Moët & Chandon may be the official champagne of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, but its G.H. Mumm champagne that is literally sailing. Paving the way for low-carbon shipping, Mumm bottles reached New-York’s harbor on September 3rd on a sailing cargo ship from Le Havre, France.

Recognizing the promise and potential of the young company – TransOceanic Wind Transport (TOWT) – from Brittany, now based in its home port of Le Havre, Mumm signed a commitment letter in 2021, enabling TOWT to begin construction of its first sailing cargo ship in Concarneau.

The TOWT is the largest vessel of its kind ever built in modern history, measuring 81 meters long and boasting six cargo holds with a combined capacity of over 1,000 tons, making it the most powerful in its class. – Full story

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World Champion, Nick Craig, from Britain, continues to hold the lead of the September 2024 OK Dinghy World Ranking List…

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Twenty boats and crews have already claimed their spot on the starting line for the 2025 Transpacific Yacht Race, including past first-place finishers Pyewacket, Roy Disney’s Andrews 70, and the Kernan 68 Peligroso…

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A busy and ambitious schedule was set to make up for the lost races on day 2. The wind was around 8 to 10 knots, with a few light spells ready to trip teams up…

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The World Sailing Show delivers 30-minute episodes which feature news, profiles, and racing highlights from across the world of sailing. The August 2024 episode goes behind the scenes in Marseille to catch up with the winners and headline makers from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Athletes in 10 events – one of which was making its Olympic debut – battled the elements and each other in fierce competition befitting the grandest stage…

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NYYC American Magic’s second match in the Louis Vuitton Cup saw the US team face the Swiss squad, Alinghi Red Bull Racing, in the first match of the second day of the first round-robin stage of the challenger selection series…

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While retrieving the AC75 from sailing today the crane failed while lifting onto its cradle and landed heavily. All team members are safe…

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For home fans of the Team New Zealand, remaining interested in the 37th America’s Cup is a challenge. Beyond the sting of losing their home event to Barcelona, Spain, the Kiwi nation now must tune-in at midnight to watch “their defense”.

New Zealander Hamish Ross, a legal advisor for America’s Cup teams in the past, has been vocal critic about the defender hosting the event offshore, and is already considering the venue for the 38th America’s Cup in this report:

If you hadn’t noticed (!), it’s an America’s Cup year.

Sadly, many former fans in this country can’t be bothered with it anymore, feeling betrayed after decades of promises of “bringing the Cup home” to stage home defenses.

By the end of the forthcoming Cup match this October, the winner will have largely set up, with a hand-picked challenger of record, the rules and possibly the venue for AC38, even if they are not immediately announced.

As is plainly stated in the Deed of Gift, the Cup does not belong to the team that wins it but to their yacht club, which holds the Cup as trustee. The club cannot contract out its many trustee duties to anyone. While the club may consult, the final decision on the venue for a cup match is the club’s alone to make.

The top contenders in AC37 will soon be considering what will happen if they win the Cup because they need to lock up their arrangements immediately after they win to ensure control over the next Cup defense.

Should the present defender be successful, it will again bring into focus whether it ought to be defended in home waters, as it always was (and arguably required by the Deed). That decision lies fully in the hands of the general committee of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS), to be elected this week, despite a likely repeat of legal threats and tantrums from Mr. Dalton. The committee alone has the sole and absolute power to order Team New Zealand to plan to hold the next defense (AC38) in home waters.

Last time, New Zealand was subjected to [seemingly false] claims and crocodile tears that defense was too expensive for New Zealand to host. The Cup rules for AC37 had been decided before the venue.

This argument can be neatly avoided if the venue is established upfront. The rules can then be set around a home waters defense at an affordable cost.

It will be interesting to see if a newly elected RNZYS general committee will have the moral fiber to rise to the occasion to repair the damage after a predecessor committee timidly acquiesced to what many believe to have been an immoral heist of the Cup.

It only requires a simple public announcement from the RNZYS: “If the RNZYS 37th America’s Cup defense is successful, the next defense will be held in New Zealand waters in [date].” The New York Yacht Club, after all, did precisely this for decades while it held the Cup.

It is difficult to stomach the current campaign, seeking the return of local support for the defender, where there has been a lack of support in return.

The decades-old America’s Cup promise made to New Zealanders first by Sir Michael Fay, followed by Sir Peter Blake of “bringing the Cup home” to be replaced with a rather un-New Zealand unspoken message of “get stuffed New Zealand”, seemingly driven by self-interest, leaving the Auckland America’s Cup facilities paid for by taxpayers and ratepayers for home defenses, lying empty, whilst New Zealand remains mired in a post-COVID economic recession.

Promise a home waters defense and local support will surely return.

Editor’s note: Hamish notes how the America’s Cup defense had always been held in home waters, but that omits the 2017 event in which the USA took the racing offshore to Bermuda (also for $$$). While the 2007 and 2010 defenses by Alinghi were not held in Switzerland, that was due to a lack of suitable venue per the Deed of Gift.

Viewing details – Race information – Weather forecast

Races start at 14:00 CET (08:00 ET) and run until 16:30 or 17:00, depending on the schedule.

Following the publication of the AC37 Protocol and AC75 Class Rule on November 17, 2021, the AC75 Class Rule and AC Technical Regulations were finalized on March 17, 2022. The entry period was from December 1, 2021 until July 31, 2022, but late entries for the 37th America’s Cup could be accepted until May 31, 2023. The Defender was to announce the Match Venue on September 17, 2021 but postponed the reveal, finally confirming Barcelona on March 30, 2022. The 37th America’s Cup begins October 12, 2024.

Teams revealed to challenge defender Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL):
• INEOS Britannia (GBR)
• Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI)
• Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team (ITA)
• NYYC American Magic (USA)
• Orient Express Racing Team (FRA)

2023-24 Preliminary Regattas
September 14-17, 2023 (AC40): Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
November 30-December 2 (AC40): Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
August 22-25, 2024 (AC75): Barcelona, Spain

2024 Challenger Selection Series
August 29-September 8: Double Round Robin
September 14-19: Semi Finals (Best of 9)
September 26-October 7: Finals (Best of 13)

2024 America’s Cup
October 12-21: 37th Match (Best of 13)

For competition details, click here.

Additionally, 12 teams will compete in the 2024 Youth & Women’s America’s Cup.

Noticeboard: https://ac37noticeboard.acofficials.org/
Event details: www.americascup.com/en/home

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Don Wilson (USA) and his Convexity team won the 2024 Melges 24 World Championship on August 20-24 in San Francisco, CA. Thirty-one entrants from five nation competed in the 12-race series, with Bora Gulari (USA) finishing one point off the lead in second, while Croatian Ante Botica was 13th overall as the top Corinthian team.

After four days of competitive racing on Berkeley Circle in San Francisco Bay, the fifth and final day offered two races to determine the title. Gulari won the first race, which placed him just one point behind Wilson, setting up a nail-biting finale. In the final race, Gulari and Wilson engaged in a match race but they both finished in the teens which would be their discard race.

Alongside Wilson was tactician Jeremy Wilmot and crew members Ian Liberty, Edward Hackney, and Tomas Dietrich.

The 2025 World Championship will be late August or early September in Trieste, Italy.

Event information – Results – Facebook

Final Results (Top 10 of 31; 12 races)
1. USA 868 – Convexity – Don Wilson – 38 points
2. USA 820 – Kingspoke – Bora Gulari – 39 points
3. USA 856 – Sentinel – Geoff Fargo – 57 points
4. GER 859 – Nefeli – Peter Karrié – 67 points
5. USA 849 – Full Throttle – Brian Porter – 68 points
6. USA 619 – Stepping Razor – Anthony Kotoun – 69 points
7. USA 829 – Raza Mixta – Peter Duncan – 73 points
8. ITA 865 – Bombarda – Andrea Pozzi – 83 points
9. USA 830 – Straightarrow – Chelsea Simms – 89 points
10. USA 863 – Dark Horse – Cuyler Morris – 95 points

Corinthian division (Top 3 of 16; 12 races)
1. CRO 649 – Mataran 24 – Ante Botica – 111 points
2. USA 855 – Looper – Duane Yoslov – 154 points
3. USA 549 – Average – Kent Pierce – 174 points

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As the sun set in Barcelona on a memorable Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, it was Emirates Team New Zealand spraying the Moët & Chandon champagne as winners, after an enthralling and epic, super-tight final battle with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli…

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The pecking order is shaping up with the teams. Emirates Team New Zealand, look calm and assured at the top. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli are arguably the best of the rest, but New York Yacht Club American Magic could also justifiably lay claim to that spot…

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With two days sailed, a third of the six team fleet has suffered a “technology failure”. Add in Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s broken mast last Tuesday, and that third of the technology challenged fleet comes up to half the fleet affected in less than a week.

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Day 2 of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta in Barcelona has concluded, promising a lot but again with delivery short of expectations. Three races sailed were over at the start – a big lesson for next week…

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Welcome to America’s Cup coverage – Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta – Day 1 – Barcelona. Featuring race #3 USA vs UK

Racing has concluded on what was generally a disappointing first day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Event, and the first occasion in which the six teams entered in the 2024 America’s Cup have competed in serious televised racing…

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A fleet of 113 riders gather on Pingtan Island for first ever Wingfoil Racing World Cup in China.

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France’s Orient Express Racing Team is all systems go to make the most of this week’s Preliminary Regatta, their final opportunity to test themselves against the other challenger teams before the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Barcelona gets under way…

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