Youth and Puig Women’s America’s Cup

Pivotally, 2024 will see the inaugural Youth & Puig Women’s America’s Cup and the relaunch of the Youth America’s Cup.

Great Britain is the current defender of the Youth America’s Cup, which last took place during the 35th America’s Cup series in Bermuda in 2017. A squad of the country’s most talented young sailors will compete in the 2024 event as part of Athena Pathway to defend the Youth America’s Cup Title for Britain. Athena Pathway also plans to make history by winning the first-ever Women’s America’s Cup, paving the way for a future generation of British female sailing talent to compete at the forefront of high-performance foiling.

Both events will be raced on AC40s, a new class of one-design foiling monohulls. The AC40 ensures an equalised field where success is entirely predicated on talent and skill and reduces the barriers to entry for countries that are first-time campaigners.

Twelve teams will be split into two pools of six for an initial fleet racing series. A final series of 3-4 fleet races will decide the top two teams, who will subsequently compete in a single match-race final to determine the overall winners of each event. Nationality requirements stipulated in the protocol mean that 100% of the crew sailing each yacht in each race must be nationals of the country of the yacht club the team represents.

The racing is scheduled to take place in Barcelona, with much of the competition running alongside the Challenger Selection Series and some of the final events overlapping with the 37th America’s Cup itself. This will ensure both the Women’s and Youth events are given maximum exposure - a huge step towards achieving gender equality in high-performance sailing and raising the profile and accessibility of the sport for young people globally.