Two hundred and fifty volunteers are preparing to welcome visitors, both on and off the water, to the America’s Cup World Series event in Portsmouth this summer.
‘The Wavemakers’ come from all walks of life. Each and every one is proud and passionate about Portsmouth, has a full knowledge of the area, and will be sure to give visitors a warm welcome and assistance when required.
Visitors to the America’s Cup World Series will be welcomed by the Wavemakers acting as meet and greeters at the Park & Ride sites and transport terminals in the city, and as guides along the walking route from The Hard to the event sites.
Wavemakers, wearing distinctive red jackets and shirts, will also be in position at the event site on Southsea Common, the Guildhall, Gunwharf Quays, Gosport and the Historic Dockyard.
Crowds of up to 500,000 are expected over the four-day event from 23-26 July, for a packed schedule of racing and activity on the water, supported by a huge shoreside programme of live music and aerial displays.
Geoff Terry, local resident and Wavemaker volunteer manager, said: ‘Portsmouth is my home, it’s a fantastic place to live and I’m proud that a world class event like the America’s Cup World Series is going to take place on our waters. It’s important that we show the spectators everything our great City has to offer. Therefore it’s essential we have local volunteers on-board sharing their knowledge and passion – I am looking forward to being part of this incredible team of ‘Wavemakers’.’
To prepare for the event, Wave Makers attended one of the volunteer training days held at the BAR headquarters on the Camber, designed and delivered by HTP Training, the Official Customer Services Training Provider to the America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth.
Tickets for both the America’s Cup World Series (including free Waterfront Festival Arena tickets for Thursday July 23 and Friday 24, Fanzone Tickets for all four days), and Portsmouth Live! Evening tickets are available via www.ticketmaster.co.uk/acwsportsmouth
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Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR) technical kit and team merchandise
The British challenger for the America’s Cup, Land Rover BAR, is working with Henri Lloyd as their official technical clothing supplier.
In addition to new products being developed for the team to wear while racing, a separate range of supporters kit has been unveiled for those wishing to wear their support.
The white and navy coloured merchandise range includes children’s t-shirts, caps (both £30), t-shirts (£35), polo shirts (£50), Aura fleece (£70), and the Akenham jacket (£195).
Henri Lloyd – Land Rover BAR Akenham Jacket
The Land Rover BAR range will be available on stands at the America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth, and later in the summer at the Bermuda and Gothenburg events.
It’s also available at Henri Lloyd sailing stores, selected wholesale accounts, and online at: www.henrilloyd.com/BARshop
For an extra charge, you can add your name to selected garments via the kit personalisation service.
Work is still under way on the sailor’s technical range, which includes cold weather tops and long johns in 2mm super stretch double lined neoprene; rash vests and warm weather pants in nylon spandex, with a matching 1mm neoprene super stretch top.
The key to performance is in the design details with liquid silicone used on blind stitched seams for increased durability, comfort and less friction in movement. It’s for the same reason that wherever possible seams have been designed to only traverse low movement areas. Abrasion resistant reinforcements have been added to all the high wear areas.
Henri Lloyd say the experiences and lessons learned from designing this range will be incorporated into future Henri Lloyd products.
Sir Ben said: ‘We’ve pushed the guys at Henri Lloyd hard to develop new materials and a completely new range. We’ve been testing it in the build up to the Portsmouth event and we’ll continue to test it until the 2017 America’s Cup in Bermuda.’