Now yes: the America's Cup competition begins. After a preliminary regatta last week to test the new AC75 boats for the first time and to gauge the skill of the teams and the trophy defender, the elimination phase begins, consisting of two stages and culminating in determining the team that will face Emirates Team New Zealand in October to win the cup.
In this first stage, all teams will compete, including the New Zealanders, although the so-called Kiwis participate by their own decision and with nothing at stake, as they have a guaranteed pass to the final. These will be Ineos Britannia, the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the French Orient Express Racing Team, the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and the American New York Yacht Club American Magic, who will compete to advance and try to win what was originally known as the Hundred Guineas Cup.
The teams will compete against each other in double-phase elimination rounds, where each race will be worth one point. From this round-robin system —round robin, in competition jargon—, the four best classified will advance to the semifinal. Thus, one of the teams will be eliminated when this stage ends in early September, while the other four and the trophy defender will remain in the competition. Then will come the semifinal and the final of this phase, which will determine the team that will compete with the New Zealanders to win the America's Cup trophy, starting on October 12.
The elimination rounds will still begin with the lingering taste of the preliminary regatta, in which the Kiwis confirmed their superiority by emerging as winners. Despite losing in the race against the Americans, Emirates Team New Zealand was proclaimed winner in a regatta in which they also prevailed over Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, who in the previous edition was on the verge of taking the trophy to Italy.
After the teams had already participated in preliminary regattas in Vilanova i la Geltrú and Saudi Arabia, last week's Barcelona event was the first occasion in which they competed with their new AC75s, the flying boats that rise on their characteristic hydrofoils and are beginning to be recognizable to Barcelonans who until now had not heard about the competition that has come to dive into the city.