America’s Cup: New challenger ‘Stars & Stripes’ joins battle for Auld Mug

The name is a blast from the past, but a new challenger named “Stars & Stripes” has entered the next America’s Cup in New Zealand.

The syndicate, from the Long Beach Yacht Club, is the second US challenger for the 2021 event after the New York Yacht Club-backed American Magic.

The team becomes the fifth challenger to take on defender Team New Zealand, a week after the Royal Malta Yacht Club also declared its intention to compete.

Stars and Stripes is named after the series of Dennis Conner entries of the 1980s, culminating in victory against Australian defender Kookaburra III in 1987.

“Our name is a nod to Dennis Connor’s Stars & Stripes campaigns that defined all-American, America’s Cup racing for decades. We are the next generation,” said co-founder Mike Buckley.

Visit CNN.com/sailing for more news, features and videos

- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/170911144233-blair-tuke-tease-image.jpg?q=x_187,y_468,h_2095,w_3724,c_crop/h_540,w_960" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/170911144233-blair-tuke-tease-image.jpg?q=x_187,y_468,h_2095,w_3724,c_crop/h_540,w_960" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

" data-timestamp-html="

Published 5:32 AM EST, Thu December 13, 2018

" data-check-event-based-preview="" data-is-vertical-video-embed="false" data-network-id="" data-publish-date="2018-03-15T14:04:23Z" data-video-section="sport" data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2018/03/15/emirates-team-new-zealand-americas-cup-cycle-mainsail-march-2018-spc-spt.cnn" data-branding-key="main-sail" data-video-slug="emirates team new zealand americas cup cycle mainsail march 2018 spc spt" data-first-publish-slug="emirates team new zealand americas cup cycle mainsail march 2018 spc spt" data-video-tags="america's cup,bermuda,new zealand,north america,oceania,sailing (sport),sailing events,sports and recreation,sports events,water sports" data-details="">

Video Ad Feedback

America's Cup: How Team NZ won in Bermuda

22:31 - Source: CNN

The team, which will announce its sailing roster in early 2019, has begun building its AC75 foiling monohull yacht in Michigan after buying a design and technology package from Team New Zealand.

“Stars & Stripes and their yacht club are the reflection of the new America’s Cup; they value the history of the trophy and the event while wholeheartedly accepting the technological challenge that the new AC75 class represents,” said Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand.

“We are really proud to have two American teams competing in this America’s Cup. United States is a country with outstanding America’s Cup sailing tradition and expertise.”

Italy’s Luna Rossa and INEOS Team UK, bankrolled by Britain’s richest man Jim Ratcliffe, are the other challengers for the 36th America’s Cup.

Emirates Team New Zealand beat Larry Ellisson’s Oracle Team USA to win the Cup in Bermuda 2017.

READ: Why the next America’s Cup is going back to basics

READ: Britain’s richest man plots $141M America’s Cup coup

Simon van Velthooven and Joe Sullivan were cyclists on board Team New Zealand's revolutionary boat, turning the winches with their pedal power, as the Kiwis trounced Oracle Team USA 7-1 to win the America's Cup in Bermuda on June.

Following the parades and parties they have gone back to their respective day jobs, Sullivan (front) as a firefighter and van Velthooven (behind) as a student.

Van Velthooven, formerly an Olympic cyclist, admitted he was blown away by the reaction on his return to New Zealand in the aftermath of the win.

Sullivan was surprised by the number of people who gathered for the Auckland parade, more than met the famous All Blacks rugby team after their World Cup triumph.

A week after returning to his work as a firefighter, Sullivan was tackling a big blaze at a hotel in Auckland.

It is a far cry from his past life where (second from left) he won Olympic gold in rowing in 2012.

Van Velthooven is no stranger to track success, winning medals at both Olympic and World Championship level but has no plans, aged 28, to go back to the sport.

Sullivan lifts the America's Cup in New Zealand, ticking off what he describes as one of the dreams of every five-year-old in New Zealand.

The celebration was just as sweet for van Velthooven, whose life took a sharp turn when Team New Zealand came looking for a cycling specialist to help with its innovative leg-powered winch grinders.

Life after America's Cup glory

Prev Next

‘Can’t buy time’

The radical and unproven AC75 boats, developed by Emirates Team New Zealand in close conjunction with principle challenger Luna Rossa, will push the designers to their limits as they strive to come up with the fastest hull shapes and foil packages in line with the class rules. Each team can build two, with the first to be launched no sooner than March 31, 2019.

READ: World’s best yachting destinations

READ: Sailing’s glamor tribe and the downsides of paradise

With the America’s Cup set to begin on March 6, 2021, and with a number of warm-up regattas and the Prada Cup to determine the sole challenger to take on the Kiwis before that, the clock is ticking.

“You can have as much money as you want but you can’t buy time,” said Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena at a news conference in Cowes, England in September.