America’s Cup: Can you feel it yet?

The first race of the 37th America’s Cup is on October 12, 2024. With one year to go, all teams will have finalized their AC75 design with construction now underway. For the defender, it will be the eighth time the New Zealand team will be lining up for the start of the America’s Cup Match.

As the Kiwi team returns home to train in their summer months, the five challengers will continue their preparation in the winter of Barcelona, Spain. With the temperature in the high 50s°F from November to April, this is also the windier time of year. But these are averages… some days better, some days worse.

In this report from the event organizers, they cluster bomb us with promotional prose for the countdown toward competition:

We are now into the final push. It’s exactly one year to go until the talking stops, the training and testing and the Challenger Selection Series are over, and the ultimate Challenger has been decided to line up against the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, for Race One of the America’s Cup Match. The most anticipated day of every America’s Cup cycle.

The pressure building on all the teams in this cycle is palpable with big decisions having been taken in terms of hull profile design but even bigger ones in terms of foils, systems, sail designs, crew protocols and racing playbook styles still very much up in the air.

Through the summer in Barcelona, the teams have been working hard to familiarise themselves with the unique conditions that they encounter on a daily basis off the La Barceloneta seafront with its swells the chop, and all manner of conditions from flat calm to full-on. It’s an ultimate sailing challenge but even more of a design conundrum.

Some parameters are set in stone for the racing with lower and upper wind limits set out in the Protocol governing the 37th America’s Cup. Some of the componentry onboard the AC75s is also set to pre-ordained designs and standards but the race in a developmental battle with thousands of variables remaining for the world’s best designers, engineers, mechatronics experts, AI developers and computer technicians to delve into to find the winning edge.

For the sailors, the years of training have all been about data gathering and proving out the computer simulations to find accurate baselines and prove assumptions in a real-world environment. For the cyclors, it has been about endless hours on their road bikes and static bikes, crunching out the miles, climbing impossible hill pathways and hitting wattage numbers that Tour de France ‘puncheurs’ would be proud of.

Now, everything is getting serious. The America’s Cup competition is coming fast. The countdown clock is relentless. The time for ideation is over. Decisions have to be made. Build schedules must be completed. The point of ‘now or never’ hangs over every competitor like a sword of Damocles.

Whilst the sailors and teams prepare, so too do the people of Barcelona and its vibrant society who have taken the America’s Cup to their hearts with recent events including the opening of the 37th America’s Cup Official Exhibition Centre in the Port Vell which also hosted the Opening Ceremony of the 61st Barcelona International Boat Show, and a ‘Reception for the Teams’ organized by the City Council in the presence of all the administrations.

“We are ready to sail with you,” the Mayor of Barcelona assured, whilst the Head of the Catalan Government emphasized the “unquestionable uniqueness of the America’s Cup” and stressed that it is a “great opportunity for our country and to showcase Catalonia to the world.”

This time next year, we will know the winner of the Challenger Selection Series. Whoever that may well be, they will have endured one of the hardest competitions of their sailing lives and with so little to choose between all of the challengers, it will come down to who can keep their pace of development going through the round robins and who can handle the white-hot pressure of competition at the very highest level.

Every challenger has a case that could be made in their favor, but the winner will be the one that delivers on the greatest stage, right when it matters most. No place for the faint hearted.

But with the Challenger selected, the pace of the competition changes, the world’s media descends on Barcelona, helicopters buzz in the sky, superyachts arrive, and the atmosphere alters and fizzes with a competitive electricity as the only certainty of the 37th America’s Cup Match hove’s into view – Emirates Team New Zealand.

What the Kiwis will deliver on that start-line against the battle-hardened Challenger as they go for an unprecedented three-in-a-row wins by a team in the greatest sailing competition on the planet is the great mystery of this unique competition.

And then comes the moment that commentators and scribes for decades have described as the point where “we know” as the gun fires at the start of the first race of the America’s Cup and the two goliath AC75s, at the very pinnacle and cutting-edge of development, head off upwind.

Who has the speed edge? Who is pointing higher? Who will hit the boundary first and force the tack? These are the questions that will be early indicators of the outcome and destination of the most famous trophy in sailing.

But hold on. The America’s Cup in foiling yachts that have optimal design windows for specific conditions, could well see major surprises and upsets and with Barcelona in the autumn capable of delivering conditions that can be at either end of the spectrum or bang in the middle with a variety of sea-states, wind directions and swells, this could be the hardest America’s Cup in history to call.

We could see the closest contest for the ‘Auld Mug’ since 1983. A gambler’s folly. A commentator’s nightmare.

The great winner will undoubtedly be the beautiful city of Barcelona with its cosmopolitan outlook, world-class infrastructure, dynamic history, outstanding architecture, culture and vibrancy. Barcelona is a must-visit destination and for the thousands of spectators that will make the journey to support their team and witness history unfolding, it promises to be sensational.

The eyes of the world are set to be trained and intensified on Barcelona in the coming twelve months. What we know for sure is that the city is ready and has a history of executing world class sporting events from the Champions League to Formula 1 to even the Olympic Games itself. Barcelona delivers on every level.

And for locals wishing to be a part of history, it has never been easier to volunteers with submissions open on the Official America’s Cup website for a myriad of opportunities to be a part and to make the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona, the stand-out event on the sporting calendar in 2024.

One year to go until the greatest sailing show on earth. Can you feel it yet?

Following the publication of the AC37 Protocol and AC75 Class Rule on November 17, 2021, the AC75 Class Rule and AC Technical Regulations were finalized on March 17, 2022. The entry period opened December 1, 2021 and runs until July 31, 2022, but late entries for the 37th America’s Cup may be accepted until May 31, 2023. The Defender was to announce the Match Venue on September 17, 2021 but postponed the venue reveal, confirming it would be Barcelona on March 30, 2022. The 37th America’s Cup begins October 12, 2024.

Teams revealed to challenge defender Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL):
• INEOS Britannia (GBR)
• Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI)
• Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team (ITA)
• NYYC American Magic (USA)
• Orient Express Racing Team (FRA)

2023-24 Preliminary Regattas
September 14-17, 2023 (AC40): Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
November 30-December 3 (AC40): Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
August 2024 (AC75): Barcelona, Spain

2024 America’s Cup
September: Challenger Selection Series
October 12 – ?: 37th Match (Best of 13)

Additionally, 12 teams will compete in the 2024 Youth & Women’s America’s Cup.

Noticeboard: https://ac37noticeboard.acofficials.org/
Additional details: www.americascup.com/en/home