Stock images of the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco.
The
34th America's Cup will be sailed in September 2013 in
San Francisco,
California, with 72-foot (21.9 m)
wing-sail catamarans.
Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) is the defender of the America's Cup, after their racing team,
Oracle Team USA defeated the Swiss
Alinghi team of
Société Nautique de Genève in the
2010 America's Cup. They will race the challengers
Emirates Team New Zealand of the
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, winners of the
Louis Vuitton Cup. The two teams will compete in a first-to-9 series which will determine the champion. sport picture galleries Americas Cup 2013 pictures Oracle Team USA level with Emirates Team NZ. "America's Cup racing pictures for sale"
The
34th America's Cup was a
series of
boat races held on
San Francisco Bay between the defender
Oracle Team USA representing the
Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger
Emirates Team New Zealand representing the
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Oracle Team USA defended the America's Cup by a score of 9 to 8. Oracle had to win the last eight races to come from behind and once again win the oldest trophy in international sport. Team New Zealand won the right to challenge for the Cup by winning the
2013 Louis Vuitton Cup. The 34th America's Cup was the longest ever Cup by both number of days and races, and the first since the
25th America's Cup to feature a winner-take-all final race. The
Golden Gate Yacht Club beat
Société Nautique de Genève in the
2010 America's Cup to become the Defenders of the America's Cup. The first Challenger of Record for the 34th Cup was
Club Nautico di Roma and a joint press conference was held on May 6, 2010, to plan for the event.
[2] The planning process was to include: definition of new rules, an independent management team, definition of a new class of boats created in conjunction with all teams, regular racing in multiple venues and provision for much increased television and online coverage. Two new classes of boat were announced.
AC72 wing-sail catamarans are being used for the America's Cup races and the
AC45 class, a scaled-down one-design version of the AC72, was used for the preliminary training and racing until boats built to the AC72 rules became available. The amended AC72 Class Rule version 1.1 was published on February 22, 2011. Originally fourteen yacht clubs submitted notices of entry within the deadline, but two were declined and ten withdrew. Another yacht club submitted an entry after the deadline and was accepted leaving three challengers. Oracle racing was the only team that represented the defending
Golden Gate Yacht Club.
Club Nautico di Roma was originally named as the Challenger of Record, but after their team
Mascalzone Latino withdrew it was replaced by the Swedish Yacht Club, sponsoring
Team Artemis. Other notable teams that withdrew included former Cup holder
Alinghi and the Energy Team from
Yacht Club de France. On August 2, 2012, the America's Cup Event Authority announced that four challenging teams would compete for the right to challenge Oracle Team USA. These teams were Team Artemis (the Challenger of Record) representing
Kungliga Svenska Segelsällskapet,
Emirates Team New Zealand representing the
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron,
Luna Rossa representing Circolo della Vela Sicilia and the White Tiger Challenge representing Sail Korea Yacht Club. Luna Rossa was a late entry and formed a partnership with Team New Zealand where they would share design and testing information. Following Team Korea's withdrawal in March 2013, the number of challengers dropped to three.
