Swiss get makeover for America’s Cup

Britain’s Paul Goodison was an integral member of the American Magic challenge for the America’s Cup, first as a wing trimmer in 2021 and then as the co-helm in 2024. But when he broke five ribs and could not be on the wheel for the 2024 challenger semi-finals, the team’s bid sank too.

Fully healed, the Olympic gold medalist and 3-time Moth World Champion is now skipper of the Swiss challenge for the 38th America’s Cup and offers insight into their plan:

What made you sign with Tudor Team Alinghi?

I think the longer vision was a big factor. Chatting with Dave (Endean), chatting with Ernesto (Bertarelli), and on the initial look, it’s going to be really challenging this short period, obviously. You look at the teams that are more established, that have been kept going, they’re going to be pretty hard to catch short-term. But then, the vision here is long-term, it’s essentially a new team and to be involved in the foundations and paving the way, that was one of the big appeals for me.

Is your team getting a late start for the 2027 edition.

We’re very well aware that this one’s going to be hard, and we’re trying to build for the next one, and trying to put all the pieces in place. The big thing with any of these teams, is that the people are the most important part. Obviously, you need the best people, but if the best people don’t get on and work together well, it’s dysfunctional. So, it’s about building a group who work well together and who know each other well.

From the sailing side, you desperately need this young, fresh talent to come in and push us all, but you also need some wiser, older, experienced eyes to look at the challenges you’re facing and try and identify where you need to invest your energy, how you develop the boat, and how you liaise with designers, which is a skill in itself that doesn’t come overnight. So, trying to get that balance right is tricky. But it’s awesome to have some of the younger sailors around, and just the enthusiasm here is something pretty special so far.

What do you see as your biggest challenge?

I think the big challenge from every campaign is understanding what you got right and what you got wrong. With the Cup, you think the bigger the budget, the more resource you have, the more powerful you’re going to be, but you’re only as good as identifying the bits you need to focus on. I think it’s going to really come down to making the smart decisions about where to focus your resources and where to focus your energy.

I’m under no illusion that the established teams that have been doing it for longer are going to have a little bit better tools and are going to be a little bit more developed. But as time goes by and everything gets reduced, that gap’s going to close. And as a sailor, all you hope for is that your boat’s going to be close enough to make it a race.

What do you take from American Magic and apply with the Swiss?

There’s heaps of that going on, and I think that’s the beauty of every campaign…I think one of the most critical things to do at the beginning of campaign is basically have a good overview of what each team did well or badly.

So, I’ve been quite open and honest with my experience over the two campaigns in the AC75, what we’ve done very well and what we’ve done very badly. That’s anything from a design side to just how we run the day, the things we focus on, how we analyze performance.

We’re now looking at the performance tools and how they in the past have used the tools to assess performance and how they’ve set their day out. There are really good bits from each campaign, and it’s about cherry-picking the bits you want to take forward and then developing your way of doing it.

How do you see the path for the next wave of competitors?

I think the younger generation are getting these amazing opportunities and being fast-tracked amazingly well. I look back and I was like, wow, I had to spend 15 years hanging out the side of a Laser to get the opportunity to try and do this, and then you have to go and win a bunch of Moth Worlds to prove that you’re in the foiling.

Whereas a lot of the new guys, they’ve been brought up watching some of this stuff, so they’re learning through watching the TV, and they come in and they’re given these opportunities. It’s awesome to see some of them just reach up and grab it, and they’re like sponges, they soak everything in.

What does an America’s Cup sailor look like in the future?

The way that simulation is evolving and the reality between the simulation and the racing, it’s probably not too far beyond reality that some gamers may even be around in 10 or 15 years’ time. How they deal with getting wet and not being able to see the screens as much as when they’re sitting on their sofa will be interesting.

But at the end of the day, I still think so much of it comes down to the racing, and some of that stuff is being able to use your eyes in the reality and judge distances and weather conditions. I still think it’s going to be sailing-related.

Tell us about Alinghi’s simulator.

At Alinghi we have some AC40 simulators and some basic computer-based simulators set up, but the AC75 one isn’t up and running yet. That is one of the big topic items now, and we’re talking about foil design, we’re talking about building new masts, we’re talking about where we’re going to go with the sail program, but the simulator is one of the biggest things.

As sailors, we are hammering and pushing hard for it to be up and running. You look at the group, we have some new people in new roles, and they’ve got to get used to flying the boat and trimming. We now have the benefit of the fifth sailor and trying to identify what roles they’re going to do on board. So they need practice at that. We’re pushing hard to get that up, and the design side are pushing hard to keep developing it so it keeps getting better before we use it.

This is the third edition for the AC75 Class. Do you expect more parity on the water?

That’s what I’m hoping for. That would be my ideal choice. But I think each team will look at what they did last time and will look over the fence at what the other teams did. The sailing will get closer. And the one thing that sticks out in my mind is the race now is a maneuver race and an acceleration race.

The time you spend actually at max VMG is probably only 50% of the time so anything you can do to increase your performance in that phase, which is the hardest bit to model, it’s the hardest bit to record, is valuable. And that’s where the skills are going to come. Who’s going to be able to identify or develop their dynamic VPP in a way that’s giving them good feedback to then go and test, and how you record that and how you figure it out is going to be the biggest challenge.

The Swiss and Brits are collaborating with software tools and design which the Protocol is allowing. Is that going to be key to getting everybody up to speed in AC38, and then you all go separate ways with AC39?

I think so. You saw how much the French benefited last time off the New Zealand design. Now you can merge the group together of two teams as allowed by the rules, and you’ve basically got two testing platforms. So you’d expect to both benefit from that group. But I think we’re in a situation that we’re so late that we’re going to be relying on those guys a little bit to help us along, and we’ll see how it goes in AC39.

Details: https://www.americascup.com/

Defender New Zealand and Challenger of Record from Great Britain confirmed the Protocol for the 38th America’s Cup on August 12, 2025. The close of the initial entry period was October 31, 2025, with late entries considered up to March 31, 2026.

Current entrants:
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) – Defender
• Athena Racing (GBR) – Challenger of Record
• Luna Rossa (ITA) – Challenger
• Tudor Team Alinghi (SUI) – Challenger
• La Roche-Posay Racing Team (FRA) – Challenger
• American Racing Challenger Team USA (USA) – Challenger

After the 2024 event, Barcelona, Spain declined hosting another edition, with the venue moved to Naples, Italy. Challenger racing begins in the spring before the 38th Match on July 10-18, 2027.

Preliminary Regattas:*
May 21-24, 2026 – Cagliari, Sardinia

* More are to be announced.

Source: AC38 Event Ltd