What has long been no secret in Cup circles is now official: the Malta Altus Challenge has today informed the New Zealand America's Cup defenders that it is withdrawing its challenge. This means that only two of the original three late challengers are still fighting for their chance on the sponsorship front: the Dutch team DutchSail around skipper Simeon Tienpont and the American campaign Stars + Stripes. However, both have recently gone quiet in the battle for Cup participation.
However, the Cup giants are continuing their preparations for the challenger series known as the Prada Cup and the 36th America's Cup clash in 2021 unabated. Sir Ben Ainslie's British America's Cup team Ineos Team UK has just completed a training session in Spain, which included foil tests with the test boat "T5". American Magic has completed a training session in Florida and is returning to Newport. The Italian "Challenger of Record" Luna Rossa team tested off Cagliari with a 38-foot catamaran test boat (shortened former AC45 cat in the maximum length allowed by the Cup protocol). And the New Zealand Cup defenders from Emirates Team New Zealand continue to claim that they are only testing virtually.
After the originally planned AC World Series was cancelled stage by stage, the dates and venues for the three AC World Series 2020 regattas are expected to be announced by 30 November 2019. The challengers also expect the Notice of Race for the Cup duel to be published by the end of the year. The Prada Cup Challenger Series will take place in February 2021 off Auckland, where the Cup Duel will also take place in March 2021.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
