Race weekend could be Chicago audition for America’s Cup finals

As Tod Reynolds watched Oracle Team USA capture the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, one thought kept crossing his mind: Chicago’s lakeshore provided the perfect venue for high-stakes competitive sailing.

Reynolds, the director of the Chicago Match Race Center, was a student at Northwestern the first time he sailed around Navy Pier and saw the city’s landscape like never before. Reynolds then looked to the south and envisioned an ideal sailing stadium without fully realizing the venue’s full potential.

It’s a feeling that has never left him.

“To this day, when I’m on the water and I look back and I see Navy Pier and I see that skyline and I see that break wall, I still get a little giddy about it,” Reynolds said.

Three years ago, America’s Cup organizers came to the same conclusion.

After submitting a bid to host the 2017 America’s Cup finals – which eventually went to Bermuda – Chicago was selected to host a qualifying race series that will determine who challenges Oracle Team USA next year.

The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series will take place here June 10-12 with six teams competing in fresh water for the first time in 165-year history of the America’s Cup. Crews from New Zealand, Japan, France, Sweden, Great Britain along with defending champion Oracle Team USA arrived this week to begin preparations for the upcoming three-day event that is expected to attract 12,000 fans per day to the Navy Pier-based race village.

The event features 45-foot, wing-sailed, hydro-foiled, multi-hull catamarans that will race on a course that stretches between Navy Pier and Adler Planetarium and that will reach speeds pushing 35 knots (40 mph). The boat’s carbon foil, which remains underwater the entire time, allows 98 percent of the boat to fly atop the waves and creating a new generation brand of sailboat racing.

“This is NASCAR on the water,” Reynolds said. “This is something that transcends (the sport). You don’t have to be a passionate sailor, a passionate racer, a passionate boater to appreciate the America’s Cup.”

The World Series event could be an audition for Chicago’s second bid for the America’s Cup finals. The eventual site will depend entirely on the 2017 champion, who will dictate where the next America’s Cup – likely held in 2021 – will take place.

Should the Larry Ellison-owned Oracle team defend its crown next year in Bermuda, Reynolds likes Chicago’s chances although the city doesn’t boast the same competitive sailing history that San Diego, San Francisco or Newport, R.I. claim.

If not, Reynolds knows next weekend’s fresh-water racing will be unique in its own right, ripe with opportunities for new sailing speed records to be established.

“This truly could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Reynolds said.

For more information, go to www.lvacws-chicago.americascup.com.

USA, USA

The U.S. men’s national soccer team – which will play Costa Rica Tuesday at Soldier Field – opens the Copa America Centenario tournament on Friday against Colombia in Santa Clara, Calif. The 16-team tournament will be held in 10 cities, including Chicago, which will host the tournament semifinals in addition to next week’s USMNT match. The Fire will host a watch party beginning Friday at 7 p.m., 90 minutes before kickoff, at the PrivateBank Fire Pitch, located at 3626 N. Talman Avenue. The venue will offer indoor and outdoor viewing opportunities with raffles and food and drinks available for purchase.

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