As a three-time 49er world champion and reigning world champion in the extremely nimble winged moths, Outteridge knows his way around the grass. Now he has the honour of replacing Draper, who has moved to the Italian Luna Rossa team, and taming the Korean AC45 Tiger in the America's Cup World Series. He will be helped by Scott, the strong English Finn sailor, who is the reigning world and European champion, but only plays second fiddle to superstar Ben Ainslie in the British team and will probably have to miss the Olympic Games.
At a press conference, Russell Coutts cryptically announced the imminent signing of a contract with a major US broadcaster to broadcast the America's Cup races free of charge for viewers. Coutts did not give any details or names. "To be honest, I think it will be one of the best, if not the best, TV broadcasts of the Cup, at least since I've been involved." Coutts said that a total of "5.8 million viewers" were reached via YouTube during the three events in 2011, whereby he did not differentiate between viewers and the video views reported by YouTube. This may be impressive for the sport of sailing, but compared to popular TV sports it is modest, especially when you consider that the Plymouth capsize video alone was viewed just over a million times. The America's Cup Event Management has so far failed to respond to repeated requests from YACHT to provide detailed media figures. According to Coutts, the licence problems that initially arose with live broadcasts via YouTube, for example in Germany, Sweden and New Zealand, have also been resolved.
The departures before Plymouth at the second tour stop of the AC 45 World Series
To the AC side
