Sailing: after 172 years the America’s Cup goes to the water in Saudi Arabia

Everything is ready in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for the second of the preliminary stages of the America’s Cup, the last one which will be contested with the AC 40s (the third appointment is scheduled for August in Barcelona with the AC75s, the hulls which we will also see in the Cup America). It is the first time in 172 years of history that the teams participating in the Cup will race in the Red Sea. The nerve center of the event will be the Jeddah Yacht Club & Marina which will host the Race Village, while the regatta field will be located in front of the Corniche, a famous Saudi tourist resort which also hosts the F1 circuit. In the water from 29 November to 2 December the six teams registered for the America’s Cup n.37: Emirates Team New Zealand, Ineos Britannia, Alinghi Red Bull, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, American Magic, Orient Express. The regatta program is the same as Vilanova i la Geltrù (hopefully with different results given that the Spanish regattas did not offer a great show due to the weather conditions). Wednesday 29th will be dedicated to the Practice Races while on Thursday 30th and Friday 1st the fleet regattas will be held (3 per day) and on Saturday 2nd two fleet regattas and the final match race are scheduled, between the first two crews in the ranking, which will decide the winner. The starting signal is scheduled every day at 1.30pm local time (11.30am in Italy).

Red Moon

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Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli The Italian team will field a revolutionized crew compared to the one that raced in Spain, with Ruggero Tita, 31 years old, Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo with Nacra and world champion (with Caterina Banti) with the flying catamaran making his debut at the helm, and Marco Gradoni, 19 years old, child prodigy of Italian sailing, three times consecutive Optimist world champion. Both helmsmen won the Rolex World Sailor of the Year, considered the sailing Oscar awarded by the world sailing federation (Tita in 2022, and Gradoni in 2019 at just 15 years old, the youngest sailor to win it). However, Francesco Bruni (who will participate in the SSL Gold Cup final in Gran Canaria on the same days) and James Spithill were not called up. On board the Italian hull, Vittorio Bissaro (world champion with the Nacra 17 in 2019) and Federico Colaninno will debut in the role of trimmer, while we will see Umberto Molineris again on board also in Vilanova. “We are happy and curious to compete on a regatta field that is an absolute novelty for everyone – declared Max Sirena skipper and team director of Luna Rossa – in compliance with our sporting approach which aims to rotate team members in order to find the perfect mix for the America’s Cup”. The Italians’ aim is to improve on fourth place in the last stage.

American Magic

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After having declared on several occasions that it would not race in Saudi Arabia for security reasons, the US team led by Tom Slingby (fresh winner of the 2023 World Sailor of the Year award) and Paul Goodison will also be in Jeddah. The New York Yacht Club crew is still in Barcelona where they are completing the speed tests on Patriot, (the AC 75 of the 2021 America’s Cup), but they will arrive on the Red Sea ready to confirm the first place achieved in Catalonia.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing

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The Swiss were the first to move to Jeddah and have been training with the two AC 40s since the beginning of November. For the regattas the Swiss (fifth in Spain) showed up with two crews and have already declared that this time they aim to get on the podium.

Emirates Team New Zealand

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The Kiwis, second to Vilanova, remain the team to beat, at the end of October they left Barcelona to move to Auckland and take advantage of the southern summer to continue testing. Peter Burling, Nathan Outteridge, Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney are training in the Haurak Gulf

Ineos Britannia

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The English were the second team to arrive and are testing the race course. Sir Ben Ainslie will certainly want to make up for the poor result obtained in Spain, a last place to which the 4-time Olympic gold medalist is not accustomed.

Orient Express Racing

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The French would like to confirm the excellent Spanish performance, a third place as deserved as it is unexpected given that the crew had only trained on the AC 40 for two weeks, but the French are aware that this time achieving the objective will not be easy. The regattas will be broadcast from 11.30 am on Mediaset channel 20 and on the dedicated Sky channels (Sky Sport Arena & Sky Sport 24).