TEAMORIGIN respond to AC34 information

by TEAMORIGIN 14 Sep 2010 20:10 BST

TEAMORIGIN issued the following statement following the publication of the 34th America’s Cup Protocol and the information presented at the America’s Cup Press Conference in Valencia.

Grant Simmer, CEO of TEAMORIGIN, gave his comments today:

“The whole America’s Cup community has been waiting a long time to get solid information on the 34th America’s Cup, and so today is a positive day for TEAMORIGIN and all prospective teams. The Protocol and the announcements give us many important pieces of information, much of it we heard for the first time today. Furthermore the Defender commented at the press conference, that we will be receiving more important information over the coming months.”

“2013 is the year of the next Cup. We now know that for sure. There were a lot of new elements published today and a lot of changes have been made to the first Protocol draft published in June. For instance designers are able to work for more than one team, which is an interesting and significant change from past Cups. We will now review the new Protocol document and associated information to see if this matches our expectations, and we look forward to meeting the Defender with the other prospective challengers, to discuss the many detailed questions that today’s Protocol has inevitably brought to light.”

Ben Ainslie, TEAMORIGIN Skipper and Helmsman, added his thoughts,

“It is great to finally have an idea of the future for the America’s Cup. Challenging in multihulls will be an interesting proposition for all of the teams. The game starts here.'

Sir Keith Mills, TEAMORIGIN Team Principal, stated:

“Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts promised Challengers:

• A level playing field – giving teams a fair chance of winning
• Neutral event management – to ensure the event was not controlled by one team
• Cost containment – to prevent an arms race

We now need to study the new Protocol document and determine whether it matches these promises. TEAMORIGIN will only challenge if the 34th America’s Cup is fair and neutrally managed."