Inclusive Sailing Takes Center Stage at the 37th America’s Cup Barcelona

The organization of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Barcelona, America’s Cup Event Barcelona (ACE), is promoting inclusive sailing through the “Vela per a tothom” (Sailing for Everyone) project, developed by the Catalan Sailing Federation and the Mi Alex Foundation, with support from the Barcelona Nautical Capital Foundation.

This program aims to facilitate access to sailing for people with functional diversity, making it more inclusive through integrative sports practice. It seeks to normalize access to sailing for everyone and guarantee equal opportunities.

According to the CEO of America’s Cup Event Barcelona, Grant Dalton: "The sea is a space that unites us all, regardless of our abilities. We invite everyone, regardless of their condition, to go out to sea and discover the benefits of sailing. Sailing with freedom is a transformative experience that promotes equality and inclusion.”

The 'Vela per a tothom' program, led by the Mi Alex Foundation and the Catalan Sailing Federation, with support from the Barcelona Nautical Capital Foundation, aims to ensure accessibility to a wide and diverse sports offering for people with physical disabilities and to facilitate their autonomy for continued use.

Additionally, the initiative seeks to involve all nautical clubs in the territory to incorporate the program’s proposals into their services and activities. To broaden the base of adaptive sailing participants, dissemination actions are being carried out in different clubs to motivate and attract new users, while also facilitating recurring participation among those who have already started. Thus, a calendar of initiation trials, learning courses, and introductory competition courses has been created for the 2024-2025 season.

An adaptive sailing school is also planned to be established at the Barcelona International Sailing Center (BISC) starting in September. This school will ensure universal access to sailing and also contribute to the training and development of an adaptive sailing competition team.

Another focus of the project is the training of technicians in adaptive sailing, with clinics to expand, specialize, and strengthen the knowledge of these professionals in this field, which more than 30 technicians have already attended.

To support these professionals, training materials such as the methodological guide, the “White Book of Adaptive Sailing,” are being updated and will be available to everyone thanks to their digitization and open publication.

Another key area of the “Vela per a tothom” program is promoting events that boost and highlight elite athletes in this modality. The first event will be the Kakapo Open Race, named after a bird native to New Zealand (the defending and organizing team of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand), which is characterized by being the only parrot that cannot fly. This limitation has actually allowed it to survive for centuries, especially when new predators were introduced to its habitat.

The regatta will take place from July 15 to 21 at the BISC, marking the first time Catalan waters host an international competition in this modality. The Kakapo Open Race is an international regatta aimed at attracting athletes in this modality to Barcelona and coincides in 2024 with the celebration of the Spanish Championship of adaptive and inclusive sailing, with participants scoring in both competitions simultaneously.

A unique feature of this edition is that, for the first time in a single sporting event, competition will be held in two Hansa 303 categories: from July 15 to 18 in individual adaptive sailing, and from July 18 to 21 in double inclusive sailing.

The spirit of this regatta seeks to highlight the fact that sailing puts everyone on an equal footing, as it is an activity that anyone can do, regardless of their abilities.