Beyond the Ordinary

When you partner with a sponsor whose tag line is ‘beyond the ordinary’, the flow of promotional hype will be extraordinary too. Here’s the latest pitch for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup to be shown on the Red Bull TV platform:

If you want to know where to find basketball’s next superstars, keep your eyes on March Madness. For the NFL’s next big names, look to university sports fields. And if it’s baseball’s future big hitters you want to find, head out to take a look at the farm leagues. If you ever wondered where to look for the next generation of world class sailors though, wonder no more.

This June, 12 international sailing teams filled with the world’s best sailors under the age of 24 will be going head-to-head on the warm waters of Bermuda at the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup.

“The Red Bull Youth America’s Cup is the gateway for the next generation into the America’s Cup. It’s essentially what college football is to the NFL – a breeding ground of new talent. And it works,” says Jimmy Spithill, skipper of America’s Cup-winning ORACLE TEAM USA.

The race is by no means a watered down kid version of the America’s Cup either. The sailors are expected to be just as fit, just as fast, and have the confidence to handle the same boats the America’s Cup sailors –in fact they will race the same catamarans that the professional sailors raced in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series.

The AC45F is a 45-foot wingsailed double-hull that is longer than a city bus, with a mast as tall as an eight-story building and capable of over 65kph. Imagine being barely 20-years-old and handling a boat of that capacity? That’s like giving a new driver the keys to a Formula 1 car telling them to go race.

This will be the second Red Bull Youth America’s Cup event after the event debuted in San Francisco, USA in 2013. Back then the boats didn’t foil and the competition wasn’t as fierce as it is today. That said, eight sailors from that regatta have found positions on America’s Cup boats, including Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (Emirates Team New Zealand) and Cooper Dressler (ORACLE TEAM USA).

Red Bull Youth America’s Cup sports director, Roman Hagara, said, “The boats will go twice as fast, probably, as last time, and they are harder to sail, more physical. Teamwork will be very important.”

More so, fellow sailing legend Hans Peter Steinacher said, “The gap between the teams is very small, so the racing will be very, very tight.”

This literally is sailing at the next level, and it’s all coming to you live on Red Bull TV on June 12–21.

Editor’s note: With Red Bull hyping young people representing their countries in an action-packed fleet race event, the viewership could be huge. Compare this to the America’s Cup in which match racing can be less dynamic, the teams have less nationalism, and the general mood seems indifferent, and one wonders if NBC is broadcasting the wrong competition.