Beginning at 1:30pm CDT (11:30am PDT) Sat., June 11, Chicago and The America’s Cup will make maritime history as six teams hit the first time ever-fresh water racecourse for the foremost international sailing event.

07/06/16 - Chicago (USA) - 35th America's Cup Bermuda 2017 - Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series Chicago - Setup Day -3

Boats were launched into Lake Michigan today. Practice racing will take place on Fri., June 10. Day One of Competition is Sat., June 11 and Day Two of Competition is Sun., June 12 at 1:30pm. Stay tuned. Results will be posted after watching the races live via the AC App.

Why Chicago?

Chicago, located on the shoreline of beautiful Lake Michigan, the 5th largest body of fresh water in the world at over 100 miles wide and 300 miles long, is the ideal city-front racecourse for America’s Cup. Chicago’s expansive shoreline is on display in its full glory from the Lakefront Trail, an impressive 26-miles of

Beer Garden - Ricardo Pinto3

uninterrupted lakefront, including 18.5 miles of lakefront path and 15 miles of beaches. Racing inside the break-wall gives them four true walls to form the stadium for viewing. Plus, with Chicago’s reputation for ‘windiest city”, there is not much fear of cancelation due to light winds.

Navy Pier

Navy Pier provides first hand viewing on the waterfront for fans all in one spot – where they can hang at the beer garden, experience the thrill of seeing AC45 catamarans racing at speeds of up to 40 mph and watch them cross the finish line – only an arm’s length away.

Photo - Ricardo Pinto

Points

The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series uses a high-point scoring system. On Sat. the winner of each race scores 10 points, 2nd place earns 9 points, 3rd place collects 8 points, and so on. On Sun., point scoring is doubled: 1st = 20 points; 2nd = 18 points; 3rd = 16 points, etc. The overall results reflect the total points scored across all races at all events to date.

The ranking positions from the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series events determine the seeding and bonus points for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers. The team in 1st place begins the Qualifiers with 2 points and 2nd place starts with 1 point. The Challenger Qualifiers will take place in 2017 at the Great Sound in Bermuda.

Defender Oracle's container arrived in Chicago - Photo Ricardo Pinto

The Challenger program begins with the America’s Cup Qualifiers, a double round-robin series between May 26 and June 5, 2017,  that the Defender (Oracle) participates in. The top four Challengers advance to the Challenger Playoffs between June 7 and 12, which consists of best of 9 Semi-Final and Final matches to determine the Challenger to compete in the 35th America’s Cup to face off Oracle, defender of The Cup, in a best of 13 series scheduled for June 17-27, 2017.

Schedule

The remaining 2016 World Series regattas:

  • Chicago, USA – Jun. 10-12, 2016;
  • Portsmouth, UK – Jul. 22-24, 2016;
  • Toulon, France — Sept. 10-11, 2016
  • Fukuoka, Japan — Nov. 18-20, 2016

Results at the close of the NYC World Series regatta May 8, 2016:

  • Emirates Team New Zealand 244
  • ORACLE TEAM USA 236
  • Land Rover BAR 227
  • SoftBank Team Japan 203
  • Artemis Racing 201
  • Groupama Team France 194

    35th America's Cup will take place in Bermuda in 2017/ Photo -Ricardo Pinto