What's Happening with the 38th America's Cup? - A Personal View

The recent signing of the AC38 protocol created a flurry of news stories and speculation as to how the next Cup would play out. And while the governance of the Cup is a big deal, the news that followed has been more of a drip feed than the start of a new chapter for the 175 year old trophy. But don't be fooled, the 38th Cup is a big deal, not least of all because the runway is now pretty short with teams moving into completely new territory when it comes to how this Cup will be run. The first event is in just a few months time with the Cup Match itself taking place next year. The closing date for entries is the end of January 2026 and yet there's still talk of more teams taking part and the Kiwis are about to get their AC75 back on the water. The fact is we're underway already, so what's going on? In our latest update Matt Sheahan pulls together the various news stories, inside chatter and gossip to put together his personal analysis of what's going on to explain what state the Cup is in and where we should be looking. We also hear from the chief architect of the AC75 Emirates Team New Zealand's Dan Bernasconi about how this generation of AC75s will differ from the previous machines. Plus, if you thought that talk of a collaboration among Cup teams with the ACP sounded familiar, we've dug out some great clips from 2017 where some of the key players in the sport talk about the biggest change for the Cup......If nothing else it should produce a wry smile or two!