Royal Van Launches Women’s and Youth CA Teams

March 1, 2023

Isabella Bertold and Andrew Wood introduced as skippers

Sponsored by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, the Canadian women’s team will be led by former National Team Member and CANSail GP Strategist, Isabella Bertold. History will be made when the all-female Team Canada entry participates in next year’s first only Women’s America Cup. As well as the Women only addition to the Americas Cup, we will be sending a Youth’s Team to the 37^th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Spain.

After 137 years as a male sport, women and youths will compete for their own America’s Cup Trophy. Team Canada’s CEO will be Jim Turner, a New Zealand Olympian, 15 times world champion and three-time America’s Cup racer. 

“Sailing is a unique sport in that men and women can compete head-to-head on an equal playing field. I know this because I grew up racing against the men. I went on to win multiple World Cup medals and achieve a world ranking of 2^nd,” Bertold says. 

The Team Canada Youth’s crew will consist of female and male’s sailors under 25. The Youth’s Team will be captained by Andrew Wood a Royal Van member and very accomplished world class sailor. This will be the third time the youth’s will be competing in their America’s Cup. They will be competing in the same four person AC 40’s as the women. The race will see twelve identical 40-foot carbon composite mono hull foiling sailboats – one for each country – compete with four sailors reaching speeds up to 40 knots. (AC75s will compete for the America’s Cup itself.)

The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club (RVYC) is the only Canadian yacht club to be invited to participate in the 37th America’s Cup by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, who holds the Deed of the Gift as the last winner of the America’s Cup. The Team Canada training center will be at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club Jericho facility and in Auckland New Zealand. In the summer of 2024, the AC40 racing boat will be available for public viewing in Vancouver at the AC Team Canada Experience Centre located at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

The America’s Cup Race will take place in Barcelona, Spain in September and October 2024.