Alinghi Red Bull Racing opens applications for its Youth and Women's America's Cup teams

Matias Butler (Head Coach) and Coraline Jonet (Project Manager) look after Swiss interests in the Youth and Women's America's Cups © Alinghi Red Bull Racing

Applications are open for the Alinghi Red Bull Racing teams that will compete in the first Women's America's Cup and third Youth America's Cup events scheduled for autumn 2024 during the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona. The first selection phase will be based on applications and successful candidates will be invited to the next phase which will play out over three events in Switzerland this summer.

The Youth & Women's America's Cup is an ideal pathway to the America's Cup for Swiss sailors. Alinghi Red Bull Racing is inviting candidates that meet the selection criteria to submit their applications - applications close on the 30 April.

To join the Women's America's Cup team, candidates must be over 18 in 2024, and to join the Youth America's Cup team, candidates must be between 18 and 25, the latter is open to men and women. In both cases there are nationality criteria.

After the first selection phase, which will be based on the application, selected candidates will be invited to one of three Swiss Qualifiers: three-day events in Thun, Brunnen, and Geneva.

A final selection phase will take place in early 2024, at the end of which six sailors will be selected by Alinghi Red Bull Racing for the Youth Team and six for the Women's Team.

The sailors will race on the AC40, a foiling monohull that is a scaled down version of the AC75 sailed by four crew. The boat is one-design, so it will be down to the sailors to make a difference.

As head of the Youth & Women's America's Cup programme, Coraline Jonet will organise the selection process for the two teams and create the best possible conditions for the sailors to be competitive in 2024. She joined Alinghi in 2005 for the 32nd America's Cup and has since had dual roles as a Decision 35 sailor and communications officer. "We have a pool of young sailors with great potential in Switzerland, so the choice will be difficult," said Coraline, who works closely with Youth & Women's Head Coach, Matias Bühler.

Matias has been a member of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing Sailing Team since last year. He will manage the teams' performance and training, bringing to bear his experience as an Olympic sailor and coach. "It is a very rewarding opportunity for me to accompany the Swiss sailors in this project which opens new pathways to the America's Cup," he said.

Twelve teams will compete in these two landmark events: six in Pool A, drawn from the six America's Cup teams, and six in Pool B, which will be guest teams representing countries outside those in Pool A.

While this will be the first Women's America's Cup, there have been two prior editions of the Youth America's Cup, the first in San Francisco (USA) in 2013, and the second in Bermuda (BER) in 2017.

Lucien Cujean, Bryan Mettraux, Florian Trüb, Arthur Cevey and Nils Theuninck - all now members of Alinghi Red Bull Racing - took part in these events and are proof that the Youth America's Cup is an ideal entry point to the America's Cup.

The door is open to Swiss talent: alinghiredbullracing.americascup.com/ywac

Coraline Jonet, Youth & Women's America's Cup Project Manager: "We have a pool of young sailors with great potential in Switzerland, so the choice will be difficult. We are benefitting from what we call the 'Alinghi Generation', sailors who emerged from the excitement of the 2003 and 2007 victories and the work done by the clubs, coaches, and Swiss Sailing. It has been a collective effort and it is paying off, as illustrated by the women's Fahrni/Siegenthaler duo who finished 4th at the last Olympic Games, and Nicolas Rolaz who was crowned Optimist world champion in 2014 and is now a member of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing Sailing Team.

"The Youth & Women's America's Cup is the perfect springboard for sailors to progress to professional sailing. The selected sailors will race on an incredible boat, and at the same time as the America's Cup. They will be placed firmly in the spotlight!"

Matias Bühler, Youth & Women's America's Cup Head Coach: "The candidates will have a great opportunity to experience an America's Cup project from the inside out. They will progress on the water with the new AC40, but they will also experience everything around that. This project will allow them to experience the trades that come together to make up an America's Cup project. The breadth of knowledge they will be exposed to and will gain is enormous. My goal is to accompany them in their learning with a clear performance objective that will take us all the way."

AC75 - Alinghi Red Bull Racing - March 7, 2023 - Barcelona - Day 48 - photo © Alex Carabi / America's Cup