AC WORLD SERIES: Different faces among the crowd

With time running short before the 34th America’s Cup, and the focus for each team now to develop their AC72 performance, the upcoming America’s Cup World Series event in Naples, Italy (Apr. 16-21) will have some different faces among the crowd.

Nine teams are entered, with the crew for America’s Cup challengers Emirates Team New Zealand (1 entry) and Luna Rossa (2 entries) expected to be the most familiar. These two teams, which have been training in New Zealand, are using this time to move their base of operations to San Francisco, thus making available their top sailors for the ACWS event. Skippers Dean Brenner (ETNZ) and Chris Draper (LRC) are slated to lead their teams.

The America’s Cup defender and Challenger of Record will each be fielding one team, with Oracle Team USA led by 2012 Olympic gold medalist Tom Slingsby and Artemis Racing to be skippered by 23-year-old Charlie Ekberg, Sweden’s top 49er sailor and skipper of Artemis Racing/Swedish Youth Challenge for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup.

The other four teams are…

HS Racing: Roman Hagara (AUT)
J.P. Morgan BAR: Ben Ainslie (GBR)
Energy Team: Yann Guichard (FRA)
China Team: Mitch Booth (AUS/NED)

Note: Team Korea, previously an America’s Cup World Series participant and Louis Vuitton Cup entrant, has withdrawn from further competition in the 34th America’s Cup. In a letter to the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the team indicated it has plans to enter the 35th America’s Cup. – Full report