New challengers for the 34th America's Cup?

According to Valencia sailing, there is a new Korean challenger for the next Cup. Checking the official web page we found nothing!

Rumours have also started to surface of another Canadian challenge.

As far as the Defender´s website is concerned, we only have ARTEMIS as an officially announced challenger. We know Team New Zealand are working for the moment, but still nothing official has surfaced on any of these entries. If you were a potential sponsor, it doesn´t look good at present. Who will be sailing where come 2013 (or even next year)?

Sourced from the defender´s webpage:
The oldest trophy in international sport, the America’s Cup has become an obsession for some of the most famous, powerful, and exceedingly eccentric characters in the world. The America’s Cup transcends mere sport; rather, it is a story of adventure, ambition, technology, innovation, creativity, and competition.

It is a story that begins a long time ago. To put the history of the America’s Cup in context, consider that when the first Games of the modern Olympics were held in Athens in 1896, it had already been 45 years since the yacht America had bested the British fleet in 1851.

That first race around the Isle of Wight, on the Solent off the south coast of England, was for the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 100 Guinea Cup. The winning boat, America, was built by a syndicate from the New York Yacht Club, led by commodore John Cox Stevens. America was designed to be sailed across the Atlantic, to participate in the Universal Exhibition, and then race against the best of the British fleet, for ‘gentlemen’s wagers’.

But Stevens and his colleagues tipped their hand too early, blasting up the Solent on the final delivery from across the English Channel, and dissuading any locals from taking bets against the radical looking cutter. Eventually, after significant pressure from the press and the general public, America was allowed to sail in the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 100 Guinea Cup, winning the race, and claiming the trophy to take home.

In 1857, Stevens and his syndicate donated the trophy through a Deed of Gift to the New York Yacht Club, declaring the Cup should be held in trust as a “perpetual Challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries.”

Thus was born the America’s Cup, named after the boat, rather than the country.

The America’s Cup, still true to the Deed of Gift, is a challenge-based trophy. The Yacht Club winning the America’s Cup becomes the Defender, and must race against eligible challenging yacht clubs to defend the trophy.

In the early years, the defending New York Yacht Club could boast several advantages that it wielded to keep the Cup safe in its trophy room. Challenging boats had to be built heavily enough to sail to New York (often across the Atlantic) but then were competing in the light conditions of the US East Coast in summer.

This, among other advantages, allowed the New York Yacht Club to keep the America’s Cup for 132-years, often described as the longest winning streak in sport.

The streak lasted through two World Wars, eventually coming to an end only in 1983, in the 12-Metre class. For most of the history of the America’s Cup, the Defender would accept just one challenge, but in 1970, with several clubs from different countries interested in the Cup, the New York Yacht Club accepted multiple challenges, the challenger candidates first racing each other to determine who would sail against the Defender in the America’s Cup Match.

Many Cup historians see this as the beginning of the end for the dominance of the Defender. The evidence certainly supports that conclusion. From the time Louis Vuitton began supporting the Challenger Series, creating the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1983, the Challenger has beaten the Defender in the America’s Cup Match four out of seven times (in multi-challenger editions). Up until that point, the Challenger had never won in 24 attempts.

The team to end the streak was Australia II. The ‘Men from Down-Under’ sailed with confidence, thrashing the other challengers en route to the Match. Boasting a radical keel designed by Ben Lexcen, and skippered by the sure hand of John Bertrand, the upstart Australians beat legend Dennis Conner and his crew in an electrifying Match, the outcome in doubt right up until the end of the seven-race series, 4 – 3.

Conner was able to exact a measure of revenge by claiming the Cup back in 1987, bringing the trophy to San Diego, before Team New Zealand again took the Auld Mug to the Southern Hemisphere in 1995.

32nd America's Cup - Final Match - Day 2
After a successful defence by New Zealand in 2000 (the first successful defence outside the United States), in 2003, the Swiss-based Alinghi came to New Zealand and won the Cup. Alinghi became the first team to win the America’s Cup on its first attempt, bolstered by the vast Cup experience of many of its crew.


For the 32nd America’s Cup, Alinghi, brought the competition to Europe for the first time, selecting Valencia, Spain as the venue. Against what may be the strongest line-up of challengers to ever assemble in the America’s Cup, Alinghi eventually defeated Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2 to successfully defend the trophy.

The 33rd America’s Cup will be remembered for both the legal acrimony that preceded the racing, resulting in a one on one Deed of Gift Match, as well as for the two incredibly sophisticated, cutting-edge, high-tech multihulls that each team built for the race.

After numerous court challenges, the event took place in February, 2010 between Alinghi, with its enormous A5 catamaran and BMW ORACLE Racing with USA, its trimaran powered by a towering wing sail.

The American challenger, driven by the largest wing ever built, was too powerful for the Swiss defender and swept the Match 2-0, winning the trophy for its San Francisco based Golden Gate Yacht Club. Shortly after the victory, it was revealed that the Club Nautico di Roma and its Mascalsone Latino Audi Team was the challenger of record for the 34th America’s Cup.

ed With so little known to date, let us hope this Cup gets the respect that those crazy eccentrics have come to love and given it over the years.

DEFENDERS AND CHALLENGERS

Year Defender Challenger Score

1851 Aurora, England America, USA 0-1
1870 Magic, USA Cambria, England 1-0
1871 Columbia, USA Livonia, England 4-1
1876 Madeline, USA Countess of Dufferin, Canada 2-0
1881 Mischief, USA Atalanta, Canada 4-1
1885 Puritan, USA Genesta, GBR 2-0
1886 Mayflower, USA Galatea, GBR 2-0
1887 Volunteer, USA Thistle, Scotland 2-0
1893 Vigilant, USA Valkyrie II, GBR 3-0
1895 Defender, USA Valkyrie III, GBR 3-0
1899 Columbia, USA Shamrock, Ireland 3-0
1901 Columbia, USA Shamrock II, Ireland 3-0
1903 Reliance, USA Shamrock III, Ireland 3-0
1920 Resolute, USA Shamrock IV, Ireland 3-2
1930 Enterprise, USA Shamrock V, Ireland 4-0
1934 Rainbow, USA Endeavour, GBR 4-2
1937 Ranger, USA Endeavour II, GBR 4-0
1958 Columbia, USA Sceptre, GBR 3-1
1962 Weatherly, USA Gretel, Australia 4-1
1964 Constellation, USA Sovereign, GBR 4-0
1967 Intrepid, USA Dame Pattie, Australia 4-0
1970 Intrepid, USA Gretel II, Australia 4-1
1974 Courageous, USA Southern Cross, Australia 4-0
1977 Courageous, USA Australia, Australia 4-0
1980 Freedom, USA Australia, Australia 4-1
1983 Liberty, USA Australia II, Australia 3-4
1987 Kookaburra III, Australia Stars & Stripes 87, USA 0-4
1988 Stars & Stripes 88, USA New Zealand, NZ 2-0
1992 America 3, USA Il Moro di Venezia, Italy 4-1
1995 Young America, USA Team NZ, New Zealand 0-5
2000 Team NZ, New Zealand Luna Rossa, Italy 5-0
2003 Team NZ, New Zealand Alinghi, Switzerland 0-5
2007 Alinghi, Switzerland Team NZ, New Zealand 5-2
2010 Alinghi, Switzerland BMW ORACLE Racing, USA 0-2