America is back in the America's Cup – with American Magic's boat

Last week Riptide Racing confirmed they were out of the running for the 38th America's Cup. Now we know who's stepping in.

American Racing Challenger Team USA has been announced as the American challenger for AC38, having acquired American Magic's key assets including the team’s AC75 Patriot and both AC40s. The team is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Karel Komárek and Chris Welch, with two-time Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Ken Read at the helm as CEO.

Since American Magic announced their departure in October, the nation that held the Auld Mug for 132 consecutive years had been on track to sit out an America's Cup for the first time since the event began in 1851.

The announcement also marks an institutional shift: the American challenge moves from the New York Yacht Club – home of those 132 years of dominance – to Sail Newport, a club founded the year the Cup left US shores.

As for the name, subtlety clearly isn't the priority – American Racing Challenger Team USA starts with 'American' and ends in 'USA', in case anyone was in doubt about where they're from. It’s quite the mouthful, so we'll be calling them ARC for short.

Czech billionaire Karel Komárek – whose Wallycento V competes at the sharp end of international Maxi racing, with Ken Read as tactician – framed the entry as deliberate rather than rushed: "This is a decision we have approached with great care and clear intent – we would only move forward with the right partners in place."

Sail Newport, the challenging yacht club in Rhode Island, was central to that calculus, and there's history there. The club’s president Chris Long points out that the organisation was founded in 1983 specifically to "keep sailing strong and accessible" after USA's record-breaking winning streak was broken in Newport.

Now, four decades on, they're back in the game at the highest level. US Sailing has also joined the initiative, with promises around youth development and pathways for female sailors.

Read, who served as a two-time helmsman for Dennis Conner (2000, 2003), sounds pragmatic: "We're under no illusion about the challenges ahead and we're fully focused on building a team that can win the Cup."

Co-founder Chris Welch, meanwhile, hinted at commercial firepower to come, talking of competing "alongside some of America's most powerful and recognisable brands." No names yet – but the implication is clear: this isn't a shoestring operation.

Some questions remain, of course. 

Will ARC be on the startline in Cagliari? With just six weeks until the first event this cycle, it looks unlikely. We also don't know who'll be sailing the boat. American Magic's last campaign featured co-helms Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison, but neither has been mentioned. And there's been no confirmation of whether ARC becomes a founding member of the America's Cup Partnership with the same voting rights as the other five teams – though presumably that's the expectation.

Just this morning we reported on Team USA taking American Magic to court over branding in SailGP, with too many American teams now piling into the league. And now we've got an American challenger back in the America's Cup.

A big day for the stars and stripes!

Whatever happens next, having a competitive US team in Naples can only be good for the event. And there's still at least one more challenger to be announced...