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America's Cup Diary...

Russell Coutts may be the most successful America's Cup helmsman of all time, but he ripped up the history book and starting again for the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco. New racing rules, wing masts, high-speed, foiling catamarans. It was a bold experiment that resulted in one of the most thrilling finales of all time, between Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA, who won the trophy by a whisker. Now the focus is on for Bermuda 2017...


James Spithill at the helm of BMW Oracle
© Gilles Martin-Raget/ BMW Oracle Racing: James Spithill riding high

Featured Articles

  Podcast: Why Jack Griffin calls this America's Cup 'mysterious"

Things have been mighty quiet with the America's Cup since Bermuda 2017. It's almost exactly the halfway point between the last Cup and the next edition in Auckland 2021, so where are things up to? With the teams staying mostly tight lipped about progress, Andy Rice turns to Jack Griffin, self-professed geek about all things related to the Cup. Who are the latest challengers to join the circus, and do they stand a a cat-in-hell's chance of taking on the big boys, what Jack refers to as the 'Super Teams'?
  The Soft Wing concept for the AC75

North Sails designers Burns Fallow and Michael Richelsen have been working closely with America’s Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand and Challenger of Record Luna Rossa to develop the soft wing concept and AC75 Class Rule. “We started this project in September and we did not have a lot of time to figure out if this big idea was to be feasible or not, and there were some big questions to be answered..."

 
  New America's Cup rule is out there!

The new America's Cup rule is published. Time for the teams to start getting their heads around how to design, engineer and build one of these beasts. Time, as ever, will be the enemy. Money will be quite important too....
  The Foiling Tack is a Cup Gamechanger

SoftBank Team Japan AC foiling tackSoftBank Team Japan have bragging rights as the first team to pull off the foiling tack. As Dean Barker and Chris Draper point out, this really is a 'gamechanger' for the 2017 America's Cup, and opens up the tactical opportunities with the possibility of the foiling AC cats tacking on the windshifts...
  Nathan Outteridge Interview Part 2
Nathan OutteridgeIn Part 2 of our exclusive interview with Nathan Outteridge, the Artemis Racing skipper reveals where he things the big gains are likely to be made in the 2017 America's Cup.... "I think the big design battles are going to be in foil design, picking the area required for the foils based on when you want to take off and when you want top speed...." More from Nathan inside...
  Artemis Racing say 'Never Say Die'

One of the enduring themes of all our conversations with top sailors is their ‘Never Say Die’ (NSD) attitude. No matter how bad things get, you just do whatever it takes to get the job done. Because you never know how things might work out. The America’s Cup World Series racing in Bermuda saw Artemis Racing deliver a perfect example of NSD.
  America's Cup - July 2014
America's Cup - July 2014 Australia’s shock withdrawal from the Cup is just the latest example of what makes following the America’s Cup so frustrating. I’m struggling to buy into Russell Coutts’s vision for a more commercial event, but one thing we can at least celebrate is the proliferation of hydrofoiling sailcraft that are now appearing in the wake of last year’s amazing final.



  America's Cup - June 2014
America's Cup - June 2014 Nine months in the making was too long, but maybe it was worth the wait. The Protocol for the 35th America’s Cup is not entirely fair, but Team Australia appear to have done a reasonable job in negotiating a decent bargaining position for the prospective challengers who want to compete against Oracle Team USA in summer 2017.




  America's Cup - May 2014
America's Cup - May 2014 Even after five Emmy Award nominations for the sensational TV coverage last year, is the America’s Cup really any closer to being a commercially viable brand? I can’t see it myself, but you have to admire Russell Coutts’s tenacity in trying to drag the oldest event in sport into the modern age.




  America's Cup - April 2014
America's Cup - April 2014 If you’re serious about getting the world to notice the America’s Cup, who better than the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for some wall-to-wall media coverage? That’s what Emirates Team New Zealand enjoyed recently during the royal visit downunder. Shame it wasn’t Sir Ben Ainslie who managed to get the royal visit, although his fledgling campaign seems to be moving along very nicely anyway.



 
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