Two pools of top young sailors from 12 countries will battle for a spot in the finals of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in Bermuda in June.

Team BDA are grouped in pool B with traditional heavyweights NZL Sailing team (New Zealand), Land Rover BAR Academy (Great Britain) and Next Generation USA, with Spanish Impulse team (Spain) and Candidate Sailing team of Austria completing the field.

Laura Cutler, the Team BDA manager, said: “The team is really excited about the draw. It’s always good to know who you are up against. These are some of the best youth sailors in the world, so there’s no such thing as an easy group.

“As the home team, we’re looking forward to seeing Bermudians out on the Great Sound cheering us on. The boats we’ll be racing are incredible machines, so this is going to be a very exciting regatta.”

Two-time Olympic gold medal-winners Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher announced the line-ups for the two pools of top national youth teams that will compete in Bermuda this summer.

In their capacity as the sport directors for the innovative regatta for sailors aged 18 to 24, the legends from Austria flew to the America’s Cup Event Authority headquarters in Bermuda to make the draw.

Pool A will comprise Artemis Youth Racing (Sweden), Team France Jeune, Kaijin Team Japan, Youth Vikings Denmark, Team Tilt (Switzerland) and SVB Team Germany.

“There are six sailors per team and six teams per pool,” said Hagara, in explaining the regatta format for the races. “In the qualifiers this June, the top four teams from each pool will advance, and we’ll have a total of eight boats at the starting line in the finals, which is a lot.

“They’ll sail the same racecourse used by the America’s Cup teams, so it’s going to be a big challenge and a great opportunity to learn and prove themselves.”

Hagara and Steinacher are the masterminds behind the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, which was introduced in 2013 as a career pathway towards the America’s Cup itself. Eight sailors from that debut event have gone on to professional careers, including Peter Burling, the 2016 Olympic gold medal-winner, who will take the helm for Emirates Team New Zealand in the upcoming America’s Cup, and team-mate Blair Tuke.

This year for the first time, the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup will use foiling catamarans — high-speed AC45F boats that are longer than a city bus and which literally rise above the water on foils to fly at speeds of more than over 35 knots (65km/h). They are the same boats raced by the professional sailors in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series.

“The pools look quite equal, and I think it will be mistakes that prevent teams from advancing out of the qualifiers,” said Steinacher, referring to the global stadium racing circuit where some of the world’s top sailors race the lightning-fast boats on short courses close to shore.

“However, the British team [Land Rover BAR Academy] is a big favourite because they have experience sailing a foiling catamaran, the GC32, in the Extreme Sailing Series. But we’ll see. It’s not easy to be the favourite.”

Next up for the young teams is the official training periods, sailing with the only eight AC45F catamarans in the world. Training for pool A will take place in Bermuda between May 28 and June 3, followed by training for pool B from June 4 to 10.

Then the action accelerates in conjunction with the America’s Cup in Bermuda, with Youth America’s Cup qualifiers scheduled for June 12 to 16, followed by the finals on June 20 and 21 during the mid-series break in the America’s Cup Match.