Next summer 2024 the America’s Cup will be held in Barcelona.
The first time I was involved in legal advice in the field of high-performance offshore yacht racing was in the ‘Volvo Ocean Race’ in 2011-2012 (today ‘Ocean Race’), starting in Alicante (Spain). It was with the global footwear company ‘Camper’ which, for the first time, became the official sponsor of the legendary New Zealand team ‘Team New Zealand’, sailing team of the ‘Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’ (RNZYS) Club, led by the legendary Grant Dalton and based in Auckland (New Zealand). The boat, named ‘Camper’, skippered by the great Chris Nicholson, was built by ‘Cookson Boatbuilders’ in Auckland (NZ).
Subsequently, I was also involved in the sponsorship of ‘Team New Zealand’ by ‘Camper’ in their participation in the 34th America’s Cup, held in 2013 in San Francisco (USA). The AC72 class catamaran ‘Aotearoa’ unsuccessfully challenged the defender of the trophy ‘Oracle Team USA’ of the ‘Golden Gate Yacht Club’ (GGYC) in the final.
‘Team New Zealand’ currently holds the America’s Cup trophy, won in the waters of Auckland, New Zealand, in its 36th edition in 2021. On that occasion, with their boat ‘Te Rehutai’, an AC75 monohull, the team successfully defended their 2017 title for RNZYS against the Italian ‘Luna Rosa’ of the ‘Circolo della Vela Sicilia’ (CVS), based in Palermo, Sicily (Italy). In Barcelona, the Kiwis will again defend the title, we’ll see against which of the other four challengers: ‘Ineos Britannia’, ‘Alinghi Red Bull Racing’, ‘Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’ or ‘American Magic’.
There are just over 500 days to go until we can once again enjoy, this time in Barcelona, this great world spectacle, undoubtedly the most important sailing competition in the world and, according to some sources, the third sporting event with the greatest economic impact for the host country, after the Olympic Games and the football World Cup.