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Officials excitedly waiting for youth race details

Bermuda Sailing Association officials are awaiting finer details on the next Red Bull Youth America’s Cup with bated breath.

It was announced earlier this month that the second Red Bull Youth America’s Cup will be held in 2017, with qualifying to commence from 2016.

Teams in the next event will compete in the same foiling wing-sailed AC45 catamaran their senior counterparts will race in, in the America’s Cup World Series which begins in June.

The inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in 2013 was staged just before the first races of the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco.

Published reports suggests that the next Red Bull Youth America’s Cup will be held in Bermuda’s waters, but this has yet to be confirmed by organisers.

Still, the prospect of the event being held in local waters and featuring local sailors has BSA officials abuzz.

“In terms of how the BSA feels about Bermuda potentially hosting the next Red Bull Youth America’s Cup event, the answer is of course we are very excited by the opportunity and the prospect of this providing our youth with an opportunity to have a fantastic sailing experience,” Elspeth Brewin, the Bermuda Sailing Association president, said.

The New Zealand Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand won the inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup that featured ten teams from eight countries each with six team members aged 19-23.

Glenn Astwood, the Bermuda Olympic sailor, said exposing local grassroots sailors to this level of competition will only help their development.

“I think something like this will galvanise sailing at the grassroots level and a lot of our guys in that age group stand to learn a lot,” he said. “If something like this can happen then it would be great for Bermuda sailors because it gets them exposure and some of the guys sailing in the America’s Cup have come from that youth programme.

“Some of the older generations here sailed in Tornado and know what it’s like to sail fast. But the AC45 is even faster than that, so they would be on the cusp of all the latest technology.”