The dates and venue for the first America’s Cup preliminary regatta have been announced with AC40 racing due in September in the Catalonian port of Vilanova i la Geltrú
The Catalonian port of Vilanova i la Geltrú, has today, Friday 17 March 2023, been announced as the Host Venue for the first Preliminary Regatta of the 37th America’s Cup, with racing to take place over four days between 14-17th September 2023 in the newly created AC40 class foiling monohull.
In contrast to the America’s Cup itself, raced in purpose-built AC75’s, which the teams develop themselves within a rule framework, the AC40’s are a strict one-design class. It is these mini foilers that are set to be used by each team in the Youth and Women’s America’s Cups.
Although the AC40s are a one-design class, teams are allowed to make changes to them during training in order to test concepts for the bigger AC72 America’s Cup boats, but they must be returned to the strict one-design rule set for this event and the Women’s and Youth AC.
This one-design racing provides little insight into which team might be best set-up to win the America’s Cup itself, as Cup racing is primarily a design competition with the winner, usually the team that is able…
