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About the ACWS: The America's Cup World Series Regatta dates announced: Last updated November 12, 2012
Three venues (Cascais, Plymouth, and San Diego) were announced for 2011, with three more (Newport, Venice, and Naples) named in late summer. For the 2012-13 season, events were set for San Francisco, Venice, and Naples, with more venues under consideration. Read below for official announcements and discussion of how the schedules evolved.
Formal Announcements: More Cities, More
Racing Additional cities unofficially pegged as
potential ACWS venues include Auckland, New Zealand; Dubai
(or another Middle East location such as Oman); a South
American spot such as Rio de Janeiro; and Sydney Harbor in
Australia. There was an inclination among organizers
to bring visibility to the challengers in their home
countries, too, if feasible, though that has turned out to
the be the exception rather than the rule for this America's
Cup cycle with both teams and venues formative at the same
time.
2011-2012: Although dates for a January-February 2012 regatta at an unnamed location were being carried in official statements as late as the end of October, 2011, officials and team members in November during the San Diego ACWS confirmed that negotiation with potential hosts was not expected to be completed in time for a mid-winter regatta, and that Naples, Italy, in April 2012 would be the ACWS stop after San Diego. The venue not named, which will not host, is widely cited as having been Auckland, New Zealand. Shipping and transport costs to the other side of the world and back for one event would have been prohibitive as a business case given the sponsorship on offer, and the limited window between Naples, Venice, and Newport did not easily accommodate the logistics necessary for another regatta within the 2011-12 season. Cascais, near Lisbon, in Portugal was one of five short-listed cities to host the 2007 America's Cup, and was actually regarded as the favorite for a while until losing out to Valencia, Spain. San Diego of course hosted the 1992 and 1995 Defenses of the America's Cup, though racing took place miles away off Point Loma for those events. Newport, Rhode Island, was a strong
contender to host an America's Cup World Series leading up
to the 2013 America's Cup, and organizers negotiated with
Rhode Island officials regarding facilities to be built by
the state at Fort Adams to support the needs of an America's
Cup World Series. One motivation for selecting Newport
was the city's strong historical link with the America's
Cup, though also, another factor not to be ignored, such a
move would go some distance to healing any bruises caused
when GGYC nearly chose Newport to host the 2013 America's
Cup Match itself, but ultimately selected San Francisco.
2012-2013: Details for new regattas in May 2013 though were never announced or confirmed. NY was attractive to ACEA, working on finding the right exposure for the series, especially in ways that would maximize exposure for teams and sponsors in key markets. While NY would have been a useful media opportunity, opposition from the teams, who are burdened with preparing their new AC72's for the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup in July 2013, contributed to canceling the NY dates. Additional concerns were raised by some as to whether sailing conditions in NY harbor would have shown the AC45's and ACWS in the best light.
Other
Changes and Adaptations: News stories March 1, 2012, about the USA television coverage of the ACWS referred to potentially different dates for the San Francisco events than previously announced (see below for those dates). On March 4, 2012, organizers confirmed that New York was being negotiated for August, 2012, with San Francisco as the fall-back, and the second San Francisco event was being moved to October with the exact dates to-be-confirmed. New York would have been a historic return to the original waters in which the Cup was first defended, not to mention a high-profile stage for increasing public awareness of the America's Cup, but ultimately racing in New York in 2012 wasn't feasible and the August regatta date for San Francisco held. As noted above, though, organizers mentioned in October 2012 that they were still considering a NY event, and it's possible that one of the two May 2013 events could take place there. Regarding SF, part of the Host City Agreement for staging the 34th Defense there in 2013 included a promise to bring an ACWS or AC "World Championship" races to the city prior to the actual Defense, which will be helpful as a learning experience for teams and organizers alike, and just as importantly would also be a boost from an economic impact perspective. The ACWS events in San Francisco in Summer 2012 were originally also intended to be the racing debut of the first batch of AC72 yachts. Organizers announced May 31, 2011, however that the AC45 yachts would be raced for both America's Cup World Series seasons. The change of boats is generally due to modification of the rules governing the earliest launch dates for the new AC72's, which were amended from January 1, 2012, to July 1, 2012, with the intention of making the schedule, funding, and development demands on the teams more realistic. The schedules of the currently planned
2012-2013 Regattas were all updated to run for four days
each, from Thursday through Sunday, which was a modification
from the earliest ACWS regattas that included an opening
weekend of racing, followed by two rest/reserve days, and
then racing Wednesday through Sunday. In any case,
none of the opening weekend racing has been counted toward
fleet race or match race championship scoring. The
opening weekend was primarily a way to provide teams with
additional racing time. The change was believed to be
motivated by lowering expenses, especially for broadcast
operations,
and focusing fan and media attention in a narrower set of
events that is easier to follow. Notes on Schedule Revisions: For Reference: Previous schedule, now
superseded Dates Changes: Additional Links and Info:
See SailBlast.com (November 2, 2011) for discussion
of finalizing additional regattas 2011-12 ACWS Schedule |
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