America’s Cup: You Can’t Tell the Players Without a Program

The six America’s Cup teams will be on the water as the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series resumes on July 22-24 in Portsmouth, UK. With six of the nine AC World Series events completed, teams are competing for the top two positions on the leaderboard which will impact the outcome of the 35th America’s Cup in 2017. Jack Griffin of CupExperience.com explains how the AC competition format works here.

The plan for Portsmouth is for three races to be scheduled each day, Saturday and Sunday. Provisional races will will be sailed on Friday. Remember that in Chicago Team Japan’s win in the provisional race was counted when no races could be sailed in Saturday’s light winds. Sunday’s racing counts double points, meaning that last place on Sunday is as valuable as first place on Saturday. Details on how to watch can be found here.

Here’s the crew list for Portsmouth:

Meet the sailing teams competing at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Portsmouth:

GREAT BRITAIN:
Land Rover BAR was launched on June 10th 2014 in the presence of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. The team was conceived by four times Olympic gold medallist and 34th America’s Cup winner, Sir Ben Ainslie, with the long-term aim of challenging for Britain and bringing the America’s Cup back home to where it all began in 1851. To achieve his aim, he has put together a group of very experienced and determined sailors as well as a high-profile design and management team, including former CEO at the McLaren Group, Martin Whitmarsh. They represent the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes. The team are hoping to continue their winning ways in Portsmouth after taking the 2015 event win. In the overall standings Ainslie’s team lay in second 10 points behind ETNZ.

Land Rover BAR

FRANCE:
Team France’s challenge is led by three of the most iconic and successful French sailors: Franck Cammas, Michel Desjoyeaux and Olivier de Kersauson. So far France has not yet managed to assert itself in the America’s Cup but with Skipper Franck Cammas’s track record, and long standing Sponsor Groupama’s support of sailing in France, the team are keener than ever to promote ‘Made in France’ excellence and show just what they are capable of. Team France represents Paris based Yacht Club de France, founded in 1867, shortly after the 1st America’s Cup.

Groupama Team France

JAPAN:
SoftBank Team Japan, supported by SoftBank Corp. and Kansai Yacht Club, is the first Japanese flagged challenger since 2000. Led by winning America’s Cup skipper Dean Barker, along with veteran Japanese sailor Kazuhiko “Fuku” Sofuku, SoftBank Team Japan is made up of a multi-national collaboration of sailors, boat builders, and support crew from the professional sailing industry.

Softbank Team Japan

NEW ZEALAND:
Two times winner of the America’s Cup (1995 and 2000) and three times winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup (1995, 2007 and 2013)  has proven to be a leading innovator in sailing, including being the team to successfully develop and bring foiling into the mainstream of America’s Cup and all of sailing. Emirates Team New Zealand remains the only commercially funded sailing team to survive since the multi-challenger event in 2007. The team come into the Portsmouth event in top spot, ten points ahead of Land Rover BAR.

Emirates Team New Zealand

SWEDEN:
Artemis Racing’s trophy collection across all racing classes is second to none with the sailors and designers sharing 61 America’s Cups between them. The team’s principal, owner and founder is Swedish entrepreneur Torbjörn Törnqvist. He is a passionate sailor and successful businessman whose ambition is to win the America’s Cup and bring the oldest trophy in sport to Sweden for the first time. Artemis Racing represents the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS), the fifth oldest yacht club in the world. The team are currently in fourth place ahead of the Portsmouth event.

Artemis Racing

USA:
ORACLE Team USA was founded in 2000 by American businessman Larry Ellison and represents San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club. In 2010, Ellison hired the America’s Cup’s most successful sailor in history, Russell Coutts, and finally achieved Oracle’s first win. The 33rd America’s Cup was a Deed of Gift match in Valencia but Ellison’s giant 90′ trimaran easily outclassed the Swiss holder Alinghi. Three years later in San Francisco, the Defender was facing a crushing defeat in the finals against Emirates Team New Zealand when at 8-1 down they staged an historic comeback to win 9-8. The team are currently lying in third place as they prepare to battle on the Solent waters.

Oracle Team USA