Barcelona will see the AC75 compete with the same format as the ‘Challenger Series’ and the grand Final for the title
MADRID, 26 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The CEO of the 37th America’s Cup and skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand, Grant Dalton, has confirmed that the last of the competition’s three Preliminary Regattas, which will take place in Barcelona in September 2024, will have the same ‘Match Race’ format. ‘that the regattas of the ‘Challenger Series’ and the grand Final for the title and not a Fleet format, unlike the Preliminaries of Vilanova i la Geltrú and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
“It makes sense for you to imitate the format of the ‘Challenger Series’ and the Final in the regatta that you do just before. So it is more than likely that we will hold our last Preliminary in Barcelona, two weeks after the Olympic Games, in a Match Race format “said Dalton from the NH Collection Eurobuilding in Madrid, at the Europa Press Sports Breakfasts, sponsored by DAZN, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, UnicajaBanco and Vithas.
Dalton confirmed this format and argued for it on two grounds. “With the AC40s we can all sail together because they are smaller, but it is very unlikely that we will sail with the AC75s in a fleet environment. For two reasons. One, because it could be dangerous because they are very fast and very large,” he commented on the AC75, boats that will compete in the Copa América in Barcelona and in its last Preliminary.
“And second, we are only a week before the actual start of the ‘Challenger Series’, which is in a ‘Match Race’ format, of a boat against a boat,” said Dalton, who confirmed the change in format with respect to the Preliminary Regatta. of Vilanova i la Geltrú, already held in September of this year, and the one that will be held in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) between the end of November and the beginning of December 2023.
And in both Vilanova and Jeddah, the AC40 boats will be used, smaller, more agile and lighter than the AC75. With the AC40 – official boats of the Women’s and the Youth America’s Cup – Fleet Races were held with all six boats competing at the same time on the racing field.
In Barcelona, in the last Preliminary and as a final test before the Copa América itself (‘Challenger Series’ with the five challengers –France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy and the United States) and the grand Final between the defending Emirates Team New Zealand and the winning boat of those ‘Challenger Series’), the brand new AC75 will be seen but in a ‘one on one’ format, not in the Fleet format.