The benefits of the America's Cup
- The America’s Cup is an event with great reach, encompassing multiple sectors such as technology, sports, and the nautical industry.
- Just as international leading events like the Mobile World Congress have had a very positive impact on Barcelona’s digital ecosystem, Port de Barcelona aimed for the America’s Cup to act as a catalyst for innovation and the development of various industries in the country. They intended to achieve this by using a sustainable development model to create positive economic and social outcomes.
Areas of Impact
The influence of the America’s Cup in Barcelona encompassed six major dimensions:
- Sport: Promoting access to sailing among all groups, fostering marine identity and the values associated with the sport. Highlighting the diversity of sports and encouraging the participation of sailors; standing out the "Viu la vela" project, which was created to bring the America’s Cup and the sport of sailing to all primary schools in the city in a dynamic, inclusive, and plural manner, conveying all the values of sport and the environment.
- Environment: Strengthening awareness for environmental conservation and ecosystem regeneration. Positioning Barcelona as a global leader in the sustainable industry.
- Territory: Developing projects to involve and engage the Catalan nautical sports community with the America’s Cup, promoting the event throughout the region and involving society.
- Science and Research: Turning Catalonia into a global model for research and conservation of the marine environment through universities and world-class congresses.
- Technological Innovation: Driving technological and business innovation in the blue economy and strengthening the local economy linked to the sea.
The video is a corporate promotional overview of the Port of Barcelona's Innovation Plan and its strategic vision targeting 2040. It opens with an aerial panoramic view of the port and city skyline overlaid with digital data stream graphics. Throughout the clip, footage of daily port operations is paired with infographics outlining the pillars of the innovation strategy:
- A diversified port, featuring cruise ships, container terminals, and passenger ferries.
- Port Vision 2040, illustrated by a circular interactive diagram encompassing technology, sustainability, logistics, economy, governance, mobility, and people.
- An innovative city environment, highlighting accolades such as 4th European Innovation City 2019, 3rd Start-ups City 2019, and 5th World's Most Attractive City to Digital Experts.
- Innovation hubs and spaces, mapping out coastal port locations such as the World Trade Center, Pier 01 (Tech Barcelona), Nautical Faculty, BlueTech Port, DFactory Barcelona, 3D Incubator, and Blue Sandbox Innovation.
- BCN Port Innovation initiative, displaying industrial robotics, 3D printing labs, AI technology screens, and digital conference broadcasting studios. The video ends with night aerial views of container terminals accompanied by the slogan "Creating the smart port, creating the future" and the official Port de Barcelona logo screen.
The technological challenge
Just like the Formula 1 World Championship represents a technological challenge where different car manufacturers test innovations that can be eventually adapted to production vehicles, the America’s Cup allows us to observe some elements of the future of sailing. In Barcelona, it was also possible to see how these innovations paved the way towards a more sustainable future.
The America’s Cup boats sail with retractable wings, the hydrofoils, which allow them to lift the hull above the waves and reach speeds close to 100 km/h. These hydrofoils were key in creating the Chase Zero, an innovative support boat powered by hydrogen, designed specifically to support the America’s Cup, eliminating CO2 emissions.
This solution, which is also being studied for implementation in commercial vessels such as ferries, served to demonstrate the potential of alternative fuels—not only for leisure boats but also for the daily port operations.
