Racing set to begin for Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup

The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup will spring into action in Barcelona this week with the start of 2 months of full throttle racing beginning with a single round robin preliminary regatta starting on Thursday 22nd.

The four-day regatta will be sailed in the new AC75’s, which will be decided by a single match race between the top two teams in the final race, on Sunday 24th August.

For Emirates Team New Zealand their first race is a rematch of the last race of the 36th America’s Cup vs Italians Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, in what will be a critical match up for both teams.

For Emirates Team New Zealand Skipper Peter Burling it is an exciting time after 3.5 years of hard work in the relative shadows to now be able to get out racing again.

“This is really what the team work so intensively about for so long. We love to race, and this is where the pressure comes on, but this is where the true test of the overall strength of the team is tested.” said Burling

“We have a long 2 months ahead of us, and this preliminary regatta is just the start, but obviously we want to get off to a good start so we will be putting our best foot forward in the next four days of racing.”

In the line-up of 6 teams, it is not easy to pick a the strongest, or weakest for that matter. It has been said that this would be the strongest line up in an America’s Cup in many years.

One of the talking points of the 4 days of preliminary regatta racing with be the dual helmsmen & flight controller combinations across the teams, which will be fascinating to watch, especially in the vital pre starts where the teams will battle it out for the strongest start and where the cyclors must be providing peak power.

The synchronicity between the combination of Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge on the helms with Andy Maloney and Blair Tuke  as flight controllers which has been strengthening  significantly over the past few years will be tested in official racing and for Outteridge he cannot wait to get out there.

“Obviously this is my first America’s Cup racing in the AC75’s, but we have been sailing together on the AC75’s and AC40’s together for the past few years now. Also, obviously Pete, Blair and I go a long way back sailing training together and and against each other for in the 49er for well over 10 years. So we know each other well, we know our relative strengths and weakness and communicate well. So I am really looking forward to getting out there with the guys to start racing.” said Outteridge.

And so the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup begins!