America’s Cup winners Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts have launched a new stadium yacht racing league to challenge the Auld Mug’s dominance of inshore team racing.

Described by Oracle co-founder Ellison as “the evolution of sailing”, SailGP will begin its inaugural season in February next year – a little over four months from now – with teams from six countries racing identical 50ft foiling catamarans, designed for high-speed racing in harbour environments that will bring spectators closer to the action on the water.

The F50 catamaran is adapted from the AC50 that raced the most recent America’s Cup in Bermuda, with the specialists at Core Builders Composites in New Zealand spending the last year tweaking the design with the aim of reaching speeds in excess of 50 knots.

Sydney Harbour will hold the debut event from 15-16 February, before SailGP moves on to San Francisco (4-5 May), New York (21-22 June), Cowes on the Isle of Wight (10-11 August), and Marseille in the south of France (20-22 September) for the finale.

The World Sailing-sanctioned SailGP is the brainchild of Ellison and Sir Russell, respectively owner and CEO of Oracle Team USA — winners of the 2013 America’s Cup in dramatic fashion.

They have devised a competition that will see five fleet races each round, their results determining the two best teams who will race a head-to-head final in each host harbour.

In the final round, a winner-takes-all match race between the season’s top two teams will be held with $1 million up for grabs.

However, SailGP co-founder Sir Russell has played down suggestions that the concept is a rival to the America's Cup, saying that the two competitions were "absolutely not" at odds.

Sir Russell was speaking at the launch event for SailGP in London this week, which also unveiled the British team that will be taking part.

“The concept of SailGP immediately excited me,” said Dylan Fletcher, Rio 2016 Olympian and helmsman of the Great Britain SailGP team.

“This league allows us to compete with and against the best, and to challenge ourselves in every way possible while sailing the world’s fastest catamarans.”

#AmericasCup - It only took one more race for Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand to seal the deal and clinch the Auld Mug in the 35th America’s Cup match in Bermuda yesterday (Monday 26 June).

Race nine, the first of two scheduled for yesterday afternoon, saw another dominant performance to match the two comfortable wins join Sunday that put the Kiwi team at match point, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Both teams enjoyed clean starts off the line when racing resumed in the Great Sound of Bermuda, with Oracle Team USA — who defeated their Kiwi rivals in a surprise turnaround for the 34th America’s Cup in 2013 — edging ahead before losing ground on the run to the second mark.

By the third, the New Zealand yacht, with Burling at the helm, had already extended its lead to 26 seconds, and with a further six seconds of buffer added at the fourth, it was all she wrote.

Burling and crew, who went in as underdogs, now bring the America’s Cup back to New Zealand for the first time since 2000.

“I’ve grown up watching this competition as a fan and to be a Kiwi and taking this cup home is a dream come true,” said the young helmsman after the race.

“To be able to win this event at such a young age is an unreal feeling. However, I’m just a tiny part of a massive team and it is incredible to be able to reward the hard work of those hundreds of people who have supported us, not only here but back home in New Zealand as well.”

Team chief executive Grant Dalton credited their push for better design since 2013 as one of their keys to victory.

“One of the things to come out of San Francisco is that we were out-designed and we knew this time round that we had to push that area,” he said.

“This time round we had no restrictions on design. We just wanted to see what we could come up with and we have achieved some truly amazing things that have been revolutionary in this sport.”

Dalton added: “After San Francisco we had a pretty tough debrief and came up with 20 points that we had to change. One of those was that we had to invest in technology and the people that provide it.

“We also had to get our arms around the next generation of yachtsmen that were coming through and Peter [Burling] was one of those.”

The title is a major get at this early stage for 26-year-old Burling, who won the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup trophy at the last match in San Francisco.

What’s next for the new America’s Cup champions? A new challenge from an old foe in Luna Rossa Challenge, representing Circolo della Vela Sicilia in northern Sicily, the Challenger of Record for the 36th America’s Cup.

Luna Rossa Challenge tussled with the Kiwis in the 30th America’s Cup match in 2000 and more recently in the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup final, coming up short on both occasions, so the Italians will have much to prove come 2021.

#AmericasCup - Emirates Team New Zealand extended their lead over Oracle Team USA by six points to one after the fourth day of the 35th America’s Cup match in Bermuda yesterday (Sunday 25 June).

The Kiwis’ comfortable wins in the seventh and eight rounds put a halt on the American boat’s momentum after victory in Saturday’s last race, and put them at match point in the series — needing only one more win to bring the cup back to New Zealand.

However, that score will bring back memories of the last America’s Cup match in 2013 on San Francisco Bay, where Oracle were on the ropes but staged a spectacular turnaround to defend their title.

Today’s scheduled rounds, starting at 2pm local time (with live coverage from 5.30pm on BT Sport 1), will tell whether the US team has what it takes to repeat that incredible feat and keep its grip on the Auld Mug.

ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand put on a spectacular show in Chicago during official practice at the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series on Friday.

The teams sit one-two on the overall leaderboard, but on Friday, neither team could stay upright. The Kiwis were the first to fall, capsizing late in a close match with ORACLE TEAM USA, the Kiwis came off the foils, crashed down hard, and rolled into a capsize, with some crew members falling off the boat or jumping off the top hull. All crew were safe and accounted for and the Kiwis recovered quickly to start the next race just 15 minutes later. 

It was in the next race that ORACLE TEAM USA went over.

The team was well back in the fleet race, and appeared to be surprised by an approaching boat. As skipper Jimmy Spithill rolled into a crash tack to avoid collision, the team didn’t have time to let off a line, pinning the wing sail, and resulting in a capsize.

As with Emirates Team New Zealand, the American team was able to recover and resume racing.

#AmericasCup - America's Cup holders Oracle Team USA are being sued by a New Zealand sailor over accusations that he illegally altered a catamaran used in a warm-up race.

Matt Mitchell was suspended for the first four races of last summer's series in San Francisco amid a cheating scandal that rocked Larry Ellison's team and led to an "unprecedented" raft of penalties levelled against the eventual race winners.

But as Stuff.co.nz reports, Mitchell has filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court seeking his legal fees plus special damages for what he argued was his team's failure to indemnify under the California Legal Code.

Mitchell says he "sustained and continues to sustain substantial economic damages" as a result of the penalties, which also saw crewman Dirk de Ridder banned from the America's Cup and suspended by the ISAF for five years - lately reduced to 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Stuff.co.nz has more on the story HERE.

#AmericasCup - Sir Ben Ainslie's historic contribution to Oracle Team USA's astonishing turnaround victory in this year's America's Cup may prompt a future rule change for the yachting classic - one that would prevent its likes from happening again.

The British Olympic hero's last-minute addition to the faltering American team saw their fortunes change almost instantly as they battled against the formidable Emirates Team NZ on San Francisco Bay, fighting back from an eight-to-one deficit in the first-to-nine contest to clinch dramatic victory from the jaws of defeat.

But as a new Yachting World interview with Oracle Team USA's chief executive Russell Coutts reveals, a 'nationality rule' - that would restrict teams to sourcing their crew from the country they represent - could be on the cards for future editions of the 'Auld Mug' challenge.

According to Coutts, both Oracle Team USA and the Challenger of Record (Hamilton Island Yacht Club in Queensland, Australia) are "considering options there".

That's one of many changes proposed for the America's Cup, aside from moves to reduce costs of competing and encourage more nations to be represented at what Coutts describes as "the pinnacle of our sport".

Meanwhile, San Francisco's SFGate.com reports that the latest edition of the America's Cup did not bring as much economic benefit to the Bay Area as has been expected.

Figures apparently show that the races and associated developments generated up to $550 million, which falls far short of the $900 million forecasted two years ago.

And that's in addition to costing the city's taxpayers some $5 million, funding that some city officials believe could have been better spent elsewhere.

SFGate.com has more on the story HERE.

#AmericasCup - The America's Cup has been rocked by news of a cheating scandal in Oracle Team USA that has seen the team docked two points and three of its members banned from the event.

According to Reuters, the penalties are "unprecedented" in the 162-year history of the America's Cup.

It emerged that one-class 45ft catamarans that the team raced in a preliminary event in July, and again in a youth race last week, had weighted bags with lead and resin stuffed into their frames.

Though the team's skippers and managers claimed no prior knowledge, and argued that no advantage had been gained from the illegal ballast, the international jury investigating the incident decided that points should be docked from the main 72ft boat racing division.

It also banned from the race crew members Dirk de Ridder and two other shore crew, while a fourth sailor was suspended for the first four races of the series.

Reuters has much more on the story HERE.