from the Daily sail

Introducing the World Sailing League
After years of planning Paul Cayard and Russell Coutts announce new circuit for 70ft catamarans
Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard have teamed up with renowned Portuguese sports promoter, João Lagos, to create a new annual global sailing series. The World Sailing League (WSL) will be held at premier sailing locations around the world with an annual prize fund of US$5 million.

12 teams, representing nations, will compete in identical, state-of-the-art 70ft racing catamarans. It is anticipated that there will be venues in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North America and South America.

João Lagos is a Portuguese former Davis Cup player and captain, who was awarded the Order of Merit in Portugal, founded Lagos Sports (LS) in 1977. Since then, he has become renowned internationally as a sports promoter associated major sports events, especially tennis, and has built up an impressive portfolio. Since 1990, Lagos Sports has organised and promoted an ATP Tour, International Series tennis event 'Estoril Open' and the Lisbon Tennis Masters Cup in 2000. Lagos Sports is also prominent in the world of golf, counting the PGA’s European Tour Portugal Open, Madeira Island Open, Brazil's Rio & S. Paulo Opens in its portfolio. The company has worked in many other fields including Beach Volleyball World Cup events, WCT Surfing Events and Equestrian CSIO Lisbon and 'Haute École' events as well as the Cycling Tour of Portugal. In 2007, Lagos Sport will be promoting two new sailing events: the Portuguese event of the Breitling Medcup for the TP 52s, as well as another event for Russell Coutts' RC 44 Class in Lisbon.

Lagos commented: "I immediately recognised the potential of the World Sailing League and am excited about the opportunity to raise the profile of sailing here in Portugal through this international sporting event. There is also the possibility of a Portuguese venue and team, but this is yet to be confirmed. From the results of our detailed due diligence and conversations with potential venues, skippers and sponsors, I can confirm that the level of support for this new and innovative concept has been remarkable and we are delighted to be involved."

Russell Coutts outlined why João Lagos is the ideal partner for WSL: "We have been planning this for a long time and were looking for an organisation that would share our vision for the World Sailing League. In João Lagos we have an entrepreneurial figure with the foresight to see the potential of these events, coupled with the expertise and credibility to bring the concept to life. Our partnership with Lagos Sports, a leading event promoter, allows us to make this announcement today."

Paul Cayard added: "Russell, myself and João Lagos are pooling our experiences from the America’s Cup, the Olympic Games and a multitude of other sporting competitions. We have taken the best ideas from sports events all over the world - and added innovative concepts – to generate an exciting new series that will maximise the appeal to sailors, sponsors and spectators. For a venture like this, it was also important that ISAF support the concept and they have confirmed they are fully behind us."

The World Sailing League will use a fleet racing format although a number of other innovative concepts such as time trials and slalom racing will be tested using the prototype yacht. It will also have a customised support ship to transport the boats and equipment to each venue. The ship will be akin to a transportable pit lane, with all the technology required to maintain the 70ft catamarans.

The design of the boats will be finalised by early summer of this year with the first prototype being launched in the latter half of 2007 to allow sufficient testing and refinement. The 14 one-design yachts will start being built in 2008, ready for the launch of the series during 2009.

The new boats have been designed by a team including leading ORMA 60 naval architects, Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost and are at the forefront of technology. The 70ft catamarans will combine speed, manoeuvrability and can be raced close to shore for optimum spectator viewing.

Towards the end of this year further information and details of venues, teams, sponsors and the boats will be revealed.

The press conference held on the outskirts of Lisbon was presented by Joao Lagos, Coutts, Cayard, along with designer Vincent Lauriot Prevost, Commandante Vincenze Mouza, head of the Portugese Olympic committee, Antonio Camara and Pedro Beckert.

Some preliminary drawings have been presented at the press conference. The catamaran has a centreline structural beam running fore and aft to take rig loads (like the Decision 35 catamarans Coutts sails on Lake Geneva). Coutts says the boat will be demountable if they ever have to take them inshore for example to the Swiss or Italian lakes, but generally the platforms will remain in one piece, as will the rigs while they are shipped around the world on their own ship.

More follows...

How many damn classes do we need? What is so wrong with the Volvo Extreme 40's or ORMA 60's that we need yet ANOTHER high dollar class to dilute everything?

Bigger the boats, the bigger the crashes.

Its just stupid money. Rich folks need ways to spend there money.

ARE YOU FOR REAL!!!! Lets see you managed to list off two classes of multihulls, you forgot the G class. Now lets look at the monohull fleet, IRC mixed bag fleet, Open 40, Farr 40, GP42, TP52, TP62, Open 50, Open 60, Volvo 60, Volvo 70, mini-Maxi, IACC, Wally Fleet maxi's, Maxi, Maxz86, Super Maxi, plus a bunch more.

Your point being...? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

That's gotta mean serious bucks if it ever gets off the ground. Of course, it could all end up like George Clooney's Las Vegas casino.

You do nothing but emphasize my point - there are too many classes. Here's a thought; instead of having 20 classes that each have about 12 boats, let's have 4 classes that each have 60 boats.

Picture from XS-Racing

Is it just me or is the leeward daggerboard canted outwards, while the windward is canted inward?

If this fly, it will be great to watch, and probably good for catsailing as well. No more fringe sport <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Jake, diversity is good in my opinion. Coutts and Cayard on VX40s, or F-18s <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> would not ensnare the big media companies. This might, if it flies.. I suppose the egos of Coutts and Cayard is too big to fit on any existing class. These guys wanted something new, and that is what they are working for. But, it remains to see what will come out of it. It would not be the first cool thing to fizzle.

Why a 70footer.. It's big so there is more room for sponsors and is more visible. I guess there is room for the sponsors onboard while racing as well.

Website for World Sailing League. http://www.wsl2009.com/index_ig.asp

I also realize that I'm being a bit hypocritical. We choose to ridiculously dilute our classes at our level too.

My point is that classes come and go, we have three-ish over 40ft multihull classes, we need more to cover the different areas of racing, 70ft is great for advertising, the Volvo 40 were just too small when you see the size of the Volvo 70's. let the fun begin <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

did he just say the Volvo 40s were "too small" to see?

I think he did.

From 2 miles away they might be.

I thought they were perfect! I saw them. I think he was saying to small to get enough advertising on them. You Tybee guys seem to do that okay with only a 20 foot platform.

That is EXACTLY what I was going to say! Thanks.

I guess if they want to make a multi equivalent to the AC series then I guess it makes sense. It is just too bad that the volvo 40s didn't use the same boats as the swiss 35s..then there could have been more momentum for a class instead of splitting it into 2 classes.

yes exactly.. Tom Cruise looks the same size on the screen as Arnold..and look at how short he is. amazing what a zoom lense will do.

Be realistic guys and girls, the sponsorship these guys have means that the project has to be the biggest and brightest the world has seen otherwise the sponsors are not interested. I guess when you have xxx zillions as pocket money then a project such as this is beer money. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />