Coutts, Ellison developing new contest
AUCKLAND: Former America’s Cup holders Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts are to announce a new sailing league called SailGP that will be contested in an enhanced class of foiling 50foot (15.42m) catamarans.
Ellison, the software tycoon who cofounded Oracle Corp., and New Zealand sailing great Coutts headed the Oracle Team USA syndicate that won the America’s Cup in 2010 and 2013 before losing it to Team New Zealand in 2017.
They have been working for several months on the concept of an annual league that will keep alive their vision of competing in fast, cuttingedge catamarans.
Plans call for SailGP to have five regattas in 2019, beginning in midFebruary in Sydney, Australia.
The other regattas are expected to be held in San Francisco, New York, Great Britain and France. Reports have indicated there will be teams from the United States, Great Britain and Australia, and entries are also expected from France, Japan and China.
SailGP is not intended to compete directly with the America’s Cup.
As chief executive of the America’s Cup Event Authority prior to the 2017 regatta, Coutts championed continuity and stability via a framework agreement that called for matches in 2019 and 2021 in foiling catamarans. Team New Zealand was the only team that did not sign it, and the Kiwis, in con junction with Challenger of Record Luna Rossa Challenge of Italy, decided to sail the 36th America’s Cup in a new class of foiling, singlehulled boats called the AC75.
The SailGP catamarans will be called F50s — the F stands for foiling — and will be considered a new class. The fleet for 2019 will be a combination of AC50s used in the 2017 America’s Cup that were dismantled and redesigned, and new boats built in New Zealand.