Americas Cup teams vote
With Kiwis and Italians back at the negotiating table, Cup teams are expected to vote for a major change in the 35th America’s Cup on Wednesday where a new smaller boat will be agreed
After the surprise news last week that two of the biggest teams in the Cup were considering turning their backs on the event if plans for a smaller boat went ahead, this week things seem to have calmed down a touch. Having threatened to pull stumps and leave the 35th America’s Cup, both Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand are now talking about a smaller boat for the Cup.
“The good news is all six teams agree we should reduce the size of the boats to save money, said Russell Coutts, CEO of America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA). However, there is still some debate as to the size of the boat we should adopt.
Americas Cup teams vote.
A decision, (or vote as some are putting it), is expected to happen tomorrow Wed 1 April, (arguably not the best day to launch big news and a major change for an event that requires only the slightest misunderstanding to spark controversy), but with all six teams settled on the idea, the debate now is how much smaller will team agree to go.
Here things get a little fuzzy, but having focused on a boat somewhere between 45-50ft, it sounds like there is now talk from one team at least of a new cat in the upper fifty foot range. If true, this would be close to where the debate started some time ago with a proposal for a 54 footer that could be taken apart to fit in a 40ft container.
Incidentally, sticking a 54footer into a 40foot container isn’t as odd as it may sound, the RC44 (Russell Coutts …read more
