Dream start for Land Rover BAR - Guest editor view about the Auld Mug

by . on 30 Jul 2015 Ben Ainslie could not dream of a better start for Land Rover BAR – winning in Portsmouth in front of the home crowd was an incredible achievement by Ben Ainslie and his crew. This looks very promising for not only the British challenge, but also for America's Cup.

Having a very strong British Challenge will bring a new perspective into the Cup this time; will Land Rover BAR be able to bring the Cup back to England after 164 years. And you have a 'sailing mad' country backing their team.

Another very interesting perspective is, that two Olympic Medal winners from 2012, Ben Ainslie and Peter Burling dominated the races in Portsmouth, after only having sailed in those ‘machines’ in about two years or less.

A whole new generation of sailors is becoming involved in America's Cup Racing, and several of them are still running their Olympic campaigns alongside: Peter Burling, Nathan Outterridge, Franck Cammas, etc.

The new fast and foiling AC45 catamarans brings pure athleticism and top level sailing skills in into the Cup game. The Olympic top elite sailors are used to work and live with their sport 24/7, and they are also introducing a very aggressive way of sailing the short courses.

But there are lots of discussions in the sailing community around the world about Americas Cup:
Are the AC boats becoming two small ?
What’s the real difference between the AC45 and the AC48 ?
Are the course formats good ?
Isn’t two days of racing for the AC World Series too risky due to possible cancellation of races ?

Another matter that really has been resulted in many reactions on the social media is that you no longer can see the AC racing online ! Not many TV stations picked up the signal, and sailing is not a mainstream sport, so how large an audience is there for a pay per view solution ?

Has the Auld Mug lost its shine? – David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor has written an interesting article, looking at different aspects about the new format, and not least the media perspective.

Not very many sailors around the world were able to follow the racing online, or on TV. Most Americans were unaware that the event took place in Portsmouth, and sailors in the clubs and at the sailing communities are not talking about the Cup.

The event in Portsmouth was only “a blip on the radar screens”, other events around the world created much more interest, Extreme Sailing Series, Tour de France a Voile, the Transpac, the Transatlantic Race, Great Lakes Racing, beer-can racing and even Rio 2016 Olympics.

Read David Schmidts article HERE!

Good Sailing
Dan Ibsen
Sail-World UK Editor