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Fighting for the America's Cup «» teams from both coasts of the United States

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«The fifth team to try to wrest the America's Cup championship title from Emirates Team New Zealand in 2021» is Stars & Stripes Team USA of Long Beach , California.

«The 36th America's Cup» will now feature teams from both coasts of the USA: Stars & Stripes Team USA from the East Coast and American Magic from the New York Yacht Club from the West Coast.

« We are proud to have two American teams competing in this event. The USA is a country with an outstanding tradition in yachting and expertise, especially when it comes to the America's Cup»," said Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton.

Loyalty to tradition is indeed reflected in the very name of the Californian team.

« The name of our team is a tribute to the Stars & Stripes campaign of Dennis Conner, which kept the Cup in America for decades. We are the next generation»," explained team co-founder Mike Buckley.


Along with Buckley the team will be guided by former world match race champion Taylor Canfield, who has won the title three times in the last five years as well as being a four-time Congressional Cup winner.

« All my professional life my goal has been to go to the America's Cup. I'm sure we'll be very competitive when we get to Oakland in 2021»," said Canfield.

The Stars & Stripes CEO is JustinShaffer, whose career has been associated with Major League Baseball and Facebook. He has sailing experience in the TP52 class. Tod Reynolds» , who competed in the America's Cup Series «inChicago in 2016, has been named chief operating officer of the team. Serving as principal consultant is MelindaErkelens, a true «» veteran who has participated in five «America's Cup campaigns». The team's chief designer isJB Braun, who worked with Cup champions Oracle Team USA in 2013 and 2017.

The team has already begun buildingtheir version of the AC75 in Michigan.

Stars & Stripes became the second approved team of eight to apply «late». Malta Altus Challenge of the Royal Malta Yacht Club was the first to join the fleet on December 6. Also competing will be Italy's Luna Rossa and INEOS Team UK. «As previously reported, due to the fact that Auckland, New Zealand is only capable of hosting five teams, it is likely that the remaining six teams who entered» late will not be able to compete at this time.

Shortly before the entry deadline, the Dutch magazine Zeilen («Yachting») reported that one of the candidates could be a team fromthe Netherlands led by Team AkzoNobel skipper (Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018) Simeon Tienpont. However, it is unknown whether this intention has actually been realised.

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