The Notice of Race for the 2024 Women’s America’s Cup and Youth America’s Cup has been posted.
Prospective teams from around the world can now begin to plan to compete in Barcelona in 2024.
Running sequentially, the Youth America’s Cup starts on Thursday 19 September 2024 and the Women’s America’s Cup on Thursday 3 October 2024.
Both series begin with a week of practice for the teams before the fleets are split, where possible, into two with the confirmed AC Teams competing in one group and all the invited yacht clubs from around the world competing in another.
Once racing begins in earnest, each group will race a Qualifying Series of fleet races, consisting of three races per day over three days to produce the top three podium teams from each group.
Those successful teams will then move forward to a ‘Final Series’ of four fleet races on one day to produce the top two teams who will advance on to the respective Youth and Women’s America’s Cup Single Matches to determine the respective winners.
No second chances. Fleet racing will be replaced by one-on-one Match Racing and winning the Youth or Women’s America’s Cup will be an achievement of the highest order.
The scheduling announced by the organisers is set to ensure the maximum media coverage.
The Youth America’s Cup Single Match Race being run on the same day as the showpiece America’s Cup Challenger Final on Wednesday 2 October 2024 – and will be raced in-between the Final flights
Whilst the Women’s America’s Cup Single Match Race will be held on Wednesday 16 October 2024, the date scheduled for two America’s Cup Match races and again between flights.
The Women’s and Youth teams lucky enough to be selected will experience a regatta simply like no other placing them in the epicentre of the America’s Cup crucible of competition.
Ben Ainslie has already announced the Athena Pathway Programme, a high performance pathway scheme for talented female sailors that hopes to see a British crew win the first ever Women’s America’s Cup
To be a part of it will be something else, as thousands watch from the beach and galleries dotted along the shoreline with millions more catching the free-to-air broadcast around the globe.
This is the big time for sure.
National entries are restricted to one per country and as already stated by Ainslie, the INEOS Britannia team will be fielding a mixed Youth team for the regatta to further promote gender diversity and equality.
It is hoped, but not explicitly implied, that others will follow suit.
Each of the confirmed Teams for the 37th America’s Cup are required to ‘arrange for a team to be entered’ .
But this opens the door for prospective teams to liaise with the confirmed Competitor as to the selection process for who represents that Competitor’s yacht club.
America’s Cup Event Limited (ACE) the organising body for both series are intending to invite up to seven teams representing yacht clubs from countries other than those represented by a Competitor in the 37th America’s Cup.
Already a local team has been created, representing the Real Club Nautico de Barcelona.
Sail Team BCN, which will represent the city, the region and the country in both the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup 2024.
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