While rumors swirl that Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team USA may be sitting out the next America’s Cup, the New York Yacht Club, missing at the event since 2003, has issued an official challenge.
The NYYC is teaming with Bella Mente Quantum Racing Association to challenge for the 36th America’s Cup, a trophy the club held from 1851 until 1983.
John J. “Hap” Fauth and Doug DeVos will lead the team. Since 2005, at the helm of three successive yachts named Bella Mente, Fauth and his team have reached the top of the podium in distance and buoy races in North America, Europe and the Caribbean. Fauth is also a three-time world champion in the Maxi72 class.
DeVos and the Quantum Racing program have won on the 52 Super Series circuit and its predecessor, the MedCup, with overall series wins in 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
One common link between the two teams is Bella Mente Quantum Racing Association Skipper and CEO Terry Hutchinson, a two-time Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and veteran America’s Cup competitor. Hutchinson, like Fauth, is a long-time New York Yacht Club member.
“The America’s Cup has always remained close to the heart of the New York Yacht Club, even in the years where we didn’t participate as a challenger or defender,” Commodore Philip A. Lotz stated in a press release. “For this cycle, a lot of elements have come together in the correct way for the club to enter another challenge.”
Also making news: Emirates Team New Zealand, the Cup’s defender, has announced a return to monohulls — possibly foiling ones — from the recent catamarans that Oracle Team USA favored.
For the latest New York Yacht Club news: go to the NYYC website.
