Women's and Youth America’s Cup plans unveiled

Details of the first ever Women’s America’s Cup, and a relaunched Youth America’s Cup series, have been announced.

The concept for the events was revealed in the Protocol for the 37th America’s Cup in November 2021, including the fact that both events would be sailed in the AC40, a smaller version of the AC75 which will also be used as a technical test bed by the teams. Now the format of the events has also been confirmed.

Both the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup regattas will be contested between 12 teams, split into two pools of six for an initial fleet racing series. The first pool will be fielded by teams that are also entered in the America’s Cup. The second pool will be made up of entries by independent yacht clubs. Those teams will also be required to fulfil the nationality requirements designated in the America’s Cup Protocol, meaning 100% of the crew sailing each yacht in each race must be nationals of the country of the yacht club they represent, although there will be special dispensation for ’emerging nations’.

America’s Cup challengers are not only required to buy AC40s for the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup racing for their inhouse teams, but also to supply their boat to the independent yacht club teams, who won’t be required to buy their own foiler.

Both pools will race a series of 6-9 fleet races with the top three teams from each progressing to the final series. A final series of 3-4 fleet races will decide the top two teams, who will then go on to compete in a single match-race final to determine the overall winner.

Racing