Ben Pawlowski
THIS August 22, six teams will descend on Barcelona to begin their bid to claim the 37th edition of the America’s Cup, the world’s premier sailing competition.
Following years of technological innovation and hundreds of millions of euros of investment from super-rich backers, five teams will compete for the right to become the Challengers of Record and face off against the reigning champions, New Zealand, in a series of races in October.
Sir Ben Ainslee, the four-time Olympic sailing champion, is the skipper and CEO of the Britannia team, which has been backed by billionaire Manchester United owner and INEOS founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe and received technical support from the Mercedes Formula One team.
Britain have never won the America’s Cup – only the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland have claimed the trophy in the competition’s 170-year history – but will have to face off against Switzerland’s Alinghi Red Bull Racing, Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the United States’ NYYC American Magic and France’s Orient Express Racing Team in the Challenger Selection Series which includes a round-robin stage, semi-finals and a final.
At the round-robin stage, which will last until September 8, each challenger crew will race each other twice, with the top four progressing to the semi-finals.
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In the semi-finals, the first team to win five races will advance to the Louis Vuitton Cup final, where the first team to win seven races will qualify for the America’s Cup match against holders New Zealand, who as reigning champions after 2021 have been granted a bye to the final stage of the competition – between the 12th and 17th October, the two teams will vye off against each other in a first-to-seven battle.
Each team will use an AC75 boat, a 75ft foiling race craft with one carbon-fibre hull which, with a sail up to 26.5m high, can reach speeds in excess of 50 knots (57.5mph).
Each side has set up a base inside Barcelona’s port, with the action set to take place off the Catalan coast – the first America’s Cup was held around the Isle of Wight in 1851.
Barcelona will become the second Spanish city to host the competition after Valencia, which hosted two consecutive editions of the yacht event in 2007 and 2010.
Barcelona’s former left-wing mayor, Ada Colau, successfully fought off bids from Valencia and Malaga to host this year’s edition of the world’s oldest existing sporting competition.
However, the America’s Cup is likely to become the latest target for anti-tourist protesters who have blasted the sailing race as ‘elitist and opaque’, claiming that ‘it will bring nothing but every sort of misery to the city’.
Violent clashes between protesters and police broke out in May after Louis Vuitton, the fashion brand and title sponsors of the America’s Cup, hosted a fashion parade in the Antoni Gaudi-designed Parc Guell in Barcelona, closing off the public park and causing damage to some of Gaudi’s iconic mosaics.
Locals have complained that the tournament is driving an increase in tourists which is pushing up rental prices within the city, forcing many residents towards the suburbs and out of the urban area.
However, Barcelona city authorities have sought to stifle anger by claiming that the event will provide a €1bn boost to the local economy.
Nevertheless, others are angry that the super-rich event is relying on volunteers, rather than providing paid, short-term jobs to locals.
Recently, anti-tourist protesters in the city have targeted large events including an F1 roadshow on Passeig de Gracia in the central Eixample district, while others made international headlines with more direct action earlier this summer after spraying tourists with water whilst they enjoyed their dinner on the city’s streets.
