The Sail Team BCN is now complete. Two weeks after presenting the women's team that will compete in the first edition of this category within the America's Cup, the athletes who make up the youth team have been announced in an event by the sea in Sitges. The chosen ones are Albert Torres, Neus Ballester, Marcos Fernández, Martín Wizner, Conrad Konitzer, Nico Martin, Jaime Framis and Antonio Torrado. A team of seven boys and one girl who, moreover, will not only sail in this category: Ballester is also part of the team that will compete in the first Puig Women's America's Cup.
Most of the sailors who make up the youth team knew each other previously, largely from having competed against each other. "We are rivals, and now we are a team. Having such good and different athletes on the team is very positive," Torres defended, conversing with The New Barcelona Post with the rest of the team members after their presentation at the Club Náutico de Sitges, in an event organized by CaixaBank, as sponsor of the team, and by the Port de Sitges, as training base for Sail Team BCN.
For her part, Ballester expressed her "satisfaction at being able to be part of both teams." And she went further: "I consider the women's and youth teams to be one and the same team. We are all part of Sail Team BCN, and all together we work to have future options and be able to win the cup."
Despite believing that there should be more female sailors on the teams, she feels fortunate to be part of them, and aspires to represent "a role model for girls" and demonstrate that it is possible to compete at the highest level, also with this type of boats that fly more than they sail using hydrofoils or foils.
In search of the essential AC40 boat
Most of the youth team members have experience with foiling, but mostly in modalities where the boats require fewer sailors. Thus, expanding the team involves learning, Framis highlighted. To do this, they are committed to training, which makes an essential element highlighted by all crew members: it is necessary to have an AC40 boat, the same boat with which they will compete in the regatta. For now, they train with another catamaran that also flies, and in a simulator that tries to emulate the same navigation conditions but, although it comes close, does not fully achieve it, according to Ballester.
To get this longed-for AC40, the technical team of Sail Team BCN is negotiating its rental with other actors. Buying one of these boats is within reach of very few: its price can range between two and three million euros, to which a large additional cost for logistical issues must be added. The team members are confident that they will soon have the boat: "To reach the final we need the AC40 to arrive," Konitzer remarked.
The America's Cup aims to promote sailing practice and enthusiasm in Barcelona and its surroundings as part of the legacy it wants to leave with its edition in the Catalan capitalThe eight sailors of the team aspire to stand out in what will be the third occasion in which the youth category of the America's Cup is disputed, after it was already held in the 2013 and 2017 editions. They will compete in the Catalan capital, with the reformed Port Olímpic as a base, from September 17 to 26 a total of 12 teams: will be Spain, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Australia along with the six that will compete in the 37th America's Cup: New Zealand, Great Britain, United States, Italy, Switzerland and France.
"Despite their youth, the team members have an impressive track record and face a new challenge of great significance", praised the CEO of the Imagin platform for young people promoted by CaixaBank, Benjamí Puigdevall. He said this at an event in which the president of the Club Náutico de Sitges, Florenci Almunia, as well as the president of Port de Sitges, Albert Bertran, and the mayor of the town, Aurora Carbonell, also participated.
The technical team of Sail Team BCN is negotiating with other actors the rental of an AC40 boat, which will be used in the competitionThe selected sailors stand out for their "desire for self-improvement, the ability to work hard, and the aspiration to become the best," according to the CaixaBank representative. The entity acts as the main sponsor of Sail Team BCN, continuing its trajectory within sports sponsorship, which was propelled in 1988 with the impetus of a project aimed at Spanish athletes in preparation for the Olympic Games. Within this connection with sport, the entity sponsors 80% of professional men's football teams and more than half of the women's first division clubs, in addition to being a sponsoring partner of the Spanish Basketball Federation and official sponsor of the Spanish Paralympic Committee, among other collaborations with the sports field.
Within this sporting arena, the 37th America's Cup aims to encourage the practice and love of sailing in Barcelona and its surroundings. This promotion of sailing is part of the legacy that the city wants the competition to leave in the Catalan capital, which goes beyond the urban and service transformations that are already materializing, such as that of Port Vell and the launch of the nautical bus, in a Barcelona that is finalizing preparations to host the oldest and most relevant sailing competition in the world.