Captain | 10
THE GOLDEN EAGLES
An Eagle earns its honor from the storms it endures.
Tradition and Innovation Combine in Quest for Gold
With almost 100,000 miles of coastline along two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, and five Great Lakes, American sailors stand on the shoulders of a seagoing heritage. Team USA holds the all-time records for most Olympic medals and America’s Cups ever won, and an American-flagged boat has raced in every edition of the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race/World Ocean Race. (Golden Eagles Captain Paul Cayard skippered the winning entry in 1997/8.) Americans have also won a whopping 55 Star World championships, invented technology that has forever changed the sport, and pursued both excellence and innovation at every level.
This deep team combines decades of experience in high-pressure campaigns with a youthful hunger to win, and the Golden Eagles look forward to the unique challenge of representing the USA at the SSL Gold Cup. They will attack their competitors with the same patient but sharp-eyed ferocity that their namesake swoops down to claim its prey. The goal is gold.
Statistics
THE COUNTRY
- 44,000 people sailing in the US
- 592,000 'yachts' in the US.
- 700 sailing clubs
- 300 sailing schools
- 95,471 miles of coastline
ACHIEVEMENTS
- 19 Olympic Gold Medals
- 23 Olympic Silver Medals
- 19 Olympic Bronze Medals
SSL Ranking
- SSL best ranked woman: LAURA GRONDIN
- SSL best ranked man: PETER DUNCAN
- SSL nations ranking: 4 (2/2023)
MAIN EVENTS
- America’s Cup host (1851-83, 1992-95, 2013)
- San Francisco Bay Big Boat Series
- Sailing World Cup Miami
- VOR Stopovers (Miami, Newport, Baltimore, Annapolis, NY City)
- Summer Olympics (1984, 2028)
7 World championships won by Paul Cayard
7 America’s Cups sailed by Paul Cayard
The captain
Paul Cayard
He is one of the very few sailors who has competed at top level in the three disciplines of the sport: The Olympics, The America’s Cup and Offshore round the world racing. It is impossible to shrink his career to a few lines; with over forty years of experience in sailing, he more than earns his title as a legend of the sport. Cayard has won World Championships in seven different classes. He is a seven-time America’s Cup competitor and circumnavigated the world twice, becoming the first American to win the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1998 and placing second with the Disney syndicate Pirates of the Caribbean in the 2005-2006 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Cayard is a two-time Olympian (1984, 2004), and he won the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1992 with the Italian syndicate Il Moro di Venezia, becoming one the most appreciated skippers in Italy. Cayard’s accolades include induction to the US Sailing Hall of Fame (2011), and the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Award (1998), he also serves on the Board of US Olympic Sailing. Out of all of this he will be quick to declare that his most treasured prize is winning the Star World Championship in 1988 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

THE LEADERS
CHRIS POOLE
Chris Poole is currently the number 1 ranked match racer in the world and is leading the World Match Race Tour. He started his sailing career in the Optimist Class off the coast of Maine at ten years old. After college he began his Match Racing campaign full time and quickly climbed the World Ranking leaderboard. After the Corona Virus Pandemic in 2020, Chris and his Riptide Racing team had new goal and came out firing as the sailing resumed around the world. As his string of podium successses piled up his ranking climbed to number 1 in the World. At the first stop of the 2023 WMRT the U.S. Congressional Cup, the oldest continually running Grade 1 Match Race in the world. Chris and his Riptide Racing Team achieved something never before seen in the yacht racing world. They became the first team in yachting history to win a Grade 1 double round robin match race undefeated 24-0.
PORTER KAVLE
Porter Kavle is regarded as one of the best big boat sailors in the United States. He grew up in Annapolis Maryland and begin sailing at a young age. He grew up sailing dinghies and eventually competing in collegiate sailing while studying finance at Fordham University in New York City. His range consists of competing in match racing and fleet racing as well as high perfromance offshore distance racing. His big boat career began at a young age prior to college, sailing Etchells and Farr 40s with his Father, Jim Kavle a 4x Americas cup winner, professional Maxi Boat racer as well as long time starboat sailor, famous for being the first American to win Keil Week in the Star Class. Kavle has had success in boats such as the J70 and Club 420, Winning the J70 highschool keelboat nationals and placing 3rd at the inagural J70 US youth national championship and 3rd in the C420 triple crown series. Kavle has since been living in Newport RI where his sailing career has advanced to becoming onboard strategist, part time mainsail trimmer as well as program manager for the 12 Metre progam “CHALLENGE XII”. Under his lead, the program, which also 3 additional raceboats under its umbrella, has been successful in winning 2X World Championships in 2019 and 2023, 5X North American Championships and 3 overall wins at NYYC Rolex Race Week. Kavle also trims the main onboard an ORC 47 out of Newport RI named TINK a spirit of tradition boat that has had success in the Newport Rolex Series, Block island race week, and is a 2X overall winner of Safe Harbor Race Week. He also competes in doublehanded offshore racing and high performance superyacht racing.
CJ PEREZ


THE YOUTH FACTOR
The United States team has a Core Group of Youth Sailors; Grinder, Pit, and Offside trimmer. Programs like AmericaOne highlight and strengthen the youth standard in the United States. Their focus is on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and foiling literacy among upcoming sailors. Captain James Golden, is in the ILCA 7 squad working on raising the ILCA standard in the USA.
Confirmed Athletes
Potential Team Position

1
BOW
ERIK SHAMPAIN
|
2
FLOATER
NIKOLE BARNES
|
3
PIT
MAC AGNESE
|
4
GRINDER
CHRIS POOLE
|
5
TRIMMER
IAN LIBERTY
|
6
TRIMMER
ERIC DOYLE
|
7
MAIN TRIMMER
VICTOR DIAZ DE LEON
|
8
HELM
TAYLOR CANFIELD
|
9
TACTICIAN
MIKE BUCKLEY
|
10
CAPTAIN
PAUL CAYARD
|
11
TBD
MATT CASSIDY
|
1
BOW
ERIK SHAMPAIN
|
2
FLOATER
NIKOLE BARNES
|
3
PIT
MAC AGNESE
|
4
GRINDER
CHRIS POOLE
|
5
TRIMMER
IAN LIBERTY
|
6
TRIMMER
ERIC DOYLE
|
7
MAIN TRIMMER
VICTOR DIAZ DE LEON
|
8
HELM
TAYLOR CANFIELD
|
9
TACTICIAN
MIKE BUCKLEY
|
10
CAPTAIN
PAUL CAYARD
|
11
TBD
MATT CASSIDY
|
SQUAD
PAUL CAYARD | VICTOR DIAZ DE LEON |
ERIC DOYLE | TAYLOR CANFIELD |
MATT CASSIDY | DAN MORRIS |
IAN LIBERTY | MIKE BUCKLEY |
ERIK SHAMPAIN | MAC AGNESE |
NIKOLE BARNES | CHRIS POOLE |