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From The America's Cup To SailGP: How The World's Oldest Trophy Gave Birth To Sailing's Fastest League

Find out how SailGP and the America’s Cup are related – but completely different

Published 06/10/2026

SailGP’s origin story begins long before the first F50 ever hit the water. It starts with a rivalry, a revolution in boat design, and a vision to bring the most exhilarating racing in the world to fans everywhere.

What Is The America's Cup – And Why Does It Matter?

The America's Cup is the oldest international sporting trophy in the world, predating the modern Olympic Games by 45 years. First contested in 1851, it has always been sailing's ultimate prize – a match race between two teams, one defending the title and one challenging for it, held on terms largely set by the defender.

For most of its history, the Cup was sailed on relatively conventional monohull yachts. Fast, but not the kind of racing that made casual fans stop and stare.

That changed dramatically in the 2010s.

The SailGP fleet in action at the 2026 Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix

The Foiling Revolution: How The America's Cup Changed Everything

The 34th America's Cup in San Francisco in 2013 was the pivotal moment. For the first time, both teams - Oracle Team USA and Emirates Team New Zealand - raced on AC72 catamarans fitted with hydrofoils. These were boats that didn't just sail on the water. They flew above it.

Hydrofoils are underwater "wings" that generate lift as the boat accelerates, raising the hull clear of the surface and dramatically reducing drag. The result: speeds approaching - and sometimes exceeding - 60 mph on a sailing boat.

Oracle Team USA completed one of sport's most famous comebacks, coming from 8-1 down to win 9-8, in front of huge crowds on the San Francisco waterfront and a global TV audience.

Enter Russell Coutts And Larry Ellison

Two names sit at the heart of both the America's Cup's modern era and the founding of SailGP: Sir Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison.

SailGP Co-Founder and CEO Sir Russell Coutts

Coutts is the most successful America's Cup sailor in history, having won the trophy five times as either a helmsman or team CEO. Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, backed Team USA's campaigns and shared Coutts' belief that foiling technology had the potential to transform sailing as a spectator sport.

After the 35th America's Cup in Bermuda in 2017, Coutts and Ellison took the logical next step. Rather than letting this extraordinary technology disappear back into the garages of a handful of private syndicates, why not build a global racing league around it?

That idea became SailGP, which launched in 2019.

What Is The F50?

The most direct link between the America's Cup and SailGP is the boat itself.

SailGP’s F50 is a foiling catamaran derived from the AC50 used at the 35th America's Cup in Bermuda. The hulls, foils, and fundamental design principles are rooted in that Cup campaign. When SailGP launched, teams were racing on modified versions of the boats that contested the 2017 America's Cup.

The F50 has been continuously developed, with more powerful wing sails, upgraded foil systems, and refined onboard technology.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY IN SAILGP

Sailing an F50 requires the same skills as sailing an AC boat: precise foil control, high-speed coordination between crew members, and the ability to process data at speed. It’s no surprise, then, that numerous SailGP athletes have sailed in the America's Cup, including the U.S. SailGP Team’s own Andrew Campbell and Michael Menninger.

SailGP vs. The America's Cup: How Are They Different?

While the two share the same technological DNA, they are very different competitions – and deliberately so.

Format

The America's Cup is a match race: challenger versus defender, held every few years. The venue, the rules, and even the class of boat can change from cycle to cycle, decided in large part by whichever team won last time.

SailGP is a season-long league. Thirteen national teams compete at events staged in iconic waterfront cities around the world, accumulating points across the season before a Championship Final determines the overall winner.

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The Boats

Both use foiling catamarans, but the key difference in SailGP is that every team races an identical F50. The boats are owned by the league and maintained and prepared to the same specification. That means success on the water comes down to athlete performance, not financial advantage.

In the America's Cup, teams design their own boats within a rule framework. Winning the design battle can be just as important as winning the sailing battle – and the budgets involved can run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Accessibility

The America's Cup has traditionally been a world of billionaires and nations. The barriers to entry are enormous.

SailGP was designed to be different. Events are held in city centers: Sydney Harbour, the New York's East River, the waters off Rio. This puts the boats in front of mainstream audiences in landmark locations. The racing format, with short, sharp fleet races rather than long offshore legs, is easier for new fans to follow.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SAILGP

Frequency

The America's Cup takes place every three to five years. SailGP runs multiple events every season, giving fans - and broadcasters - a regular schedule of world-class racing.

The Bottom Line

SailGP exists because the America's Cup faced a question it couldn't answer: what if the world's fastest sailing was available to everyone?

The foiling revolution that began on San Francisco Bay in 2013 didn't stay behind the velvet rope. It became SailGP.

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