Want to join the America's Cup team?

[Christian Williams]

I'm putting off the application until I can do one pushup in a row.


[FONT=&quot]Stars & Stripes Team USA[/FONT][FONT=&quot]On Friday, the Long Beach Yacht Club-flagged AC36 team Stars & Stripes announced an open application process for athletes and professionals applying for positions on the team’s sailing roster and shore team. “In the last America’s Cup, the athletes were required to sail the most complex sailboats ever designed while sustaining their max heart rate for more than 20 minutes,” said team co-founder Mike Buckley. “We are anticipating that the physicality of our new AC75 race boat will exceed that and are looking to build the most fit, skilled and inclusive team possible.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Applicants can go to an online Google Doc form here.[/FONT]

 

[Afrakes]

Discrimination

What, no senior division?

 

[Teranodon]

I looked at the online application. They are not just looking for sailors, but for designers, builders, fundraisers, etc.

Ever since they stopped sailing in monohulls, I lost nearly all interest in the AC. It's no longer possible for me to identify with the crews (and I'm an avid club racer). They only sail upwind, the tactics are boring, and they don't wrap their spinnakers around the forestay, like me.

I have some minor personal AC memories, including sneaking aboard the twin-rudder entry one night at the Saint Francis Yacht Club, just to look at the gear. Also, I cadged an invitation to the party at the New Zealand embassy on the night that they brought the Cup from San Diego (I had a job at the State Department). It was wild. Met Russell Coots and Sir Peter Blake.

 

[supersailor]

Gee! I want to sail on a boat. I'm not sure what these things are.

 

[bgary]

Ever since they stopped sailing in monohulls, I lost nearly all interest in the AC.

Me too. Which is sad, after growing up in the 60s and 70s reading everything I could find in the magazines, rabidly collecting the books when they were published, fantasizing about someday sailing in the Cup, and then ultimately having a (very) small part in a couple of Cup campaigns.

In hindsight, that was a time at an inflection point in the history of the Cup... going into the '83 Cup it was still sort of Corinthian - someone would form a syndicate, build a boat or two and then spend the summer racing in the Defender trials with their friends. And maybe a few hired guns.

Starting with the '87 Cup it really morphed into into a fully professional game, with full-time/salaried sailors, shore-staff, etc.

At that point my interest waned. I kinda have no more interest in following professional sailors-for-hire than I do in following professional baseball-players-for-hire. I miss the days, not only when the boats and the gear and the tactics had relevance to "my" kinda sailing, but when the ACup teams were representative of their country, rather than just ... employees of the deepest pocket.

Now, with their style of sailing having virtually no connection to the kind of sailing I do... it's really hard to care.

$.02
Bruce

 

[Mark F]

Hi Stefan,

Looks like the next AC will be mono hulls.
https://www.americascup.com/en/video/76_MEET-THE-MULE

 

[supersailor]

That picture looks spooky! Looks like the boat is afraid it might get wet. This looks like a little safer and saner alternative to he Cats.