America's Cup: Dates and Race Formats released - changes from Barcelona
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 20 Jul 07:20 PDT
The Challenger and Defender cross the startline on Day 3 of the 2024 America's Cup - October 14, 2024 - Barcelona © Ian Roman / America's Cup
The format of the 2027 Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series and the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Match in Naples have been announced.
For the first time in the America's Cup, the teams will race in a fleet format over a series of six races, sailed in AC75s.
The seven teams will race six fleet races, three races per day, on the opening weekend of the America's Cup series. The Series concludes with the 38th Match for the America's Cup starting on July 10 and concluding on the following weekend.
The courses will be between four and eight legs. Variable target times have been set for the stages of the racing - which will start at 1400hrs local time. The broadcast window for the Round Robin racing will be 2.5hours and 2 hours for the other racing in the Challenger Selection Series and America's Cup itself.
There are two significant changes from the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona. A third set of Round Robin racing has been added - which will give the teams more race practice - and increase exposure for team and event sponsors. The addition of a Repechage event after the third Round Robin also increases dual goals of more of competition and TV exposure.
There is only one direct clash with SailGP - with the New York SailGP even scheduled for June 6-7, which sits in the break period between Round Robins 2 and 3.
SailGP Halifax is scheduled from May 16-17, with the teams usually being required on site from May 12-13, plus travel/transit time. The seven-week lead-up period to the start of the Cup racing, when most teams will be doing final tuning and finishing, begins on April 1 and in that seven-week period there are two further SailGP regattas.
SailGP San Francisco runs from April 4-5, with sailors required to be on site from April 2, SailGP Bermuda is scheduled from May 2-3, with sailors likely to be required by April 29. It remains to be seen how the SailGP and AC teams are going to accommodate these clashes, with the option on the SailGP side to roster in new sailors, or on the AC side to roster downtime for boat upgrades and major servicing.
Fleet Racing: May 22-23 Officially known as Group Stage 1, fleet racing begins on Saturday, 22nd May 2027, with three fleet races planned on Day 1, with Day 2 scheduled for Sunday, May 23, 2027. There is a spare day on Monday May 24, after which there will be no more racing in the Group Stage 1. Each fleet race will have a target duration of 21 minutes.
Round Robin: May 26 - June 11 Officially known as Group Stage 2, the Round Robin phase of the Challenger Selection Series for the Louis Vuitton Cup begins three days after the conclusion of the Fleet Racing.
Three Round Robins will be sailed, each covering a three-day continuous period. Round Robins 1 and 2 will be sailed back-to-back with a Reserve Day on May 1. A No Racing period is scheduled from June 2-8. In each of the three Round Robins, every team completes six races and gets one bye, facing each opponent exactly once across 21 total matches. Each Round Robin race will have a target duration of 12 minutes.
The draw will be conducted by ACE Italy. It is expected that in each flight of races, six teams will be paired to sail against each other, while the seventh team has a bye. Theoretically, there are two flights per day, with one pairing of boats sailing in a third flight each day.
In practice, some rescheduling of racing will be required for a variety of reasons, mainly as a result of unsuitable weather/wind/sea conditions.
Most teams will only sail in two flights per day; two teams will sail in a third flight of the day. The tight scheduling of the round robin series will penalise a boat that breaks down and cannot be repaired between races. It will also likely work against teams that have started late in the AC75 commissioning process, and may not have all the gremlins out of their systems. Most teams will also be using a mix of legacy gear from 2024, plus some new gear for 2027.
Round Robin 1: Wednesday May 26 - Friday May 28 The series to select the Challenger that will face the America's Cup Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand in the 38th Match for the America's Cup starts with teams racing in match-races from Wednesday 26th May 2027 over 21 races sailed over three days through to Friday 28th May 2027.
The Defender races with the Challengers in the Fleet racing and all three Round Robins. However, the Defender results are excluded from the final Challenger standings.
Round Robin 2: Sunday May 29 - Monday May 31 The second Round Robin gets underway on the last weekend of May with 21 races scheduled. All seven teams will sail. June 1 is a Reserve Day.
Round Robin 3: Wednesday June 9 - Friday 11 Final Round Robin with 21 match races again planned for all seven teams, with only the Challengers going head-to-head for a place in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals.
At the conclusion of Group Stage 2 (Round Robins) the points scored will be totalled (with the Defender excluded). All Challengers will be ranked according to their combined scores from Group Stage 1 and 2.
At the conclusion of the third Round Robin, the top three scoring Challengers automatically progress to the Semi-Finals, which along with the Repechage form Group Stage 3.
Knock-out phase starts
Repechage: Saturday June 12 - Sunday 13, 2027 After the conclusion of the Round Robins, the bottom three remaining Challengers will immediately start competing for the remaining place in the Semi-Finals.
Each Repechage race will have a target duration of 15 minutes.
The outcome is decided on a points basis, with the two bottom-ranked Challengers sailing off fits, with the 5th-placed Challenger starting with a 1pt advantage. The first challenger to score 3pts progresses to sail against the 4th placed challenger, who also starts with a 1pt advantage. Similarly, in the second phase, the first to score 3pts progresses to the Semi-Final. This system puts a lot of pressure on the lowest qualifier in that it starts with a 1pt disadvantage, and no time off after the Round Robins. The 5th lowest place also gets no break. The fourth-placed challenger potentially has a day off and starts with a 1pt advantage.
At the end of the two-day Repechage (Monday, June 14 is a Reserve day), the first two teams will be eliminated from the 2027 America's Cup. Group Stages 2 and 3 will not extend beyond Monday, June 14, 2027. The Repechage may be terminated early if it is impractical to hold the remaining races due to weather or time constraints.
Semi-Finals: Wednesday June 16 - Sunday 20, 2027 A Reserve day is scheduled for June 21, if required. The top two teams progress to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final and two more teams go home. Monday, June 21 is a Reserve Day. Each Semi-Final race will have a target duration of 21 minutes.
A No Racing period of four days is scheduled from Tuesday, June 22 to Friday, June 25, 2026, and the Semi-Finals will not extend beyond Monday, June 21.
Final: Saturday, June 26 - Sunday, July 4, 2027 13 races scheduled; first to seven wins the right to challenge for the America’s Cup. Starts the weekend of June 26-27 and finishes the weekend of July 3-4. Only one Challenger team remains in the Cup. There are Reserve Days scheduled on Monday, June 28, and Thursday, July 1, which may be used for sailing if required. The Finals stage will not extend beyond Sunday, July 4.
The schedule allows at least five days (Monday, July 5 - Friday, July 9) before the start of the 38th America's Cup Match. Each Final race will have a target duration of 21 minutes.
America's Cup Match: July 10 - July 18, 2027 Begins over the weekend of the 10-11th July 2027 and finishes the following weekend. Same format as the Challenger Final - 13 races scheduled, first to win seven. The intention is to conclude racing by the second weekend - Sunday, July 18, 2026 however, racing can extend until 13 races are sailed. Each America's Cup Match race will have a target duration of 21 minutes.
Post-Cup events
After the conclusion of the America's Cup, the next round of SailGP gets underway on the following weekend, July 25-26, in Portsmouth, UK.
The Admirals Cup, the unofficial world Championship of offshore sailing, gets underway off Cowes on July 16th. The inshore racing concludes by July 23rd, with the Rolex Fastnet scheduled to start on July 24th from Cowes, Isle of Wight.