Stars & Stripes Team USA Launches All-American Cup Challenge
/ CBS Detroit
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Stars & Stripes Team USA has been accepted as a challenger for the 2021 America's Cup, promising to have an all-American squad in a competition where nationality has mattered little in recent decades.
The name is a nod to Dennis Conner, who won the America's Cup four times, twice with boats named Stars & Stripes.
Stars & Stripes Team USA was co-founded by professional sailors Taylor Canfield, one of the world's top match-racing skippers, and Mike Buckley.
The team is backed by the Long Beach Yacht Club, which hosts the prestigious Congressional Cup match-racing regatta. Canfield has won the Congressional Cup four times in the last five years.
Stars & Stripes Team USA becomes the second American challenger and fifth overall accepted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron for the 36th America's Cup.