Many America's Cup fans say this is their best source of information.
Here’s an index to several articles on the Cup Experience website that give more background about each team’s development boats. Note: Neither Team New Zealand nor Team France has a development boat yet.
Update: 30 April 2015: Team Japan has officially announced their challenge. Led by General Manager Kazuhiko Sofuku “Fuku” and sailing for Kansai Yacht Club. Fuku last raced with a Japanese team for the Cup 15 years ago as bowman for Nippon Challenge during the 1999/2000 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series. A base level of technical assistance from ORACLE TEAM USA will be provided to Team Japan as it prepares for the 2015 America’s Cup World Series events.
The long-rumored Asian challenger will be sponsored by Softbank, led by Masayoshi Son, Japan’s richest man. Son has made multiple fortunes, betting correctly on internet and communications trends. He is extremely well connected. A daring entrepreneur and self-made man, he built a PC software distribution business in Japan before being one of the earliest investors in Yahoo.
Masayoshi Son later invested in Jack Ma’s Chinese internet company, Alibaba, which has become one of the most important internet companies in China and the world. In 2014 there were rumors that Larry Ellison had approached Ma about backing a Chinese America’s Cup challenger.
Masayoshi Son definitely “thinks different.” He persuaded Steve Jobs to give him exclusive distribution for the then-brand-new iPhone before he had even built a mobile communications company.
Join the April Cup Experience Webcast next Wednesday 29 April to learn more about the new Japanese challenge backed by Japan’s richest man. We’ll also look at the completely new racing schedule with all challenger selection racing in Bermuda.
Free for Cup Experience Club Gold members. Special member pricing for Silver and Bronze.
Here’s an example of the trickle down effect of foiling in the America’s Cup… Peter Johnstone had already attracted a lot of attention for his Gunboat high performance cruising catamarans. Then he built one that foils. And took it racing at Les Voiles de Saint Barth. It capsized! That’s the bad news. The good news: no one was hurt, almost nothing broke (a couple of mainsail battens) and they had it righted very quickly after the capsize.
Watch:
http://vimeo.com/125378004
More photos in this article by Richard Gladwell here.
The round robin phase of the challenger selection series (formerly called the Louis Vuitton Cup) was originally planned for a venue other than the rest of the racing. When Bermuda was announced as the venue for the America’s Cup Match and for the semi-finals and finals of challenger selection, AC Commercial Commissioner Harvey Schiller hinted that Auckland would host the round robin, called the AC Qualifiers. That plan has now been scrapped by the AC Event Authority, as they have announced that all 2017 racing will be held in Bermuda. Remember that the AC World Series in 2015 and 2016 will be only fleet racing in one design AC45’s. Racing in the new AC48 / America’s Cup Class boats begins in 2017 and is match racing only. You can see an overview of the competition format here.
Team New Zealand claims that ACEA abided by the then-in-force version of the Protocol and announced on 15 February 2015 that Auckland would host the AC Qualifiers. Defender Oracle got approval from a majority of the challengers (Artemis, BAR and Team France) to change the announcement date retroactively. ACEA then announced Bermuda as the venue for the AC Qualifiers. With no event in Auckland, the New Zealand government will not sponsor the team, threatening their survival. Team New Zealand protested to the not-yet-appointed Arbitration Panel. It’s not clear what would happen if the Arbitration Panel were to rule in Team New Zealand’s favor – would ACEA be obliged to hold the Qualifiers in Auckland after all?