Within a month of the official announcement last September that the America’s Cup was to be raced aboard multihulls, the Peyron brothers announced that they wanted to bring French know-how together to set up a Challenge to attempt to win the prestigious trophy. That is exactly what they have now achieved.
Wally has a busy 2011 calendar attending a total of 8 Superyacht Regattas and Boat Shows during the 2011 yachting season. The regattas include Palmavela, The Nespresso Cup, The Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta, The Giraglia Rolex Cup, The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Les Voiles de Saint Tropez and the two boat shows include the Cannes Boat Show, and the Monaco Yacht Show.
With its technical shakedown now complete, it is handover day for the new AC45 wing-sailed catamaran, marking the beginning of the next era of the America’s Cup. America’s Cup Race Management (ACRM) will now manage the logistics, care and maintenance of the prototype as competitors test the boat over the coming weeks. The AC45 is the forerunner to the larger AC72, which will be used in the 34thAmerica’s Cup.
The New Zealander, who has been a race officer for the last four editions of the America’s Cup, will be the Director of On-Water Operations and Assistant Principal Race Officer. As the Principal Race Officer for the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia, Bennett is also one of the few to have race management experience with giant multihulls.
There are now a total of seven confirmed and validated competitors for the 34th America’s Cup. The seven include ALEPH Equipe de France, Artemis Racing, Mascalzone Latino, ORACLE RACING, two undisclosed teams, and now the Yacht Club de France team. There will be an announcement on Wednesday, 9 February, in Paris to reveal details of the challenging team.
With less than a month to go before the kick-off of the 31st St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, which this year runs from March 3-6, the entry list continues to grow at a rapid pace, and now surpasses over a hundred yachts (the “century mark”) competing in a half-dozen different classes.
The J Class yachts VELSHEDA, sailing yacht RANGER and S/Y SHAMROCK V will be participating in the J CLASS NEWPORT REGATTA, the first of a series of global J Class events, culminating in the Hundred Guinea Cup race, Cowes 2012.
The BVI Spring Regatta is celebrating several important milestones at this year’s event (March 28 – April 3, 2011), including the regatta’s 40th anniversary and many wonderful years of support from its oldest sponsors, Mount Gay Rum, Heineken and their distributor Road Town Wholesale (RTW), a Tortola-based food and spirit distributor.
The inaugural Neptune Regatta is the World’s only sailing regatta and motor yacht rally, that centers around a race to the equator and back. Using various social networks and creating a web site quickly raised a lot of interest in the Singapore boating community, which sees 9 sailing yachts in two classes and 4 power boats of various sizes entering the inaugural event.
The extraordinary carbon-fiber machine USA 17 is being loaded onto the freighter M.V. Star Isfjord this week for the long delivery trip to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. The freighter carrying both USA 17 and her extraordinary 223ft wingsail is scheduled to leave Valencia on January 29 or 30 for the 7,900-nautical-mile passage to the Bay Area.