What the teams are saying about the announcement of Bermuda as the venue for the 2017 America’s Cup.
Jimmy Spithill, ORACLE TEAM USA: “It’s fantastic. I’ve spent a bit of time there and really enjoyed the racing, the people. We bring a whole family. It’s not just the athletes. It’s the shore team, the engineers, their families, their kids. The cool thing about Bermuda is, if you live in Bermuda, you are associated with the nautical theme, with the water. And that’s our life. So that integration of the whole America’s Cup community is going to be a very nice fit.”
Ben Ainslie, Ben Ainslie Racing: “We’re absolutely delighted. I’ve had some great experiences racing there with the Gold Cup on and off the water. It’s a great venue, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Nathan Outteridge, Artemis Racing: “Since the Cup ended last year we’ve kept a strong team together doing design and sailing in our AC45s. But now that we know the venue we can study the weather patterns for that place. Hopefully we’ll get there as much as we can to sail there in the May, June, July weather window to understand what will be secret to winning the America’s Cup. In every Cup there is one key thing that gets you over the line… So we’ll be focusing our efforts on understanding what the weather range is and working on designing a fast boat.”
Kevin Shoebridge, Emirates Team New Zealand: “Bermuda is a fantastic sailing venue. It’s an island with a huge maritime history and I think there will be engagement by all the Bermuda public to support the event, so I think that will be fantastic.”
Franck Cammas, Team France: “I’ve never been to Bermuda, but I hear it’s a good place to race and sail and it’s good for the show and the television. It’s not so far from Europe so it’s good for us and our sponsors to be able to see the race.”
Max Sirena, Luna Rossa Challenge: “It’s great news. Our team is very happy. We can focus on Bermuda now. It’s a great place to sail. It’s something new that should give us an opportunity to move forward in this new evolution of the America’s Cup. We’ll start to plan for the next couple of years now and we look forward to moving there as soon as we can.”
