the sailing team compared to the 2021 edition of the America’s Cup. Will it be possible to see Spithill, Bissaro, Bruni and Tita on board at the same time? Yes if two of them will be employed as flight controller and mainsailer, assuming that the double helmsman scheme will be repeated on the AC 75. Much will also depend on what the lineup looks like with the 8-man crew, and how the teams will balance the need to produce power with the cycling grinders with their other roles.
This we will find out in 2024 when the new AC 75s go on the water, meanwhile in September comes the show with the AC 40s.
Mauro Giuffrè
Share:
Are you already a subscriber?
Ultimi annunci
Our social
Sign up for our Newsletter
We give you a gift
Sailing, its stories, all boats, accessories. Sign up now for our free newsletter and receive the best news selected by the Sailing Newspaper editorial staff each week. Plus we give you one month of GdV digitally on PC, Tablet, Smartphone. Enter your email below, agree to the Privacy Policy and click the “sign me up” button. You will receive a code to activate your month of GdV for free!
You may also be interested in.
What it means to be a Sailor. The passing of Pinin Borghi
Gone at age 84 in his Chiavari, in the center of the Tigullio Gulf in Liguria, “Pinin” Borghi, one of the last great Italian sailors. We asked Danilo Fabbroni, one of his students, to remember him, and a fresco of
La Lunga Bolina: all the winners of the Tuscan classic in a night edition
The Lunga Bolina 2025, the classic offshore race that takes place in Tuscan waters, with start and finish in Porto Santo Stefano after leaving the Formiche di Grosseto, Giglio and Giannutri to the left for a total of about 60
Antigua Sailing Week, the party’s here (we’re there and we tell you about it)
From our correspondent in Antigua Ida Castiglioni – It’s now in its 56th edition, and that’s about to change: from next year it will be raced a month and a half early – March 18 to 22, 2026 – to
Blue Olympic sailing to shine: poker medals at Semaine Olympique Française
Italian Olympic sailing to go wild at the very windy 56th Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, one of the most important stages of the World Cup circuit reserved for Olympic classes. The Italian national team returns home with a haul