Ex-America’s Cup champs Russell Coutts, Larry Ellison launch SailGP league

SAN DIEGO — New Zealander Russell Coutts is moving past the America’s Cup to help launch what he hopes is a commercially sustainable sailing league using supercharged foiling 50-foot catamarans capable of zipping across the tops of waves at 60 mph.

Coutts and American software tycoon Larry Ellison announced their SailGP global racing league Wednesday in London.

Teams from the United States, Australia, Great Britain, France, Japan and China will compete starting in 2019 in highly advanced catamarans called F50s.

The series begins Feb. 15-16 in Sydney, followed by regattas in San Francisco, May 4-5; New York, June 21-22; Cowes, England, Aug. 10-11; and the finale in Marseille, France, Sept.