America's Cup - BMW retires from Cup campaign

by Sail-World.com on 24 Dec 2010
America's Cup announcement today that at the end of the year BMW will bring to a close its longstanding partnership with Oracle Racing and thereby end its involvement in the America's Cup. This is by mutual agreement of both partners. Both parties set ambitious goals and achieved the ultimate objective: winning the America's Cup.

BMW has partnered BMW Oracle Racing since 2002. Technology and skills have transferred freely between the automaker and sailing team, most notably in the fields of structural engineering and high-modulus composite construction. The result was celebrated in the February when the yacht USA 17, the fastest yacht in the history of the America’s Cup, won the 33rd Match with a resounding 2:0 victory off Valencia, Spain.

'On the design and engineering front, BMW engineers set new benchmarks in terms of intelligent lightweight design,' said Ralf Hussmann, General Manager BMW Sports Marketing and Brand Cooperation. 'In winning the 33rd America’s Cup, we achieved all of our ambitious goals. We will continue to be involved in the sport on a national level.'

'The America’s Cup combines a technological challenge with a sporting one and success is measured by the result on the race course,' added Russell Coutts CEO of BMW Oracle Racing. 'In that sense, both the team and BMW are proud that our collaboration resulted in victory.'