37th America's Cup: Women's and youth events announced

Women's and Youth America's Cup regattas will be part of the event schedule for the 37th America's Cup, with teams performing in AC40 boats.

The two regattas will form part of the overall 37th America's Cup event schedule and will feature within the Protocol for the 37th America's Cup.

The protocol, which is a detailed document illustrating the rules and parameters for the 37th America's Cup, is being created by the defender of the America's Cup and the challenger of record.

Together, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and defender Emirates Team New Zealand, along with the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd and Challenger of Record INEOS TEAM UK, will share the protocol on November 17.

Teams that wish to enter the 37th America's Cup must accept the Protocol as a condition to entry, and both parties have confirmed that it will be a multi-challenger event and not just a one-on-one event as has been speculated.

When the Royal Yacht Squadron Racing and INEOS TEAM UK were announced as the Challenger of Record, it was confirmed that the AC75 class of boat - 75ft foiling monohulls - would remain as the class of yacht used for the next two America's Cup cycles.

Now, a new class of boat - an AC40 foiling monohull - will be added to help accelerate participation in the America's Cup from female and youth foiling sailors.

The AC40 is a super-fast, scaled down version of the AC75 and at times, it will be able to reach similar speeds to its sister boat.

"Creating pathways and increasing participation for women, youth and emerging nations is something that has been a priority since winning in 2017," Aaron Young, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Commodore, said

"In fact, universally it is seen as something that will only benefit everyone in the sport of sailing and was illustrated in the 20 entries, we received to our mixed crew youth AC that was initially planned for 2021, prior to COVID-19."

Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton explained further details behind the AC40 class and the regattas.

"All of the competing teams must purchase at least one AC40 which will be used in the preliminary regattas, and then made available for the respective and independent women's and youth regattas to be held at the venue of the AC37 Match.

"The yacht clubs of competing America's Cup teams must enter both the women's and youth events, however entries will also be open to other countries and yacht clubs."

Sir Ben Ainslie, INEOS TEAM UK Team Principal, is excited to see the benefit that these boats and regattas will provide.

"The America's Cup has an important role to play in expanding access and inclusion for all athletes into sailing," he said.

"The women's and youth America's Cup regattas are an important move forward and a much-needed platform that enables all nations to improve diversity and inclusion in our sport.

"We look forward to creating a pathway in Britain that will support both programmes on and off the water, giving our athletes opportunities for success in competition, whilst also helping to bridge the gap into professional sailing."