Vilanova i la Geltrú awaits its historic moment. A few days after the first preliminary regatta that will kick off the 37th America's Cup, the town has become the best possible setting for tourists, fans from all over the world and locals to enjoy the sport of sailing in a unique occasion: the holding of a preliminary regatta for the oldest sporting trophy in the world. And, as far as global audience is concerned, the third after the Olympic Games and the World Cup.
“The America’s Cup is going to put us on the map and that is going to generate a very large international projection. We want visitors to become the main influencers of the port and of the city”, points out Esther Blanco Macià, director of the Zona Portuària Center de Ports de la Generalitat. “What is going to happen is something that we have never had the opportunity to experience and that can hardly happen again. Vilanova will be in the spotlight of the world for a few days and that is the best tourism promotion campaign that the city can have”, emphasizes Orlando Palacios, Communications Director of the restaurant and space for events La Daurada, which will become the official headquarters of the hospitality and the Media Center of the event.
Infrastructures, location and views. Like Barcelona, the official venue for the main event in 2024, Vilanova had everything to be chosen among the cities that applied to host, from September 14 to 17, a first day of official training and three more competitions for the America's Cup first preliminary regatta.
“There have been many factors, but the main one is that we had the port facilities to make this event possible. A small investment has been made that was already planned, we have simply advanced some types of arrangements that remain in the port, it is not something ephemeral. Another key factor has been connectivity, we are only a five-minute walk from the train station and a 25-minute drive from Barcelona airport”, Blanco explains.
For four days, in the waters of Vilanova i la Geltrú, the Defender of the America's Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand, and the five Challengers will present their line-ups and show their intentions to win the trophy. This first preliminary regatta will be followed by a second in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), from November 29 to December 2 of this year, and a third in August 2024, already in the Catalan capital, as a prelude to a competition that will take place between August and October of next year.
The teams leave their bases and summer training in Barcelona for a few days to move to the town, where the AC40 sailboats will compete, for the first time in history, in this preliminary regatta. In 2024 it will be the turn of the AC75. Both boats have ailerons (foils) of cutting-edge design that makes them fly.
The show can be seen from the beach itself, but the competition can be experienced in many other corners. “The port puts the house and is going to be the nerve center of these aquatic tests thanks to partners like Pendennis, who is going to host the bases of the teams in a large dry dock; La Daurada, who will be in charge of hospitality; and the Club Nàutic Vilanova, which will also house part of the organization's offices”, reveals Esther Blanco Macià.
The competition will also be supported by Pendennis Vilanova, a world-class marina and superyacht service center that will host the bases of the America's Cup teams during the regatta. The Club Nàutic Vilanova will also provide its support with its first-class facilities: more than 800 moorings and an impressive social headquarters in the center of the town.
The regattas will be held a few meters from the entrance to the historic port of Vilanova i la Geltrú and La Daurada. The latter, with its more than 10,000 m2 with privileged views of the regatta course, will host the nearly 80 national and international media that will cover the event and an average of 800 daily guests from the Organization. "Since 2012 we have built a project that, at this historic moment, has been perfect, because we are prepared to carry out the task assigned to us by the organization of the America's Cup. We have facilities that did not have to be created from scratch and some technical resources that we are going to put at your service, in addition to a capacity of up to 2,400 people”, says Palacios.
“We are an infrastructure that is on the west dock of the city, in the port of Vilanova. Our space is going to be transformed into hospitality, where all the guests, from our terraces and restaurant facing the race course, will have a vision of the competition and a food service, which is the part that we are going to provide in a schedule Approximately from 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. We have fantastic views of the bay itself from the Ribes Roges beach, where the tests will be located ”, he specifies.
Although the restaurant has a staff team of around 120 people, there will be reinforcements to cover all the needs of the four days that the competition will last. La Daurada will also welcome journalists. “The multipurpose room where we have done concerts and presentations, which we will turn into the Media Center. There will be work tables in a large, very open space. There will be the mixed zone that we see in other sports, through which the different competing teams will then pass… In addition, we covered the outdoor part six years ago with a retractable roof, so we can open or close it. We also have sound equipment and all the network connections that the media will need”, explains the Director of Communication.
Vilanova i la Geltrú has unloaded all its "artillery" to host the event with great detail and services. There will be no shortage of activities in its streets and squares: playful, festive and informative. “The seafront is going to become a natural setting. It will be, above all, a showcase for the tradition of Vilanova, the culture of the Garraf region and Catalonia in general", explains Blanco. Another point they want to emphasize is the dissemination of sailing. " In a territory like ours, with more than 780 kilometers of coastline, we still continue to organize, in these coastal towns, the White Snow Week. How can it be that there is no promotion of water sports?", he recalls.
And the claim for locals and visitors does not stop there. There will also be a wide gastronomic offer, traveling exhibitions… “People will come to enjoy time outdoors. It is one of the few sporting events of this caliber that is 100% free. Giant screens are going to be installed both in the Plaza del Port and on the Ribes Roges beach. And there will be more than 350 volunteers who will help us throughout these port-city connections”, details the director of the Zona Portuària Center de Ports de la Generalitat.
First, they sign up. Then they are formed. This is the order of factors that has prevailed in the people who have applied to be part of the America's Cup volunteer team in Vilanova i la Geltrú. "The venue seeks to live an event that, in some way, will mark a before and after in their city and, therefore, they want to be present," reveals Xavier Prat, director of the America's Cup volunteer program, which celebrates the overwhelming success of the call.
Up to 850 people have registered to be part of the volunteer team. “We are very happy and, in addition, we have found the local component that we were looking for. It is true that, at first, the boom was very international. We had a great interest in having the most local community of Vilanova i la Geltrú join our team and we have finally achieved it”, celebrates Xavier Prat.
Of the total applications received, some 650 corresponded to Catalonia. “The vast majority are from Barcelona, because many people who have registered to volunteer there in 2024 have taken the opportunity to have their first experience in Vilanova. There are a lot of locals: from Barcelona, from Vallés, from Maresme… The Garraf region is an important part. But half of these requests come from Vilanova”, Prat specifies. “The other 200 come from foreign countries and, of course, from New Zealand. We also have many requests from Italy and France”, details the director of the America's Cup volunteer program. But only 350 people will participate as volunteers. "In the end, there are about 290 locals out of the 350 people we were looking for, therefore, we will basically have people from here," discovers Prat.
What their profession is or how many languages the local volunteers speak is not something that matters to the organization. “Yes, there are some minimums and for the vast majority of positions it will be necessary to speak Catalan, Spanish and English. If you have these three languages, there is more turnover due to the different positions, but in the end we are looking for the person who lives in Vilanova i la Geltrú, who will be able to transmit what the city is and provide information on the ground because they know it better than anyone. This is the most generic volunteering, who will be participating in leisure activities on the beach, collaborating with the mobility system…”, explains the program director. Other profiles, on the other hand, do require certain knowledge.
“For example, people from the maritime world of Vilanova or Sitges, who will have to be in the water helping in certain positions and must have experience and qualifications. Or people in the area of television and the media who are interested in this field, who have studied or are studying something related, who are looking for a new experience in a world they already know…”, Prat describes. There are three areas of volunteering: on water, on land and "television and media".
Although all of them share a digital training through a platform. On September 12 and 13 another will be held, this one in person. “It is divided into two parts: a generic one where we want to explain what the America's Cup is, what you have to know to be a volunteer, where you have to go or what your shifts are; and role-specific training. The volunteer who will be on top of a boat helping the official marshall has nothing to do with the person who will be in the Race Village attending the main stage”, exemplifies Xavier Prat.
A large part of these volunteers will receive the nearly 20,000 attendees that are expected every day at the regattas. “We think that, obviously, there must be an audience that practices sailing or water sports and that it is in their blood, that will come from anywhere in Catalonia and Spain, but also from other parts of Europe and the world. And there will be all those people who will have aroused their curiosity about this event or sport. I think there will be fascinating and very exciting moments”, predicts the Communications Director of La Daurada, who points out what he considers to be the two high points of the America's Cup event in Vilanova i la Geltrú.
“There is a very important moment, the presentation of the teams, which will be the first day. It is very emotional because it is still the first preliminary test and, therefore, it is like a staging of everything that is to come. And then there is the awards ceremony, the culmination of that effort that will have been made during those days and that I understand that for the winner it will be an injection of morale ”, he ventures.
Esther Blanco encourages people to enjoy a sport that can be watched sitting from the sand on the beach and break one of the barriers of this sport: “we want – as happens with MotoGP or Formula 1, that people don't have that bike or a single-seater, but it does follow the races -, even if the public does not have a boat or has never sailed, go to see some boats that go at a devilish speed - 50 knots -. Nothing like this has ever been seen in Vilanova to date, ”she recalls. It is one of the great claims of the event, for the first time, boats without a motor can be seen at more than 100 kilometers per hour. It is a unique and free occasion. “They will be very beautiful days and a lot of sports and traditional festivals”, she adds.
As a citizen of Vilanova i la Geltrú, Orlando Palacios feels great pride that the city where he was born and grew up is going to be at the forefront of information. “This event brings out that feeling of belonging from within, because it is a historical fact, a test with global significance that many people from the other side of the world will follow. For the inhabitants of Vilanova i la Geltrú it is very impressive. It is a great challenge for the city and I hope that we are up to what such an important test in the world of sailing will entail. I have asked everyone I know to sign up as a volunteer.”
Xavier Prat knows a lot about that emotion and concrete responsibility. “My first experience in a big event was at the Barcelona 2018 European Water Polo Championship. Volunteering is like a gateway for those of us who want to work in this world. I was there in its day and I am still here, with a lot of responsibility, a lot of enthusiasm and with an incredible desire for this to happen. If there are 850 people who want to be there, who have the illusion of being part of this team, you have to take care of them. We meet people who have been living in the world of sailing in Vilanova for 30 or 50 years, who in some way have contributed much more than I have to the fact that the America's Cup is here. It is also a way of trying to give them all this back.” For four days, Vilanova i la Geltrú will vibrate throughout the world and its waters will become the main protagonists of a perhaps unrepeatable event.
