America’s Cup: No quit for Long Beach Yacht Club

While the 36th America’s Cup has a Defender and three powerful Challengers from Great Britain, Italy, and USA, there are also two other Challengers that have had less certainty.

Teams from the Netherlands and another from USA, along with an effort from Malta, had submitted entries by the late entry deadline on November 30, 2018. While Malta has since tapped out, the other two have thus far shown no quit.

But at some point determination needs dollars, with the two remaining late challengers – Stars + Stripes USA and DutchSail – required to confirm their ongoing commitment to the 36th America’s Cup by July 1. The first announcement came from Long Beach Yacht Club:
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Long Beach, CA (June 29, 2019) – Long Beach Yacht Club and its sailing representative Stars+Stripes USA confirm their participation in the 36th America’s Cup presented by Prada.

“Long Beach Yacht Club is committed to making the start line at the first America’s Cup World Series Event in Cagliari, Italy, our membership is excited and we are all working hard to achieve our goal of bringing the America’s Cup to Long Beach,” said Camille Daniels, Commodore of Long Beach Yacht Cub.

“We appreciate the continued support of LBYC and its membership, and the assistance of Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, over the past few months as we have reorganized our team,” said Mike Buckley, Co-Founder and Skipper of Stars+Stripes USA. “We continue to make progress with corporate partners, and believe we will have what it takes to be competitive in Auckland.”
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With all the America’s Cup teams to have an AC75 ready for the first America’s Cup World Series event planned for April 2020 in Italy, and given the time required for construction, transportation, and training, the wheels need to be turning now for that deadline to be met. Scuttlebutt reached out to Stars+Stripes USA for an update but the team has thus far not responded to this request.

The team will also have to complete the entry fee payment process before they will be eligible to race. They have already paid their initial payment but as a late entry challenger under the Protocol they also have a liability to pay a US$1million late entry fee due in installments by October 1, 2019.

In addition to Challenges from Italy, USA, and Great Britain that were accepted during the initial entry period (January 1 to June 30, 2018), eight additional Notices of Challenge were received by the late entry deadline on November 30, 2018. Of those eight submittals, entries from Malta, USA, and the Netherlands were also accepted. Here’s the list:

Defender:
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL)

Challengers:
• Luna Rossa (ITA) – Challenger of Record
• American Magic (USA)
• INEOS Team UK (GBR)
• Malta Altus Challenge (MLT) – WITHDREW
• Stars & Stripes Team USA (USA)
• DutchSail (NED)

Key America’s Cup dates:
✔ September 28, 2017: 36th America’s Cup Protocol released
✔ November 30, 2017: AC75 Class concepts released to key stakeholders
✔ January 1, 2018: Entries for Challengers open
✔ March 31, 2018: AC75 Class Rule published
✔ June 30, 2018: Entries for Challengers close
✔ August 31, 2018: Location of the America’s Cup Match and The PRADA Cup confirmed
✔ August 31, 2018: Specific race course area confirmed
✔ November 30, 2018: Late entries deadline
✔ March 31, 2019: Boat 1 can be launched (DELAYED)
✔ 2nd half of 2019: 2 x America’s Cup World Series Preliminary Events (CANCELLED)
October 1, 2019: US$1million late entry fee deadline
February 1, 2020: Boat 2 can be launched
During 2020: 3 x America’s Cup World Series Preliminary Events
December 10-20, 2020: America’s Cup Christmas Race
January and February 2021: The PRADA Cup Challenger Selection Series
March 2021: The America’s Cup Match

Details: www.americascup.com