Organisers Кубка «America» are thinking about how to make the competition more accessible to the teams. One of the rationalisations of the past few days is to reduce the size of the race boats.
«After giving the AC45 catamarans a good test on the water, it became clear to us that racing smaller boats could be just as spectacular for spectators, but far less costly for the teams»," says functionary Harvey Schiller. - The current operating costs associated with AC62 are too high».
If you reduce the size of the boats, each team has enough $16 million to compete for a major trophy, writes Bloomberg. Whereas it is known that last season's Cup winner Oracle Team USA «invested» at least $100 million in its victory. Team New Zealand parted with the same amount.
A representative of the organizing committee said that the final decision on the size of the courts has not yet been made, but has already been discussed with representatives of the Americans and New Zealand, for example. Both teams were in favour of smaller boats.
The idea was also supported by Sir Ben Ainslie, whose team is listed as participating in the «Cup». « It's a major change, but it's necessary if we want a stable future for America's Cup»," he said.
Recall that according to the event protocol, the main races of the event should be held on AC62 catamarans (62 feet) while the preliminary competition of the series could be held on AC45 models of a little more modest size.
Update: it became known that one of the teams strongly opposed the proposal and even threatened to leave the race if it is accepted.
