Antarctica Cup postponed

Regatta chairman Bob Williams explains what is going on

The inaugural Antarctica Cup International Yacht Race planned for a start in 2005 has been postponed to a date to be advised.

The event organiser’s business plan for the event provides that the fleet of identical high performance racing boats be owned by the event organisers and provided for use by the competitors at minimal cost to the competitor.

Relieving individual competitors of the task of finding individual team sponsors by consolidating event sponsorship into one major event sponsor, or a family of event sponsors, is the aim of the event organisers. The search for a major event sponsor/s continues.

Under consideration at present is a ‘dual-handed’ non-stop circumnavigation of Antarctica to start in late 2006 under a similar race format as the current biennial Antarctica Cup event in a fleet of Open 60 class racing boats. This event is planned to incorporate a series of ocean races, ‘in between’ the around-Antarctica races, hosted out of Nha Trang in Vietnam.

Identifying a port in Australasia interested in hosting this ‘dual-handed’ event is a work-in-progress.

For further information please contact event Chairman Bob Williams here.