Vilanova i la Geltrú awaits its historic moment. A few days before 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 celebration of a preliminary regatta for the oldest sports trophy in the world. And, as far as global audience is concerned, the third after the Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup.
“The America’s Cup is going to put us on the map and that is going to generate a very great international projection. We want visitors to become the main prescribers of the port and the city,” says Esther Blanco Macià, director of the Port Zone 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 La Daurada restaurant and event space, which will become the official headquarters of the hospitality and the Media Center of the event.
Infrastructure, location and views. Like Barcelona, the official venue of 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 days of competition of the first preliminary regatta of the America's Cup.
“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 just a five-minute walk from the train station and a 25-minute drive from Barcelona airport,” explains Blanco.
For four days, in the waters of Vilanova i la Geltrú, the America's Cup Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, and the five Challengers will present their lineups 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 cutting-edge design ailerons (foils) that make them fly.
The show can be seen from the beach itself, but the competition can be experienced in many other corners. “The port is the home and will be the nerve center of these aquatic events thanks to partners like Pendennis, which will host the teams' bases in a large dock; La Daurada, which 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 technical service center that will host the America's Cup team bases during the regatta. The Club Nàutic Vilanova will also provide its support with its first-rate facilities: more than 800 moorings and an impressive 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 field, will host the nearly 80 national and international media that will cover the event and an average of 800 guests per day from the Organization. "Since 2012 we have built a project that, at this historical moment, has been perfect, because we are prepared to be able 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 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 western dock of the city, in the port of Vilanova. Our space is going to be transformed into hospitality, where all guests, from our terraces and restaurant facing the regatta field, 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 of 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 of the competition. La Daurada will also welcome journalists. “The multipurpose room where we have held concerts and presentations, which we will convert into the Media Center. There will be work tables in a large, very open space. There will be the mixed area that we see in other sports, where the different competing teams will later pass through… In addition, six years ago we covered the outdoor part 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 Communication director.
Vilanova i la Geltrú has unloaded all its “artillery” to host the event with all the luxury of details and services. There will be no shortage of activities in its streets and squares: recreational, festive and informative. “The seafront is going to become a natural setting. It will be, above all, a showcase of 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 Snow White Week in these coastal towns. How can it be that there is no such promotion of nautical sports?" he recalls.
And the appeal for locals and visitors does not stop there. There will also be a wide gastronomic offer, traveling exhibitions... “People are going to 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 Port Zone 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 presented themselves to be part of the America's Cup volunteer team in Vilanova i la Geltrú. "The venue seeks to experience an event that, in some way, will mark a before and after in its city and, therefore, wants 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, furthermore, we have found the local component we were looking for. It is true that, at the beginning, the boom was very international. We had a very great interest in the most local community of Vilanova i la Geltrú joining our team and we have finally achieved it,” celebrates Xavier Prat.
Of the total applications received, about 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 live their first experience in Vilanova. There is a lot of local: from Barcelona, Vallés, Maresme... The Garraf region is an important part. But half of these requests come from Vilanova,” says Prat. “The other 200 come from foreign countries and, as it could not be otherwise, 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 of the 350 people we were looking for, therefore, we will basically have people from here,” Prat discovers.
What their profession is or how many languages the local volunteers speak is not something that matters to the organization. “Yes, there are 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 rotation through the different positions, but in the end we look for the person who lives in Vilanova i la Geltrú, who will be able to convey what the city is and inform about the terrain because he knows it better than anyone. This is the most generic volunteering, which will be participating in leisure activities on the beach, collaborating with the mobility system…” explains the program director. Other profiles, however, 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 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...", describes Prat. There are three areas of volunteering: on water, on land and “television and media”.
Although all of them share digital training through a platform. Another one will be held on September 12 and 13, 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 they have to know to be volunteers, where they have to go or what their turns are; and specific training according to the role. The volunteer who will be on 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 expected each day at the regattas. “We think that, obviously, there has to be an audience that practices sailing or water sports and that has it 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 been curious about this event or sport. I think there will be fascinating and very exciting moments,” predicts the Communication Director of La Daurada, who points out what he considers 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 the effort that will have been made during those days and which I understand will be an injection of morale for the winner,” 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 do not have that motorcycle or a single-seater, but it does follow the races - even if the public does not have a boat or has never sailed, they come to watch boats that go at a diabolical speed - 50 knots -. Nothing like this has ever been seen to date in Vilanova,” she recalls. It is one of the great attractions of the event, for the first time, boats without motors will be able to be seen at more than 100 kilometers per hour. It is a unique and free occasion. “They will be very beautiful days with lots of sporting and traditional celebrations,” she adds.
As a citizen of Vilanova i la Geltrú, Orlando Palacios feels great pride that the city in which he was born and raised will be on the front line of information. “This event brings out that feeling of belonging within us, because it is a historical event, a test with global significance that many people will follow from the other side of the world. For the inhabitants of Vilanova i la Geltrú it is very shocking. It is a great challenge for the city and I hope that we are up to what is going to be such an important test in the world of sailing. I have asked all the people I know to sign up as volunteers.”
Xavier Prat knows a lot about that emotion and concrete responsibility. “My first experience in a big event was at the 2018 European Water Polo Championship in Barcelona. Volunteering is like an entry point for those of us who want to work in this world. I was there at the time 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 hope of being part of this team, we must take care of them. We meet people who have been living the world of sailing in Vilanova for 30 or 50 years, who in some way have contributed much more than me to the America's Cup being here. It is also a way of trying to give back to them all of this.” 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.
