SAN DIEGO -- Former America's Cup champion Rome Kirby has been named skipper and helmsman of the United States' team in the new SailGP league.
Kirby was introduced with the rest of the American crew Wednesday in New York.
The 29-year-old Kirby, of Newport, Rhode Island, won the America's Cup with Oracle Team USA in 2013. The rest of the American crew includes Riley Gibbs of Long Beach, California; Hans Henken of Coronado, California; Mac Agnese of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Dan Morris of Newport, Rhode Island.
SailGP was founded by American software billionaire Larry Ellison and New Zealander Russell Coutts, a five-time America's Cup winner. SailGP will be contested in supercharged, 50-foot catamarans. Five regattas are scheduled in 2019, starting in Sydney, Australia, in mid-February and including stops in New York and San Francisco.