2013 America's Cup Links: Main Page | Results | Basic Facts | Teams | Schedule | Rules | The Boats

Defender:

Golden Gate YC  San Francisco, USA

Oracle Team USA 
James Spithill (Luna Rossa 2007, OneWorld 2003, Young Australia 2000) is likely to continue as Skipper.  Russell  Coutts is expected to remain Team CEO, though he did reportedly tell NZ's Sunday Star-Times that he wouldn't rule out a return to a NZ challenger. 
Oracle Team USA 2013 America's Cup Site

Background:
Golden Gate YC is the 35th Defender of the America's Cup, winning the trophy in 2010 from Société Nautique de Genève,  and successfully defending it in 2013 against Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.  The club was represented in 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013 by Oracle Team USA (variously known as Oracle BMW Racing (2003) and BMW Oracle Racing (2007)). 

Challenger of Record (reported):

The Challenger of Record (COR) is the first challenger accepted by the Defender of the America's Cup.  The COR has lead position in negotiating the mutual consent terms of the next Defense with the Defender/Trustee such as time, location, type of yachts, Match format, and details rules, though in the past additional prospective challengers have sometimes also participated in the shaping of the conditions for the next match.  Traditionally, the Defender and COR will set the initial terms and then Notices of Challenger from additional Yachts Clubs and their representatives will be submitted.  The COR's Notice of Challenge was accepted as the winner crossed the finish line in the most recent America's Cup Match.

Australian Challenge  | Hamilton Island YC  AUS
A report September 26th, 2013, in the New York Times that Hamilton Island YC in Australia was going to be the new COR was neither confirmed nor denied by GGYC/Oracle spokesman.  On Sept 28, Reuters said that sources had confirmed to them that HIYC and Australian Bob Oatley would be revealed shortly as the COR, and an official announcement of Hamilton Island YC as Challenger of Record was issued September 30, 2013.  Oatley is an active yacht racer, winning the Sydney-to-Hobart race multiple times with his 100-footer Wild Oats XI, the latest in a string of yachts to carry the name.  Oatley is the head of Wild Oats Wines, his family business, and a real estate developer of Hamilton Island.  Oatley's son Sandy is also reported as a principal in the challenge.  The Oatley's have said that a central goal of the next America's Cup cycle from their point of view is keeping much of the excitement of the 2013 America's Cup, but with the budgets at more accessible funding levels in order to encourage more teams.  "We can put some boxes around the boats and the sails so it doesn’t become a race of money," Sandy Oatley told Reuters Oct 2.  As for their own funding, the challenge will seek support from corporate sponsors and the Australian government.

An all-Australian crew is a possibility, which would fit with other reports of trying to restore a greater sense of national representation to America's Cup competition, though Sandy Oatley told Perth Now that the composition of a crew will ultimately depend on the talent available as the challenge takes shape.

Iain Murray, who in 2013 served as Regatta Director and head of America's Cup Race Management, sails with Oatley and has a professional history with Hamilton Island.  Murray was designer, skipper, and leader of Kookaburra, the Australian defender of the America's Cup in 1987.  There is no word on whether Murray might be associated with the new Australian challenger, or if he might remain the America's Cup organization for the next America's Cup.  This is the first Australian challenger for the America's Cup since Young Australia in 2000.

Challengers from 2013:

Artemis Racing | Royal Swedish YC (Kungliga Svenska Segel Sällskapet) SWE
Iain Percy has been re-signed, promoted to Team Manager.  Nathan Outteridge is being kept on as skipper.  Official these signings are only for team patron Torbjörn Törnqvist's other sailing programs for now, but continuity in personnel is an early sign of hope for a second Artemis America's Cup effort. “We’re going to have a core of people from the existing team and see what happens with the next Cup before we go on,” Törnqvist told Bloomberg News in mid-September, 2013. Artemis Team Site and Twitter Feed

Emirates Team New Zealand | Royal New Zealand YS  NZL
If ETNZ continues to operate, it is not expected to be led by Grant Dalton, who says by his own decision he does not plan to be back.  Dalton took the reins of the team following their 2003 defeat.  Continuing the team in the short term relies on having funding available quickly in order to retain key personnel.  For 2003, the government of NZ provided this financial package to help bridge from one Cup cycle to the next.  NZ Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce told the NZ Herald on Sept 28 that the country will consider funding the team again once they have more details of the next America's Cup.  Dalton, speaking on radio in NZ, though, said that team members are being heavily recruited by other campaigns just days after the the end of the 2013 America's Cup Match.  Dean Barker on October 1 told the NZ Herald the same story, that some immediate funding will be needed very soon to prevent other teams from hiring away vital talent.  Dalton again made similar comments, also to the NZ Herald, in the process implying that he will help guide the team through a transition to the next Cup cycle, but it's not clear who will lead TNZ after Dalton's departure.  Questioned by media, Russell Coutts did not rule out his own involvement according to one report, though there has yet to be any public sign of interest in that from TNZ, and Barker said Oct 2 that such a scenario was "highly unlikely."  At the team's welcome home ceremony in Auckland on October 4, there were pledges to help fund the team, but no commitment yet to a dollar amount or timing.  Funding for the last challenge was not without some criticism in national politics, and there was some conflict with pressing needs at home especially in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake.  Officials have previously made the business case for assisting the team, registering benefits from the international visibility of the team as a competitor, the promotion of the New Zealand boat-building industry, and hoping especially for the economic impact from tourists and competitors if the challenge succeeds and returns the event to the country.  Additionally, a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign for the team has raised an amount over $100,000 at last report.

ETNZ's America's Cup record: Challenger (won 5-0), 1995; Defender (won 5-0), 2000; Defender, 2003 (lost 0-5); Challenger, 2007 (lost 2-5); Challenger 2013 (lost 8-9).  Emirates Team New Zealand Blog | ETNZ America's Cup Team Site

back to top

Hopefuls: Potential New Challenger Hopefuls:

Active:

Ben Ainslie Racing | Royal Cornwall YC GBR
When Team Origin, billed as the British America's Cup Team, pulled the plug in October 2010, two reasons were cited either directly or in press reports: money and the commitments that key sailing team members including Ben Ainslie had to 2012 Olympic campaigns.  Ainslie, now a four-time Olympic gold medalist, had been Team Origin's skipper and helmsman. 

A story January 9, 2012, by Kate Laven at The Telegraph said instead that Ainslie would join Oracle Team USA, but compete on his own AC45, and in the process possibly flush out backing for a full-on challenger campaign in the following America's Cup.  On January 10, 2012, at his press conference Ainslie confirmed that he signed with Oracle for the 2013 America's Cup and was not mounting his own independent challenge, but looked to do so for the 35th Defense.  Ainslie raced an AC45 yacht in the America's Cup World Series, beginning in San Francisco in August, 2012, and played a major role in Oracle's defense of the America's Cup, skippering the second boat to tune up Jimmy Spithill, and then coming onboard the defender during the match as tactician.

Funding for the AC45 effort came from Larry Ellison at first, and some from name sponsor JP Morgan, according to Ainslie.  Based on his press conference comments, support for the ACWS was at least in the €3 million per season range.

Following the end of the 2013 America's Cup, Ainslie said Sept 29 he is exploring funding for a challenge, and wants to sign top design talent as soon as possible, according to the BBC.  A decision on whether to challenge is expected to be made within "a matter of weeks," Ainslie told ITV a couple days later.

Over the past six years, Sir Keith Mills has discussed funding a British challenger at several junctures, but retreated each time, usually with criticisms of the commercial prospects as he saw them.

In the America's Cup World Series, BAR represented the Royal Cornwall YC, which Ainslie has been associated with since he was a junior sailor.   It is not confirmed whether that is the same club BAR would represent if an entry is made for the 35th America's Cup.

 back to top
 

Rumored, Hinted, Imagined, Rejected, or Denied:

Challengers:

Australian Bob Oately
A report September 26th, 2013, in the New York Times that Hamilton Island YC in Australia was going to be the new COR was neither confirmed nor denied by GGYC/Oracle spokesman.  Australian Bob Oatley, closely associated with Hamilton Island, is the the team, if it exists.  The story was confirmed by public announcement on September 30: See Challenger of Record

Canadian Challenger | Royal Vancouver YC  | CAN
A report October 1 at SFGate.com says that the Canadian yacht club was interested in being the Challenger of Record for the 35th America's Cup, but that GGYC deferred their offer, accepting Hamilton Island YC since the Australian club had expressed interest first.  Presumably a team willing to be Challenger of Record also has intentions of being a challenger otherwise, but no public statement has been made to date.

back to top

Additional Links and Info:

2013 Teams Index

See Active 2013 America's Cup Teams