The first race of the 37th America’s Cup Match is just one year away. Who will be the challenging team taking on EmiratesTeam New Zealand?
It’s exactly one year to go until the talking stops. This time next year, we will know the winner of the Challenger Selection Series.
Every challenger has a case that could be made in their favour, but the winner will be the one that delivers on the greatest stage, right when it matters most. No place for the faint hearted.
The pressure building on all the teams in this cycle is palpable.
With big decisions having been taken in terms of hull profile design but even bigger ones in terms of foils, systems, sail designs, crew protocols and racing playbook styles still very much up in the air.
Through the summer in Barcelona, the teams have been working hard to familiarise themselves with the unique conditions that they encounter on a daily basis off the La Barceloneta seafront.
With its swells the chop, and all manner of conditions from flat calm to full-on. It’s an ultimate sailing challenge but even more of a design conundrum.
But with the Challenger selected, the pace of the competition changes.
The world’s media descends on Barcelona, helicopters buzz in the sky, superyachts arrive, and the atmosphere alters and fizzes with a competitive electricity as the only certainty of the 37th America’s Cup Match hove’s into view – Emirates Team New Zealand.
What the Kiwis will deliver on that start-line against the battle-hardened Challenger as they go for an un-precedented three-in-a-row wins by a team in the greatest sailing competition on the planet is the great mystery of this unique competition.
The 37th America’s Cup Official Opening Ceremony will be held in Barcelona on the 22nd of August 2024.
The Final Preliminary Event and the Challenger Selection Series will follow, leading up to the America’s Cup Match starting on the 12th of October 2024.
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