At some point in the summer of 2019, Composite Builders will open the big doors on the backside of its beige 30,000 square-foot fabrication lair and roll out its AC75 for Stars & Stripes Team USA. When this happens, you can bet the town of Holland, Michigan, will know all about it. While the everyday citizen may not realize it today, they’ll soon learn their little city on the shores of Lake Macatawa, once a hub of classic boatbuilding, has given birth to one of the most sophisticated sailboats the world has ever seen.

A dead giveaway of something America’s Cup is afoot in Western Michigan these days is the presence of a few new faces around the neighborhood. They’re here to build a boat — a wicked black one at that — under the leadership of transplanted Nova Scotian Brian MacInnes, a big-armed veteran of numerous Oracle Racing Team campaigns. He’s gone from grinding to working on America’s Cup boats: from IACCs to the Dogzilla trimaran and the Comeback AC72 of San Francisco.

RELATED: Second U.S. America’s Cup Challenger Goes Live

MacInnes (above, third from left) started the composites fabrication company after retiring from professional sailing in 2013. His wife Danielle, whom he met at a regatta in the late 1980s in Antigua, manages the books and keeps the place running smoothly. His son, Rock, runs the clean room and oversees Composite’s other day-to-day production items; like parts for Harken and the Paralympic medal-winning sit skis. MacInnes’s right-hand man, Jon Holstrom, lead boatbuilder for Oracle Racing Team for four campaigns, is essentially quality control and guarantee.

Business has been good since startup, says MacInnes. He’s had to move three times already, with his footprint growing exponentially each time. He only turned on the lights in his new facility in October 2018, just in time to gear up for the production of a foiling 75-footer for Stars & Stripes. His headcount is on the rise, currently at 30 or so, and more hands are on the way.

The Help Wanted sign is out. “Early on, we reached out to a few folks we knew,” MacInnes says, “but there are a lot of good guys out here [in Holland] too.”

They’re drawing builders from coast to coast, from technical schools and connections, and are eagerly looking for young skilled, technical laborers to back the core team. “We’re bringing them in, housing them, feeding them, and building a boat,” MacInnes says. “As this continues and ramps up, we will bring in the hydraulic guys, the electricians, and all the specialists that you need to run a campaign.” By summertime, he says, there will be 40 guys or so trying to find space on the boat to do their work.

“We’re really trying to tap into the younger generation to get them onto the scene,” MacInnes says. “We need to get the younger minds and backs on the team and train them up. I’m 50 years old now and I want to pass along what I know. It’s an awesome opportunity for us to mentor a new group of people.”

Granted, the unproven AC75 is a big step for Composite Builders. Taking on a build of this scale, MacInnes admits, isn’t daunting at all. “I know the guys are super excited. We’ve got a big place and the shop is full and buzzing. Hopefully it will show what West Michigan has to offer. The buzz is getting around and folks are showing up looking for work, so it’s good.”

By springtime, he says, there will be 10 or 15 additional guys buying coffee and egg sandwiches down at the bakery nearby.

Advising on the build, remotely, is Tim Smyth, a guru among New Zealand’s high-tech boatbuilding experts. Smyth’s company, Core Builders, once based in Anacortes, Washington, has had far and deep reaches into virtually every America’s Cup team of recent times, primarily with Oracle Racing. With Stars & Stripes Team USA having purchased a comprehensive design package from Emirates Team New Zealand, Smyth will consult when necessary with Alon Finkelstein, the team’s in-house senior engineer, who will liaise with the Cup defender’s design and engineering teams. Smyth’s role, says Stars & Stripes COO, Todd Reynolds, is to ensure boat No. 1 (of potentially two), is fast, safe, and reliable.

“It’s awesome to consult with Tim,” MacInnes says. “The team was lucky to be able to retain his services for this build. He has an experienced set of eyes and knowledge. The fact that he’s built every Oracle boat that’s come out of the shed since that campaign started…he just knows the ins and the outs of it all, from the ground up. A big part of this build is making sure we have the right information when we need it.”

With an experienced team coming into shape, activity is stirring inside Composite’s facility. Today, there’s a sense of urgency, but key decisions don’t need to be forced, just yet. “With a boat like this, it’s the small parts that bite you,” MacInnes says. “The internals and the framework that’s down below — the nuts and bolts of it. A lot of people like to see the shiny new hull, but really, it’s all the internals we need to get going. We want all the bits and pieces done so we can assemble it once we get our hull.”

Reported delays of supplied one-design components from New Zealand haven’t affected the team’s build progress to date (one benefit of starting late). “For us, it’s not a big concern because, being stock standard items, we can build around those pieces and then fit them in the end,” MacInnes says.

But the clock is running, and so too, are the shifts at Composite. MacInnes had his guys on the floor through Christmas and New Year’s Day as the boat’s major components took shape. He knows his timeline is dictated by the first AC75 regatta planned for Italy in October, and the boat would ideally need to be sea-trialed on Lake Michigan before it ships.

To date, the build has gone “swimmingly well,” MacInnes says. “It was a later start, for sure, but once we got rolling, the information has been flowing very well. Every time we build a boat like this you’re hunting for kilograms, and getting Team New Zealand’s design package behind us is a huge help with their engineering staff. We have the information we need to do it right, and we have a few tricks up our sleeve as well. We don’t have to do it exactly the way they’ve done it.”

When the team does eventually haul the big hull out of Holland on a flatbed, bound for the West Coast or the Mediterranean, whichever comes first, the police escort will either be under the cover of darkness or leading a parade through Holland with a marching band and all. When it’s gone, MacInnes can sweep the space it once occupied and start ramping up the next.

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The Royal Malta Yacht Club’s Notice of Challenge was the first of the eight late entries to be received by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron within the late entry deadline – 5.00 pm on the November 30, and therefore the first to be processed.

It’s the first time, in 167 years history of the trophy, Malta challenges the America’s Cup. Despite being one of the smallest countries in Europe, Malta’s strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea has always made it a hub of maritime activity and a port of crucial importance throughout history.

The Royal Malta Yacht Club whose origins can be traced back to 1835, predating the America’s Cup’s existence, is indeed internationally renowned as the organizer of the 50-year-old Middle Sea Race, the 606-mile regatta starting from La Valletta and sailed anti-clockwise around Sicily.

Team Principal of the Malta Altus Challenge is Pasquale Cataldi, an Italian businessman who is based in Malta, founder and CEO of the multinational real estate and development company, Altus. This is Cataldi’s first involvement in the America’s Cup but his intention is to pursue a long-term challenge:

“Our goal is to do three editions of the America’s Cup. If you want to build a strong team, then you need to commit to three America’s Cup cycles. I think everyone in this edition is in it for the long-term. We have a new class, so the game is level for everybody, and the differences are not so much,” explained Cataldi.

Grant Dalton, CEO of the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand said: “We are happy to welcome the Royal Malta Yacht Club and the Malta Altus Challenge to the 36th America’s Cup. After New Zealand, they are now the smallest country to challenge for the America’s Cup. We know what it is like to be a small team facing long odds in taking on one of the biggest challenges in sport and we wish them the best.”

The Malta Altus Challenge will be led by experienced America’s Cup personnel and aims to develop local talent in Malta in the fields of design, engineering and boatbuilding.

“This is a massive opportunity for our club to promote Malta and the skills that exist in the marine industry on a global stage,” said Godwin Zammit, the Commodore of the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

“On behalf of the Club, I’d like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand for their assistance throughout the challenge process and we can’t wait to get down there and start racing in December 2020.”

The full team and further information regarding the challenge will be announced in Malta in the first quarter of 2019. In the next few weeks other updates regarding the Notices of Challenge, received within the deadline, will be released.

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In mid-November the three acknowledged challenging syndicates (with two more promised by the defenders to be revealed as late challengers on the final cut-off day at the end of the month) had taken different steps in their preparatory research.

The British Ineos Team UK, led by Ben Ainslie, were well into foil research using a 28-foot, two-man monohull while, somewhat similarly, American Magic had a near maximum sized (38-foot) monohull with five crew members to test the systems. During this same period, the Challenger of Record, Luna Rossa, was testing the twin-skinned (soft-wing) mainsail on a foiling catamaran, cut down to the maximum size allowable

“The reason to use the catamaran was really because it was a platform that Luna Rossa had, and it was the quickest way to get on the water,” says Jimmy Spithill. “Obviously, the boat (that will be used) is a monohull, but it is a foiling monohull and this catamaran foils so it was, basically, a quick way to get on the water and to get going on trying to start working on this soft – well we all call it a soft wing – but the new concepts of this double mainsail, the concepts which is pretty new to us all.

‘We have sort of come from this, when you think about it, almost ten years of the hard wing, and the hard wing was obviously wonder science, so the systems you could change a little bit on how you trim the hard wing, but it was a one-design hard wing so this was the best and quickest way to basically get on the water and just get going on the new idea.”

Talking with American Magic’s Dean Barker was revealing: “Learning to sail this boat is going to be a real challenge. Already we have seen higher speeds and the boats demand really good control systems and everything else, as much as we had in the catamarans. So, yes, it is going through and trying to develop a lot of those systems. I guess understanding how to sail the boat, like the instincts that we learnt in the catamarans, is going to be transferrable to this boat. There are different characteristics we are seeing already, but for us it is very early days and we have obviously been interested to see how Ben and his guys have been going in their test boat because clearly that was the first of its kind in the water so it there are interesting things to learn just from what we have seen here, but nothing like getting your own boat on the water and learning first hand.”

RELATED: American Magic Lays Foundation of Its America’s Cup Squad

The Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, doesn’t plan to have a trial boat of any form on the water and is containing its researches for AC36 to the computer. Grant Dalton explains that this is what they did for the last Cup and no one can deny the efficacy of that program so they’re sticking to what worked last time.

In Portsmouth, the Ineos Team UK recruited Nick Holroyd to its design group early on. Holroyd was with ETNZ last time and his success there was outstanding. He suggests that: “there is a process that I think I know and understand in designing boats. I think the culture of how the sailing team members are involved and that development process, and kind of I thing you have to have a stomach for and take a view on the kind of risk, and the reward and the process. Getting that process happening in the right way and hopefully the results will look after themselves at that point.

“The process last time was actually looking at how the boat was going to be sailed. It’s the same this time. Where is the power to come from, what are the mechanics and how to do it, and the conclusion of that study is a very different way of sailing the boat. One of the things to be careful with here is to not fall into the trap of fighting yesterday’s war. The power consumption, and the mechanics of the catamaran are one thing, and this boat will be different. So we need to look at this class rule very carefully.

“We have moved away from the design team being naval architects, structures and mechanical engineers. That was pretty much the design team in the Version 5 days. Now, the whole process is control systems, electronics and high-end hydraulics. Well away from the accepted principles of Naval Architects.”

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With the announcement of the new and exciting AC 75 as the official class of the 36th America’s Cup, speculation now turns to the venue. Despite rumors swirling of numerous locations being considered for the Cup, the first official look at the venue puts a central village across Wynyard Wharf and the Auckland Viaduct in the sailing haven. Here’s what the vision looks like:

At last week’s council meeting it was agreed by all parties that the Halsey St extension option for hosting the Americas Cup was removed from consideration.

The alternative presented by council as Wynyard Basin has been animated by ARL / Virtual Eye for Emirates Team New Zealand and shows how the new concept will deliver a first class event space with minimal harbour extension.

The Vision:

• A centralised village spanning 700 metres across Auckland Viaduct basin and Wynyard Wharf

• Clustered team bases with public access to view the daily operations or launching and retrieving the spectacular AC75 race yachts

• A legacy Emirates Team New Zealand base and public interactive innovation space

• A centralised media and broadcast centre in the Viaduct Event Centre, where media and imagery will be distributed around the world showcasing Auckland and New Zealand at its best.

• Sprawling public space with big screen race viewing and interactive attractions to bring the race action to life.

• Bars, Restaurants and cafes spread across the event village

• A world class super yacht berthing facility in Wynyard Wharf and on Site 18 maximising economic return for the economy and marine industry.

• A established family and kids play ground in the Silo park

• A concert and performance stage and grandstand in the heart of the Wynyard Quarter to showcase New Zealand’s musical and cultural performers.

• A legacy plan including non permanent team bases that make way for waterfront public space opening up the harbour for all Auckland’s to use.

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21/11/17- The 36th America’s Cup class boat concept of the AC75.

An exciting new era in America’s Cup racing has been unveiled today as the concept for the AC75, the class of boat to be sailed in the 36th America’s Cup is released illustrating a bold and modern vision for high performance fully foiling monohull racing yachts.

The Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa design teams have spent the last four months evaluating a wide range of monohull concepts. Their goals have been to design a class that will be challenging and demanding to sail, rewarding the top level of skill for the crews; this concept could become the future of racing and even cruising monohulls beyond the America’s Cup.

The AC75 combines extremely high-performance sailing and great match racing with the safety of a boat that can right itself in the event of a capsize. The ground-breaking concept is achieved through the use of twin canting T-foils, ballasted to provide righting-moment when sailing, and roll stability at low speed.

The normal sailing mode sees the leeward foil lowered to provide lift and enable foiling, with the windward foil raised out of the water to maximise the lever-arm of the ballast and reduce drag. In pre-starts and through manoeuvres, both foils can be lowered to provide extra lift and roll control, also useful in rougher sea conditions and providing a wider window for racing.

Although racing performance has been the cornerstone of the design, consideration has had to be focused on the more practical aspects of the boat in the shed and at the dock, where both foils are canted right under the hull in order to provide natural roll stability and to allow the yacht to fit into a standard marina berth.

An underlying principle has been to provide affordable and sustainable technology ‘trickle down’ to other sailing classes and yachts. Whilst recent America’s Cup multihulls have benefitted from the power and control of rigid wing sails, there has been no transfer of this technology to the rigs of other sailing classes. In tandem with the innovations of the foiling system, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are investigating a number of possible innovations for the AC75’s rig, with the requirement that the rig need not be craned in and out each day. This research work is ongoing as different concepts are evaluated, and details will be released with the AC75 Class Rule before March 31st, 2018.

The America’s Cup is a match race and creating a class that will provide challenging match racing has been the goal from the start. The AC75 will foil-tack and foil-gybe with only small manoeuvring losses, and given the speed and the ease at which the boats can turn the classic pre-starts of the America’s Cup are set to make an exciting comeback. Sail handling will also become important, with cross-overs to code zero sails in light wind conditions.

A huge number of ideas have been considered in the quest to define a class that will be extremely exciting to sail and provide great match racing, but the final decision was an easy one: the concept being announced was a clear winner, and both teams are eager to be introducing the AC75 for the 36th America’s Cup in 2021.

The AC75 class rule will be published by March 31st 2018.

21/11/17- The 36th America’s Cup class boat concept of the AC75.

GRANT DALTON, CEO Emirates Team New Zealand:

“We are really proud to present the concept of the AC75 today. It has been a phenomenal effort by Dan and the guys together with Luna Rossa design team and there is a lot of excitement building around the boat in the development and getting to this point.”

“Our analysis of the performance of the foiling monohulls tells us that once the boat is up and foiling, the boat has the potential to be faster than an AC50 both upwind and downwind.”

“Auckland is in for a highly competitive summer of racing in 2020 / 2021.”

DAN BERNASCONI, Design Coordinator Emirates Team New Zealand:

“This design process has been new territory for the team, starting with a clean sheet to develop a class – and we’ve loved it. We wanted to see how far we could push the performance of monohull yachts to create a foiling boat that would be challenging to sail and thrilling to match race. We’re really excited about the concept and can’t wait to see it on the water..

We think we have achieved these goals – thanks also to the constructive co-operation of Luna Rossa design team – as well as the more practical detail to consider in terms of cost management and logistics of running the boats.”

PATRIZIO BERTELLI, Chairman of Luna Rossa Challenge:

“The choice of a monohull was a fundamental condition for us to be involved again in the America’s Cup. This is not a return to the past, but rather a step towards the future: the concept of the new AC 75 Class, which Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa design teams have developed together, will open new horizons for racing yachts, which, in the future, may also extend to cruising. It is a modern concept, at the high end of technology and challenging from a sporting point of view, which will deliver competitive and exciting match racing. I would like to thank both design teams for their commitment in achieving, in just four months, the goal which we had established when we challenged”.

## MAX SIRENA. Team Director of Luna Rossa Challenge:

“As a sailor I am very pleased of the concept jointly developed by both design teams: the AC 75 will be an extremely high-performance yacht, challenging to sail, who will require an athletic and very talented crew. Every crew member will have a key role both in the manoeuvres and in racing the boat; the tight crossings and the circling in the pre-starts – which are part of the America’s Cup tradition – will be back on show, but at significant higher speeds. It is a new concept, and I am sure that its development will bring interesting surprises”.

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American raceboat owners Hap Fauth, of Naples, Florida, and Doug DeVos, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, were destined to make an appearance in the America’s Cup arena. Fauth, the intensely focused man behind the big wheel of the 72-foot Maxi Bella Mente, and DeVos at the tiller of Quantum Racing’s TP52, have both reached their respective pinnacles through long campaigns culminating with multiple world championship titles. Beyond every peak, however, lies another, and today Fauth, DeVos, and the New York YC, announced their intent to challenge for the 36th America’s Cup in 2021.

As Emirates Team New Zealand’s vision for the next edition came into sharper focus after winning in Bermuda in June, Fauth, DeVos and skipper Terry Hutchinson approached the New York YC to partner. “It’s another step toward what we feel is representative of the sport,” said Hutchinson in conference call today. “It’s been about six month’s worth of work, and the start of a lot more to come, but I look at our team today and we have a lot of great sailing infrastructure in place and a program that’s been operating at a very high level for the better part of five years.”

As far as the New York YC’s involvement, it’s early days and more of a supportive role. “We do expect some of the membership to be involved in the syndicate,” said Commodore Phil Lotz. “We’re not going to solicit the club for support. We will enjoy being part of a well thought out and promising challenge. We’re excited about the Protocol and what’s been announced so far. We are involved because we think New Zealand and the challenger are headed in the right direction.”

When you talk about winning and defending, in the grand scheme of things, if we’re successful on the water, the goal would be to have developed a team of younger sailors that can then go on and defend it. We have to do a good enough job to develop the younger generation.

Should the New York YC win it and find itself in the defensive position it once held for more than a century, says Lotz, Newport, Rhode Island, would the natural venue and plenty capable of hosting.

Announced as Bella Mente Quantum Racing Association, Hutchinson acknowledged that the timing was too early to talk budgets, but the challenge would continue to find commercial and private funding to support the challenge. “It will be a U.S.-flagged team,” says the Annapolis, Maryland, skipper who also stated he would not be the helmsman. “When you travel and race the 52s and 72s you realize there is a massive gap in sailing between my generation and those coming out of college. As a team, we want to attract the base of our sport and return the Cup back to the base of our support.”

“The America’s Cup is sailing’s most complex challenge,” says Fauth. “Winning takes a complete team effort, and I’ve always found tremendous satisfaction in bringing together a group of individuals in pursuit of one goal. With a return to a more traditional style of yacht and the windward-leeward courses with which the vast majority of racing sailors are intimately familiar, the 36th America’s Cup represents a unique opportunity to re-engage the grass roots of the sport and re-energize American sailing. A lot of what we’ve built with the Bella Mente program, and what Doug and his team have created with Quantum Racing, will go into the foundation of this campaign. But there’s still a tremendous amount of work to do over the next three-plus years. I’m excited to get started.”

Will the team be all American? Probably not, says Hutchinson. “The residency clause will be a difficult thing for teams to bring in outsiders. Our goal is a team that is U.S. based, one that is using and developing sailors in our country.

“When you talk about winning and defending, in the grand scheme of things, if we’re successful on the water, the goal would be to have developed a team of younger sailors that can then go on and defend it. We have to do a good enough job to develop the younger generation.”

In terms of details regarding the AC75 class expected to be announced in November, Hutchinson could not provide any further details but emphasized the challenge for Emirates Team New Zealand to balance participation, cost controls, and keeping the event as the technological pinnacle of sailing. “There will be a combination of advancements below the water and above the water,” he says. “Grant Dalton has a great responsibility and [Team New Zealand] is not taking it lightly.”

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The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Circolo della Vela Sicilia as the Challenger of Record, together with their respective representative teams Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Challenge, are pleased to announce that the Protocol establishing the parameters for the 36th America’s Cup will be released in September 2017.

The proposed dates for the event will be further detailed in the Protocol but the Defender and the Challenger of Record are considering the possibility of the 36th America’s Cup Match and the preceding Challenger Selection Series being conducted in Auckland in early 2021 during the New Zealand summer.

In recognition of the fundamental condition of the Deed of Gift that the Cup be preserved as a perpetual Challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries, the Protocol will contain a “constructed in country” requirement for competing yachts and a nationality requirement for competing crew members.

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Practice racing week for the 35th America’s Cup

When Emirates Team New Zealand sped through the finishing line on Monday afternoon in Bermuda to win the 35th America’s Cup, the team also crossed a starting line of sorts, this time for the 36th America’s Cup.

As the winning team, Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) becomes the next defender and trustee of the Auld Mug.

The moment Peter Burling steered the New Zealand boat across the line to win the America’s Cup, the RNZYS accepted a challenge from Luna Rossa’s Circolo della Vela Sicillia (CVS) for the 36th America’s Cup.

Representatives from the two teams and clubs will now draft the rules for the next America’s Cup.

“The future, we will decide this with our challenger,” said Emirates Team New Zealand team principal Matteo de Nora at a press conference following the win. “We are not going to say much about it right now… We have several weeks to concentrate on what we want to do… Challengers will be part of the decision.”

“We need to put in place an exciting event that takes a lot of what has happened here, because there is a lot of good that’s happened here…” said CEO Grant Dalton.

It is expected that a Protocol will be released in due course, with rules that define (among other things):

• Structure of the organizing body of the event (commercially and sportively)
• Venue(s)
• Dates of the event
• Class of boat(s) to be used (with Class Rule to follow)
• Regatta format, including preliminary or World Series type events (if any)
• Entry process and associated fees
• Nationality restrictions
• Media/commercial rights restrictions / split between event organizer and teams
• Profit sharing between event organizer and teams
• Once the rules are defined and published, clubs and their teams will have the information they need to decide whether to take up the challenge.

In the meantime, teams are packing up in Bermuda and preparing for what’s next.

Emirates Team New Zealand is scheduled to leave Bermuda this weekend. It will return to New Zealand via Dubai to honor their title partner Emirates Airlines.

A ticker-tape parade is then scheduled in central Auckland on Thursday July 6th to celebrate the team and their incredible victory and to welcome the return of the America’s Cup to New Zealand for the first time since it left in 2003.

But even as the ticker-tape rains down, a group of challengers is starting to assemble in an effort to take the Auld Mug away again.

This is the essence of the America’s Cup.

When Emirates Team New Zealand sped through the finishing line on Monday afternoon in Bermuda to win the 35th America’s Cup, the team also crossed a starting line of sorts, this time for the 36th America’s Cup. As the winning team, Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) becomes the next defender and trustee of the Auld Mug. The moment Peter Burling steered the New Zealand boat across the line to win the America’s Cup, the RNZYS accepted a challenge from Luna Rossa’s Circolo della Vela Sicillia (CVS) for the 36th America’s Cup.

Representatives from the two teams and clubs will now draft the rules for the next America’s Cup. “The future, we will decide this with our challenger,” said Emirates Team New Zealand team principal Matteo de Nora at a press conference following the win. “We are not going to say much about it right now… We have several weeks to concentrate on what we want to do… Challengers will be part of the decision.”

“We need to put in place an exciting event that takes a lot of what has happened here, because there is a lot of good that’s happened here…” said CEO Grant Dalton.

It is expected that a Protocol will be released in due course, with rules that define (among other things): Structure of the organizing body of the event (commercially and sportively) Venue(s) Dates of the event Class of boat(s) to be used (with Class Rule to follow) Regatta format, including preliminary or World Series type events (if any) Entry process and associated fees Nationality restrictions Media/commercial rights restrictions / split between event organizer and teams Profit sharing between event organizer and teams Once the rules are defined and published, clubs and their teams will have the information they need to decide whether to take up the challenge. In the meantime, teams are packing up in Bermuda and preparing for what’s next.

Emirates Team New Zealand is scheduled to leave Bermuda this weekend. It will return to New Zealand via Dubai to honor their title partner Emirates Airlines. A ticker-tape parade is then scheduled in central Auckland on Thursday July 6th to celebrate the team and their incredible victory and to welcome the return of the America’s Cup to New Zealand for the first time since it left in 2003. But even as the ticker-tape rains down, a group of challengers is starting to assemble in an effort to take the Auld Mug away again. This is the essence of the America’s Cup.

The post America’s Cup 36 in the Works appeared first on Sailing World.