The 2017 Louis Vuitton Cup is a challenger selection series competition held to determine the challenger in the 2017 America's Cup. It is preceded by the 2015–16 America's Cup World Series. The competition will be held in Bermuda and begins in May 2017. The races will be conducted using hydrofoiling America's Cup Class yachts, which are slightly larger than the AC45F yachts used in the world series. The winner of the cup will go on to compete with defending champions Oracle Team USA for the 2017 America's Cup.
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Challenger of Record
On October 1, 2013, Australia's Hamilton Island Yacht Club was confirmed as the "Challenger of Record" for the 35th America's Cup. Only moments after the win by USA team Oracle, Hamilton Island Yacht Club (HIYC), located on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia issued its challenge for the 35th America’s Cup. The HIYC challenge has been accepted by the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which remains the Defender and Trustee of the world’s oldest international sporting trophy. Australian billionaire Bob Oatley was said to be financially backing the Hamilton Island Yacht Club as the Challenger of Record for the 35th America's Cup.
July 19, 2014 Russell Coutts, Director of the America's Cup Event Authority (ACEA), announced that Hamilton Island Yacht Club has withdrawn Team Australia from the 35th America's Cup. Team Australia claimed that the new protocols as set forth by defending champion Oracle Team USA are too hard to prepare for when no dates or venue have been confirmed for the event.
A replacement for Hamilton Island Yacht Club as Challenger of Record has yet to be named.
Potential Challengers
August 7, 2014 the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on behalf of their crew, Emirates Team New Zealand, became the first team to announce an official America’s Cup entry. August 8 (by midnight PT), is the actual deadline for challengers and the defenders had previously mentioned that four teams had entered or plan to by the entry: Luna Rossa (ITA), Artemis Racing (SWE), Team France (FRA) and Ben Ainslie Racing (GBR).
Ben Ainslie, ORACLE TEAM USA's tactician at the 2013 America's Cup, has expressed serious interest in challenging his former employers with his own team based out of the United Kingdom if sufficient funds can be found to support the effort.
In an interview on RadioLIVE on 8 June the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key referred to the new America's Cup rules as "Mickey Mouse" and said the government would not help fund a challenge. In a follow-up interview with Grant Dalton the same day Dalton said that the team's knowledge of the catamaran was far more advanced than at the same stage with the AC72. He announced that Team NZ has secured the services of the designer who fitted the servo to the Team Oracle USA AC72 in the last America's Cup.
On 25 June 2014 Team New Zealand confirmed their intention to challenge in a media statement as they had gained sufficient private financial backing from private sources such as Sir Stephen Tindall without government assistance. Speaking on RadioLIVE government minister Steven Joyce said he did not rule out a New Zealand government contribution after the election as the government's previous investments of $37 million NZ had yielded dividends of about $87 million NZ in the previous challenge.
Team New Zealand has confirmed its team will build a challenger program for the next Americas Cup, even though the venue has not yet been confirmed. Yachting commentators said Team New Zealand has an incredibly strong design, technical and support team. The sailing crew is likely to be drawn from a mix of previous Americas cup sailors and some of the kiwi gold medal winners at the last Olympic games.
Challengers
Round Robin
The five challengers and the defender, Oracle Team USA, will compete in two rounds robin between 26 May and 3 June 2017.
Semi-Finals
The top four challengers after the rounds robin will advance to best of 9 semi-finals, held between 6 and 8 June 2017.
Finals
A best of 9 finals will be held between 10 and 12 June. The winner will advance to the 2017 America's Cup, which will be a best of 13 held between 17 and 27 June 2017.