Season 3 - Ep21 - AC37 Barcelona Part2

With the much awaited announcement that the 37th America's Cup will be held in the Spanish city of Barcelona, Shirley Robertson's Sailing Podcast this month features interviews with several of the Cup's key stakeholders, as they discuss the excitement behind this landmark decision.

In Part One of this two part podcast, Robertson talks to Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton, who was excited to name the Spanish city as the winning venue in a tender process that included three other significantly attractive bids, before talking to American Magic team principal Terry Hutchinson.

In this, Part 2 of the two part podcast, Robertson talks to Sir Ben Ainslie, team principal from INEOS Britannia, the official Challenger of Record (COR) representing the Royal Yacht Squadron.  Ainslie is excited that the Cup will be making a rare appearance in Europe, but is excited for global sailing fans that the Cup is to be held in such an iconic destination.  Ainslie is spearheading a campaign that sees a British Challenger of Record for the first time in over fifty years, and he's confident that now the venue has been announced, his team can proceed with few distractions.  Talking about their position as COR Ainslie tells Robertson...:

"Some people would say it's potentially a distraction...but so far it's been a really productive process...and of course so far the venue decision, I don't think you could ask for a better venue anywhere in the world, the protocol, I think is a really positive progressive protocol as is the development of the Class Rule, so I'd like to think we've done an OK job so far."

Ainslie appears in the second part of this two part podcast, along with Robertson's fellow AC36 broadcast commentator,  Ken Read from North Sails, who shares his thoughts on the announcement, before the podcast is wrapped up by Emirates Team New Zealand's Kevin Shoebridge.  As team COO, Shoebridge discusses the impact of the announcement on the sailing team, the opportunities that this decision will bring, and the implications of a defence on waters far from home.

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website, at www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact [email protected] Support the show