America's Cup Comes to Plymouth - September 2011

For the first time ever, Plymouth is to host the world's most prestigious sailing event - the America's Cup World Series, which returns to Britain for the first time in 160 years. A series of 12 regattas will take place in Europe and the US in the lead up to the 34th America's Cup to be hosted by San Francisco in 2013.

Between 10 and 18 September this year, Plymouth will see a fleet of high performance AC45' wing-sailed catamarans racing in the superb natural arena of the Sound. Many thousands of visitors are expected, and £10 million of economic benefit for Plymouth has been estimated from the event.

The AC45 is a new class of boat faster than anything seen at the America's Cup before. These catamarans will be raced in 2011 and into the first months of 2012 and are designed to give new teams an opportunity to learn the tricks of wing-sailed multi-hulls as they build their own larger AC72s - the revolutionary catamarans that will be raced in San Francisco in 2013.

Plans to prepare Plymouth for the event will take shape over the coming months, so watch this space!

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