Another Agenda

The America’s Cup tends to attract two types of teams: those that can legitimately contend and those with another agenda. The China Team has another agenda.

“I want to help resurrect the sailing culture that has been lost (in China) since about 150 years ago,” said Wang Chao-yong, president and CEO of China Equity Group, who sponsors the team. “I think the spirit of the America’s Cup is what China needs today as a society. The concept of teamwork, entrepreneurship, innovation, that’s what China needs right now.”

“We have had our America’s Cup team, as well as the Olympic sailing in Qingdao, the China Cup, the Volvo Ocean Race stopover, and all of these have helped to raise the profile of sailing in China,” said Wang. “All of this has meant more public interest in sailing,” he added. “People are now looking at sailing as a leisure activity, a lifestyle choice, and this is something new and growing very quickly.

“We have decided to take a longer-term view. Instead of working with international talent just to get better results now, we are looking to incubate our homegrown talent, and the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup fits into that strategy very well.” — View the full report …

EDITOR’S NOTE: It should be noted that in the AC World Series events, the China Team has mostly worked with international talent that have not delivered better results. However, two Chinese sailors are onboard their five man roster for the ACWS event this week.