America’s Cup shifting to younger racers with knowledge of new boats

New foiling boat trend calls for different race skills

When the America’s Cup turned the sailing world upside down in 2013 by racing hydrofoiling, 72-foot catamarans, the model of the 40-something professional sailor that had long dominated Cup sailing was left in the boiling, 50-knot wake of the new boats.

The new term “foiling,” referring to sailing above the water on a foil-borne craft, entered the sport’s lexicon for good, and the 20-somethings accustomed to sailing small, high-performance Olympic boats started taking the helms of America’s Cup boats.

That same year, at 22 and having won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics, the New Zealander Peter Burling won the inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in a non-foiling AC45, the boats then used for the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series. Since then, Burling has become the Emirates Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup helmsman, has won the New York leg of the World Series this year.

But now, even though he is only 25, Burling could be looking over his shoulder after this America’s Cup cycle as an even younger cadre of sailors catch the foiling bug.

A lot has changed since 2013, when only the International Moth was an organized foiling class. Today, classes of monohull and multihull foilers are growing at a rate of two per year. A simplified production version of the Moth, called the Waszp, was released this summer, complete with a kid-size rig. Teenagers have begun racing foil boards in kite-boarding events. The Extreme Sailing Series, the top professional sailing series in the world, switched to GC32 foiling catamarans, and the America’s Cup World Series is now in foiling AC45s.

Burling is the 2015 Moth world champion, and he and his America’s Cup teammate Blair Tuke won a gold medal in the 49er class at the Rio Olympics in August.

“We’re seeing guys coming up through the 49er,” Burling said by telephone in September from his team’s base in New Zealand. “I’m sure some will follow up through the Cup soon.”

He said the average age of an America’s Cup sailor had dropped because the event itself had “changed so quickly.”

“The older guys’ experience was not as valuable,” he said. “They were sailing heavy boats with a lot of structure in the racing.”

Burling and Tuke have the skills developed from racing small, high-speed boats at the Olympic level, where quick decisions must be made under tremendous pressure. It’s no surprise that sailors from four America’s Cup teams won medals at the Rio Games.

The Youth America’s Cup finals will be run next year in Bermuda, scheduled between the America’s Cup challenger series and the finals, in the foiling AC45s. The youth series, for sailors 19 to 24 years old, has become a steppingstone to the America’s Cup, with six sailors from the 2013 event now on America’s Cup teams.

The new Red Bull Foiling Generation, a two-year series that travels around the world seeking the best 16-to 20-year-old foilers, offers today’s aspiring Cup sailors an advantage that Burling did not have.

The foiling Flying Phantom catamaran that is now ubiquitous for America’s Cup training was selected for the series in 2015. Neither that class of boat nor any youth foiling event existed when Burling won the Youth America’s Cup.

“We know from other sports that identifying talent early and trying to lock them in works,” said Hans-Peter Steinacher, co-founder of the Foiling Generation series.

Steinacher, 48, won Olympic gold medals in 2000 and 2004 in the Tornado catamaran class with his fellow Austrian Roman Hagara, and was an early influence on Team Oracle USA’s decision to race the America’s Cup in catamarans.

Hagara, 50, said last week that the age limit for professional Cup sailing would surely be lowered, which he said was a natural progression.

“We are looking for the best talent in youth sailing,” said Hagara, who also manages the Red Bull team in the Extreme Sailing Series. “It’s very easy to give the skills and turn them into a different style of sailor. So in the future, they will be the best and have the new skills you need on these new boats.”

Although, as Hagara noted, there are no nationally organized pathways for young sailors to reach the America’s Cup, observers say it won’t be long before youth sailors are tapped by team scouts, as is the practice in other professional sports.

Anthony Kotoun, a top American Moth sailor and professional tactician, said that “the kid who wins” the Foiling Generation World Finals “will obviously be on the radar for everyone.” “The skills are directly applicable to the Cup skills,” he said. “Kids are sharper, everyone is going to get younger.”

Kotoun, 40, is the typical American professional sailor who deferred Olympic sailing after college for a paycheck calling shots for wealthy racers. Now, he said, young sailors need to win in foiling boats to be recognized by a Cup team.

Victor Diaz de Leon, who, in ninth place, was the top American at this summer’s Moth World Championships, has been using his own money to compete in the class in hopes of landing a Cup spot.

“My goal is to win a Moth Worlds,” said Diaz de Leon, 25, in an interview from the Etchells European Championship in Cowes, England, where he is being paid to race. “There, you go against the best and prove yourself. It’s ambitious, I know.”

He said that he was “looking forward” to “lining up” with Burling at the next Moth World event.

But Burling and Tuke cautioned that just racing foiling boats does not necessarily translate to great America’s Cup skills.

“The future is foiling,” said Tuke, who also races Moths and foiling A Class catamarans. “It gives you a good skill set, but you have to find the established fleets, like in the Olympics, to have those tight battles.”

At Sail Newport, the community boating center in Rhode Island that is hosting the Foiling Generation World Finals, high school sailors have the latest toys to test: a Moth, Waszp, Flying Phantom and 49er, representing modern sailing.

Sail Newport also hosted a Foiling Week in September, where designers met to exchange ideas and test out concepts. The center’s executive director, the world champion sailor Brad Read, agrees with Tuke that foiling isn’t everything.

“There’s an x-factor that gets kids looking around for what to sail next,” said Read, whose 19-year-old son, Brendan, has been training for the United States qualifiers for the Foiling Generation World Finals.

“Some of the same kids getting into foiling have to be smart enough to sail in local fleets of keelboats and work in the boating community. If you throw a kid into foiling at 13, you may find that when they are older they can’t even tie a boat to the dock.”

But Steinacher and Hagara don’t see the winner of the inaugural Foiling Generation unseating America’s Cup helmsmen like Burling just yet. Although any teenager who can get a Flying Phantom around the course without crashing is considered a talented sailor, Steinacher said the most exciting prospects have come from France.

“There’s a multihull culture in France and there’s really good talent there,” said Steinacher, who selects some members of his Extreme Sailing Series team from the Foiling Generation. “They are used to the speed of these boats. It will be interesting to see who wins the finals next month.”

Steinacher was hesitant to say that the next Peter Burling would come out of the foiling finals, which will have a knockout series format. Nonetheless, he said, “We have our notes.”