The next edition of the America’s Cup will be held in 2013 and it will use wingsail catamarans, the head of America’s Cup defender BMW Oracle, Russell Coutts, said yesterdat in Spain.
“We believe this new format and new boat will put the America’s Cup back at the pinnacle of our sport,” the New Zealand skipper told a news conference in the Mediterranean port of Valencia.
The AC72 catamarans will be “pretty special, very powerful and very demanding”, he added.
“These changes will give equal opportunity to competitors and long-term economic stability to all teams and all commercial partners. We promised fairness and innovation and this is what we’ve delivered.”
The America’s Cup traditionally uses monohulls but the last edition held in February was a multihull duel between Oracle and Switzerland’s Alinghi following more than two years of legal wrangling over the rules of the event.
In June organisers carried out tests off the coast of Valencia involving multihulls and monohulls to see what works best on television.
Oracle is expected to announce the host city for the 34th America’s Cup by the end of the year.
San Francisco, where Oracle is based, is widely seen as the preferred venue but Valencia and a port near Rome as well as a site in the Middle East have also been cited in press reports as possibilities.
Oracle beat Swiss team Alinghi in two races in giant multihulls off Valencia in February.