At the beginning of June, the dry dock of Pendennis is emptied of the huge yachts They are getting ready for the season. It will be then when this space of port of Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf, Barcelona) will undertake the transformation that should allow, between September 14 and 17, to become the headquarters of the first preliminary regatta of the Sailing America’s Cup What will be celebrated in Barcelona.
But the preparations they’ve been going for weeks. In fact, the person responsible for America’s Cup Events (ACE), leslie ryan, meets almost weekly with those responsible for the Navy to advance. “Vilanova’s appointment is a first test to test everything that will happen next year,” Ryan points out.
15,000 square meters
Next to her, the director of PendennisMiquel Lliteras, observes how the six teams of the Copa América will be arranged in the space of 15,000 square meters of its facilities. Each squad will occupy a tent of 18 meters by 25placed one next to the other, next to the water, where these days they are still painted and conditioned boats of all sizes
In June, an army of 50 people per team (in total there are about 120) will occupy Vilanova to test the smallest monohulls, the AC40, competing for the first time in Catalonia and measuring their forces. A little further, sheltered from the port, an 80-meter-long jetty will be set up in case the teams from Emirates New Zealand (New Zealand), Ineos Britannia (Britain), Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italy) NYYC American Magic (USA), Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland) or Orient Express Racing (France) want to leave their ‘flying’ boats in the water.
Popularize the regattas
The ACE directive He carries a folder under his arm with an endless number of maps and locations, measurements and characteristics of the Vilanovin preliminary regatta, the first of the three that accompanies the great world event in Barcelona in 2024. The other two will be in jeddah (Saudi Arabia) in November and in Barcelona on a date yet to be decided.
“Our priority is bring the regattas closer to the public as much as possible, so in the port square there will be a ‘village’ for 8,000 people with screens, a person who will animate and present the teams, music, shows,” Ryan describes. Ribes Roges, nearby, will become the ‘stands’ from where the public will be able to follow the competitive regatta in the open, without tickets, for free. In the restaurant and club the goldennext to the Marina from where the boats will leave, will be the press center international, where some 80 means.
2,700 volunteers, 350 in Garraf
Another way of bringing the America’s Cup of sailing closer to the general public will be with the volunteer program. As happened with the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, soon the organization will open a bag to sign up as a volunteer. The person in charge of ACE explains that there will be 350 places for Vilanova (50 to be in the water) and another 2,350 for Barcelona. An appeal will be made to the yacht clubs but also to any person “proud of their city who wants to help.”
In the first case, they will ‘only’ be needed to four days but, as in the case of the Catalan capital, they are 68 days of event (of which about 40 will compete), they will be distributed by slots of 10 days of dedication. Whoever wants, can participate as a volunteer in both appointments.
“We will meet expectations”
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“The people of Vilanova you just can’t believe that they have chosen us for an event of such worldwide repercussion”, reveals the mayoress of Vilanova, Olga Arnau. “The city will meet expectations. We have done Work groups to manage mobility, everything related to the hotel industry, the associative fabric and volunteering, security or cleaning: every day there are meetings about one thing or another,” he says. The first estimates they speak of 20,000 people a day, with which they will be almost 100,000 people in a few days.
On a smaller scale than what is happening in the Port of Barcelona, Vilanova has very well defined the locations in which the pre-regatta will take place, both in the water and on land, coordinated with ACE. “The organizers insisted that they did not want us to do not a single work“, stresses the mayoress. On Monday, the CEO himself, Grant Dalton, was in Vilanova together with Leslie Ryan. There are barely four months left, with summer in between, and the dress rehearsal will be a great showcase.