The America's Cup will kick off with a face-off between the winner and the finalist of the last edition

It's clear there's less than a month left until the America's Cup. The city already has everything ready to receive it and, furthermore, has just inaugurated a Port Vell that has opened new spaces for Barcelona residents. With the homework done by the local administrations, the regatta with more than 170 years of history is warming up, revealing details of a competition that will kick off in the city on Thursday, August 22, and will last until the end of October.

It will be on that first day when one of the main events of the competition will take place. There will be a face-off between the current trophy defender, the New Zealanders Emirates Team New Zealand, and the team that came closest to snatching it in the last edition, the Italians Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. Theirs will be one of the regattas that will be part of the third and final preliminary regatta, after those held in Vilanova i la Geltrú and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). In general, the regattas will last about 20 minutes and will start at 2 PM.

After three years of preparation, the six teams participating in this edition will be put to the test on that first day, beginning to discover each other's strategies and competing for the first time with their new AC75s. Previously, they had only done so with the smaller AC40s. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli will not only face the Kiwis but will also compete against the French team Orient Express Racing Team, the last to join the competition. The other two regattas of the day will be shared between the American American Magic, the British Ineos Britannia, and the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing.

In a racecourse that will be located between the W Hotel and the Port Olímpic, participants will check how each one feels in a sea where they have not yet competed. The preliminary regatta, which does not count for classification or give points for the competition, will last until Sunday, August 25, with three more days of competition. The New Zealanders will get back in the water and face off against the rest of the participating teams.

Emirates Team New Zealand will also participate in the next phase of the competition, the Double Round Robin. They will do so even though they are not obliged to, given that the winners of the last edition are already qualified for the final. That will be the official start of the America's Cup, that is, when points will begin to be accumulated. In fact, one of the five teams that want to win the cup from the New Zealanders will already be eliminated in this phase of the competition.

It will begin on Tuesday, August 29, and will run until Sunday, September 8, with three reserve days until Wednesday, September 11, in case the weather complicates the races. With eight days of confrontations, four have been scheduled per day. The French team Orient Express Racing Team and the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing will be the ones to start this phase.

Points will start counting in the Double Round Robin, a phase of the competition in which a first team will be eliminated.

The final regatta will start on October 12, but it is not known when it will end. To win, a team has to achieve seven victories, for which it will be necessary to see how long it will take, in addition to always being at the mercy of the weather and, above all, the wind. According to the organization's forecasts, at the earliest, the winner will be proclaimed on Friday, October 18, and at the latest, on Sunday, October 27.