America's Cup: Partnership agreement expected to be signed off next week.
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 21 Sep 03:46 PDT
Ben Ainslie and Grant Dalton at the media conference in Auckland - August 12, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
International sailing journalist, Fabio Pozo, writing for the Milan based newspaper La Stampa, reports that the secret America's Cup Partnership (ACP) agreement is expected to be signed next week.
The controversial agreement is designed to put the America's Cup and the sailing teams on a sounder long term financial footing.
Fabio Pozo reports that the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Challenger of Record, and their team Athena Racing have found the necessary financial support to sustain their America's Cup program for the 2027 America's Cup in Naples. Provided the agreement is signed by the other "Founding Teams" participating in the 2027 America's Cup, ACP will take over as the Event Authority/Organiser for the 2026 and 2027 America's Cup event.
"The omens have been buzzing a lot in recent days, citing the pending agreement for the new governance, which establishes the America's Cup Partnership, the body that will bring together the Defender (New Zealand) and the challengers on the same board to decide on the Cup. If this agreement falls through, the Protocol, the set of rules governing the next AC, would also be nullified," says La Stampa auto-translated from Italian.
"Well, the signature should arrive next week. The weighty agreement is ready and has already been signed by Team New Zealand and Athena Racing (the British team, which is the Challenger of Record; CEO Ben Ainslie has found the funding to compete). The challenge won't be launched unless the AC Partnership is signed."
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The media release by CoR/D* on August 12 says of the America's Cup Partnership Agreement: "At the heart of the Protocol is a Partnership Agreement, structured for all teams to collectively work within a long-term commercial structure for the future benefit and stewardship of the America’s Cup."
There is also "Terms Sheet" which all teams are required to sign, the contents of which have not been revealed. There has been no written statement to date as to whether the parties will attempt to change the Deed of Gift which governs the conduct of the America's Cup, to accommodate the America's Cup Partnership agreement.
Neither document was publicly released at the time of the Protocol announcement.
* CoR/D = Challenger of Record and Defender - respectively the Challenger for the 2027 America's Cup, the Royal Yacht Squadron (GBR), and the America's Cup Defender, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (NZL).