The USA has lost it’s America’s Cup 2021 contender as it appears that the Stars and Stripes Team USA that sails out of Long Beach Yacht is not going to make it to the starting line. The syndicate has now withdrawn from the regatta officially.
Latitude 38, the sailing magazine reported Long Beach Yacht Club has sent a letter to the club members this week informing them about the decision. They have thanked him for putting in such an effort to bring a challenge to life.
Stars and Stripes had a late entry to the 2019 regatta and they battled the financial pressure for the last 2 years while they were preparing for the challenge, missing out on a series of deadlines.
In July 2020, the American syndicate had been hopeful about purchasing the first boat for another team during the time to sail in the Christmas Cup regatta. However, the arbitration panel has ruled against it as the country of origin rules over the hull construction and then complicated boats.
Since Stars and Stripes have ruled out, it means that all the late entry challengers have withdrawn. This included other syndicates from the Netherlands and Malta. It means there will be the 3 original challengers, Ineos Team UK, American Magic from New York Yacht Club, and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. They are going to compete for the chance to face Team New Zealand in the match of America’s Cup in the early half of 2022.
The 4 remaining teams have been quite active on Auckland waters this week as they were taking part in their practice sessions for the regatta of America’s Cup World Series next week that is going to start in July.
Whilst Stars and Stripes are hoping to start their Americas Cup journey at the next edition, it has been confirmed that one person they won’t be competing against is Rob Salthouse, who is set to retire after the 36t tournament.
Rob Salthouse’s Last One
Rob Salthouse is known as the sail guru of the Team New Zealand Challenge and is planning on quitting his career in sailing after a long journey of almost 35 years in sports. He was born on 5th December 1965 in New Zealand and his first sailing for the New Zealand Challenge was the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup. He also sailed with them on the KZ1 during America’s Cup held in 1988 and then again in 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup.
Salthouse was born with sailing in his blood and grew up engrossed in the world of sailing boats all around him. The Salthouse boat builders are their family profession and they have created a huge number of boats starting from luxury yachts to America’s Cup tenders. So it is no wonder that Rob Salthouse will take an interest in sailing boats – and indeed his next career move is rumoured to be working with sailing holiday company plainsailing.com.
He began his career as a sail maker working at Hood Sails for Tony Bouzaid. Later on, he became interested in professional racing and started working as a driver and rig specialist onboard. He has participated in a total of 22 America’s Cup boats since the beginning of his career and has played a total of seven cup campaigns.
His current job responsibilities include looking after all the things above the deck of the latest New Zealand challenge’s latest boat the AC75 Te Rehutai. He has a reputation for working hard with all his heart and energy.
However, he recently informed his team that America’s Cup 2021 will be the last one he participates in as he has been in this career for as long as he can remember and now wants some time off. He puts in almost 16 hours of work every day and rarely gets time for relaxing so he declared about his retirement with a heavy heart.
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