Alinghi opens applications for Youth & Women's America's Cup teams

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 here – 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 outlined here.

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 (please click here for more information).

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.