The Preliminary Regattas are the warm-up events for the 37th America's Cup, and this will be the second and last that will be raced in the one design AC40s designed and manufactured by Emirates Team New Zealand. After this -- although the teams will continue to use them for in-house training and testing -- the boat's next competitive appearance will be in the Youth and Women's America's Cups.
The third and final preliminary regatta will be raced in Barcelona in the AC75, right before the opening of the Challenger Selection Series (CSS) in Barcelona next summer. The results of the Preliminary Regattas will determine the seeding for the first round robin of the CSS.
"We're looking forward to racing the AC40 again," commented Team Principal, skipper and helms, Ben Ainslie. "We had a disappointing outing in Vilanova [the first Preliminary Regatta], and we want to put that right with a good performance in Jeddah.
"We've been really busy with work on our test and development boat 'T6' since the racing in Spain, and these events are not easy to integrate with the bigger goal of designing, building and testing the fastest possible AC75 for the Challenger Series and America's Cup in 2024 -- but we'd acknowledge that we got that balance wrong in the run-up to the first Preliminary Regatta. We hope we have done a better job this time around."
The British crew representing INEOS Britannia will once again have the golden pairing of Ben Ainslie and Sailing Team Manager Giles Scott sharing the driving and tactics (six Olympic gold medals between them, with Ainslie the most successful Olympic sailor in history with four golds and a silver). This time the trimmer's seats will be taken by Bleddyn Mon and Iain Jensen, both world champions and hugely experienced campaigners. Jensen brings another Olympic gold and silver medal to the tally.
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