Women take centre stage

Without doubt, one of the highlights of the summer of sailing in Barcelona, the Puig Women’s America’s Cup, not only delivered from a sailing standpoint but also heralded a new dawn in women’s elite sailing, lighting a bright pathway to the future of the America’s Cup.

From the outset the programme was ambitious, recognising that the opportunity to sail in high performance foiling yachts was limited and that the skills-gap needed to be narrowed. With the outstanding support of Puig, one of the world’s leading fashion and beauty companies, the building blocks for the Puig Women’s America’s Cup could be assembled and the global interest the event engendered was encouraging.

Alongside the established America’s Cup teams who all fielded impressively well-trained athletes, Invited Teams representing yacht clubs from Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Germany registered their intent and began extensive training programs.