Puig to sponsor the first Women's America's Cup in history

"Today, in Barcelona, we are making history". This is how forcefully Mónica Azón, the coach of Sail Team BCN, the Spanish team that will compete in the first edition of the Women's America's Cup, expressed herself this Thursday. This is the first women's regatta organized by the America's Cup of Sailing and will be held, for the first time, in 2024 in parallel to the emblematic men's regatta that the Catalan capital will host. This new competition will have the Barcelona-based family group Puig as its main sponsor, which will give its name to the regatta, baptized as Puig Women's America's Cup.

The announcement was made by the CEO of the America's Cup, Grant Dalton, and the president of Puig, Marc Puig, at an event held at the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona, where, in addition to Azón, the iconic sailor and Olympic medalist Guillermo Altadill also attended, who is the architect of the creation of the Spanish team that will compete in the women's regatta, the Sail Team Barcelona.

"The creation of an America's Cup for women represents a unique opportunity for Olympic medalists from around the world to have access to compete in this class," which is the Formula 1 of the sea, highlighted Grant Dalton. "The Puig family is part of the fabric of Barcelona. Puig is Barcelona and Barcelona is Puig," underlined the CEO of the America's Cup in gratitude for the decision of the Catalan fashion and perfumery multinational to bet on sponsoring this new competition, which will allow to promote gender equality within the sport of sailing.

"As a company based in Barcelona, deeply rooted in the city's nautical culture and heritage, we are pleased to be a Global Partner of the 37th America's Cup and to give our name to the Puig Women's America's Cup," said Marc Puig. In his opinion, "Puig's support will help inspire future generations of women to participate in sailing competitions." "The America's Cup represents a glorious tradition of excellence in sailing and we are honored to be part of this historic event. Through our collaboration, we seek to enhance the experience for both participants and spectators, and to foster a sense of unity and camaraderie within the nautical community," he noted.

In addition to sustainability, diversity is the great driving force of the next edition of this emblematic sporting event, which boasts a tradition of 172 years of history. "Barcelona will host the best female sailors in the world competing in prime-time, showcasing existing talent and how the future of our sport is shaping up, backed by a company with a history deeply connected to sailing," Dalton added, after predicting that the women's edition "can become an event as big and relevant as the men's regatta." "It's going to be wonderful," he concluded, convinced that this commitment "will forever change the world of women's sailing regattas."

For her part, the coach of the women's team that will represent Spain, Mónica Azón, highlighted the "pride and responsibility" involved in facing this challenge. "For a competition with so many years of history to now bet on women is something extremely important; today in Barcelona we are making history; I want to thank Puig, a brand from here, for making it possible," she stressed.

Azón took advantage of Puig's announcement as global naming sponsor of the Women's America's Cup to remind that the team that will represent Spain, Sail Team Barcelona, also needs sponsors, and expressed confidence that other large Catalan and Spanish companies will soon bet on the team and on the project to be able to have the necessary resources to compete. "In the 1992 Olympic Games, Spain did very well with sailing because there were many resources," she recalled. It must be taken into account that the team must buy an AC40 class boat, smaller than the AC75, the model used by the six teams competing in the men's America's Cup.

The Puig Women's America's Cup will be held starting October 10, 2024, with the final scheduled for October 16. In parallel, for the first time, an edition for young sailors aged between 18 and 25, the Youth America's Cup, will also be launched. A total of twelve countries will participate in both competitions, meaning each country will have a youth team and a women's team, sharing the same boat and sailing on different days. All will use the new AC40 flying monohull model, 11.8 meters long, and based on the design of the 36th America's Cup winner, Emirates Team New Zealand.

The twelve countries participating in the Youth & Women's America's Cup will be divided into two groups. One will consist of the six countries competing in the America's Cup with the men's team: New Zealand, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, United States, and France. The second will include invited countries that only participate in the youth and women's regatta: Spain, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Australia.

Sail Team Barcelona will have eight sailors (although only four are on board the AC40), who must now be selected. According to Azón, the selection phase has just opened, and they hope to complete it as quickly as possible to start training as soon as possible. In an initial phase, practices will be carried out using an advanced simulator, but before the end of the year, Spain has the commitment of the Emirates Team New Zealand team, led by Dalton, to be able to use one of the two AC40s owned by the New Zealand team, while waiting for the Spanish team to receive its own boat.

In the qualifying phase, the Puig Women's America's Cup will hold between six and nine races for each of the two groups. Then the top three teams from each group will advance to the final series, competing in three or four races to choose the two finalists, who will contend for the title in a single race on October 16, 2024. That day must be marked in red on the calendar, as it will be one of the most important days of the America's Cup held in Barcelona, coinciding with the third day of competition for the six men's teams.

Marc Puig has not revealed the amount of the sponsorship for the Women's America's Cup, but he has admitted that it represents "a significant effort" that will be compensated by the "strong impact" the event will have and by being fully aligned with Puig's values. "We do it gladly," he highlighted, after pointing out that the perfumery group and the America's Cup share elements such as teamwork, historical roots, permanent innovation, creativity, and the pursuit of excellence. Puig has been linked to the nautical world for more than 25 years, where it also sponsors the Copa del Rey held in Palma de Mallorca, and the Puig Vela Clásica regatta in Barcelona.

In 2022, Puig recorded the best year in its history, with sales of 3,620 million euros, up 40%. The family business, which already controls 10% of the global perfumery market, also achieved a record net profit of 400 million, up 71%. The multinational sells its products in more than 150 countries and has its own offices in 30 of them.