The 5th accepted challenger for the 36th America’s Cup is the Long Beach Yacht Club, represented by ‘Stars & Stripes Team USA’.
Stars & Stripes Team USA is the second US challenge after American Magic, in addition to the Challenger of Record Luna Rossa (ITA), INEOS Team UK (GBR) and Malta Altus Challenge (MLT).
The name Stars & Stripes Team USA has been blessed by ‘Mr America’s Cup’ Dennis Conner himself.
“Our name is a nod to Dennis Connor’s ‘Stars & Stripes’ campaigns that defined all-American, America’s Cup racing for decades. We are the next generation,” said Co-Founder Mike Buckley.
Working alongside Buckley is former Match Racing World Champion Taylor Canfield who has been ranked the #1 World Sailing match racer for three of the past five years and is a four time winner of the Congressional Cup.
While more details will be released in early-January 2019 during a public launch, the team has already announced several key people.
Justin Shaffer, with a career in Major League Baseball and Facebook and a TP52 background, is the team CEO and will be sided by Tod Reynolds, who ran the 2016 America’s Cup World Series Chicago, in the role of COO.
General Counsel, Melinda Erkelens is an industry veteran who has participated in five America’s Cup campaigns.
At the head of the design team is JB Braun who was part of Oracle Team USA in 2013 and 2017.
Stars & Stripes Team USA has already started building their AC75 race yacht in Michigan, a build process that was accelerated by a design and technology package purchased from Emirates Team New Zealand.
The Long Beach Yacht Club (Stars & Stripes) approval comes one week after the Royal Malta Yacht Club (Malta Altus Challenge) entry.
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