Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series: What you need to know

The winter is drawing to a close, and the 2016 season of the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series is about to get underway in Oman. This will be the very first time that America's Cup racing has been to the Middle East, and we're all looking forward to the new venue, not to mention some warmer weather.

We've had a very productive winter of testing, development and training at our Portsmouth home base, since we launched our second testing boat, 'T2' in the autumn. There was some unexpected excitement just before Christmas when we capsized 'T2'. No one was hurt but we did suffer some structural damage to the wing – the team pulled together and our shore team worked incredibly hard to get us back testing on T2 again by February. We are excited about the season ahead, not only in the ACWS but just as importantly our continued development programme focused on delivering the fastest race boat possible in 2017.

If you're going to be in Oman, we look forward to seeing you. If you are watching at home on BT Sport we hope to see you on our social channels. It's going to be a great event, this will be a big season for our team and I thank you all for your continued support.

Land Rover BAR start the 2016 season in third place, three points behind Oracle Team USA and 13 points behind Emirates Team New Zealand.

The ACWS is a high point scoring event, with ten points for first place, nine for second and so on. The racing on Super Sunday always scores double (20 for first).

• The racing format has changed with three races scheduled for each day
  
  
• The points from every race accumulate throughout the year to find the winner
  
  
• The racing boat is the AC45F – identical foiling catamarans

The race venues and dates for 2016 are:

• Muscat, Oman, February 26-28
  
  
• New York, USA, May 6-8
  
  
• Chicago, USA, June 10-12
  
  
• Portsmouth, July 22-24

• Toulon, September 9-11

#BringTheCupHome

Land Rover, the team's Title and Exclusive Innovation Partner are collaborating with our designers and engineers in the development of the boat. They are bringing expertise used to design their own 4x4 vehicles, and delivering a winning combination of advanced engineering, world-class design and innovative technology.

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The fitter they are the faster they fly

Did you know the sailors target the same power output as a time trialling Tour de France cyclist?

The team behind the team – Meet the shore team

The sailors couldn't sail without the immense support that they get from our shore team – check out what a day in their life is like.

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