America's Cup World Series Begins in San Francisco

The America’s Cup World Series, San Francisco, is part of what is being billed as the busiest week of events in the city’s history.

“We have a challenging program this week,” said regatta director Iain Murray. “We’re working with Fleet Week, so most of our racing will be later in the day. On Super Sunday we’ll be participating in the air show with Fleet Week. The air show will start and then stop, we’ll sail our Super Sunday fleet race (scheduled to start at 1:55 pm PDT), and then the air show will resume.

All 11 teams that raced the first AC World Series San Francisco in August return, including (in order of standing): ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL (Jimmy Spithill), Luna Rossa Piranha (Chris Draper), Team Korea (Peter Burling), Energy Team (Loick Peyron), Luna Rossa Swordfish (Iker Martinez), Artemis Racing – White (Terry Hutchinson), Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker), ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS (Russell Coutts), Artemis Racing – Red (Nathan Outteridge), J.P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) and China Team (Phil Robertson).

While the boats are the same, some new hands are lined up for the tillers. Notably, 21-year-old Burling of New Zealand takes over Team Korea, Martinez of Spain joins Luna Rossa Swordfish and Outteridge of Australia joins Artemis Racing – Red.

As at the past two ACWS regattas, NBC will broadcast nationwide the “Super Sunday” fleet racing championship. Racing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be broadcast by the America’s Cup regional media partner NBC Bay Area on its digital channel California NonStop (channel 186 on Comcast and 11.2 on over-the-air digital).