America's Cup- No public announcement of World Series today

by Richard Gladwell on 1 Feb 2011
With the deadline for announcement of the America's Cup World Series venues and dates just hours away, it seems that there will be no public announcement by the deadline specified in the Protocol for the 34th America's Cup.

Earlier today, Sail-World asked the spokesperson for the America's Cup Event Authority Stephanie Martin, as to whether the announcement would be made on the deadline of 31 January 2011. The Protocol requires that the Venues and Dates for the the 2011 regattas in the ACWS will be announced by 31 January 2011, to allow teams and others reasonable time for preparation.

The ACWS is a new preliminary series for the 34th America's Cup consisting of a series of 13 regattas around the world initially utilising the AC45 catamaran being test sailed in Auckland at present, before switching the the AC72 the larger catamaran that will be used in the 34th Match for which the Louis Vuitton Cup will be held starting in July 2013.

ACEA's Stephanie Martin told Sail-World in response to a query as to whether there would be an announcement today (being the 31st January in San Francisco): 'For the ACWS, we plan to publish both the host venue locations and dates at the same time, and right now, we're working with our host venues to finalize dates and event details. So we plan to publish in the coming weeks. We're really pleased with the choices we have for both the 2011 and 2012 AC World Series, and look forward to sharing them soon.'

In response to a comment that ACEA could be in breach of the Protocol for the 34th America's Cup, if the prescribed date were not met, she responded:

'For deadlines in the Protocol, that is the date by which we must inform the competitors. In the case of the ACWS and our Jan 31 deadline, the Competitor Forum has been updated. Once we make the information public, we'll post it to ac.com as well (under the Gallery section).'

On the 31st December 2010, with another Protocol deadline looming for the announcement of the Venue for the 34th America's Cup, the call went down to the wire with San Francisco being confirmed as the venue, with less than a business day remaining - after the Defender had won the America's Cup almost ten months previously.

The Venue announcement advised that the Defender would in fact be defending in their home waters, after a tortuous negotiation process involving public and secret venues.

The America's Cup Protocol can be read by http://www.americascup.com/media/files/m1050_2010_09_09_Protocol%20for%20the%2034th%20Americas%20Cup.pdf!clicking_here. Clause 22 governs the America's Cup World Series.