America’s Cup: Italy remains on form

Six of the seven entrants in the 38th America’s Cup competed at the Preliminary Regatta on September 25-27 in Naples, Italy. This was the second meeting of the teams in AC40s, with Italy once again taking the victory.

With Team Australia on the sideines, eight fleet races advanced Luna Rossa’s co-helms Peter Burling and Marco Gradoni to the winner-take-all match race against Emirates Team New Zealand which had Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies on the wheels.

Luna Rossa elected to come in from the port side of the line, leaving ETNZ to bear-away on starboard gybe in from the right-hand marker buoy, 10 seconds later. The initial exchanges saw ETNZ dictating the battle, attempting to get on the stern of the Italian boat and the action continued high above the line on the right side of the course.

On the lead back into the starting line, ETNZ sat to leeward seeking a hook that looked promising but didn’t stick. The only option for the Kiwis was to tack away to the starboard end of the line whilst Luna Rossa crossed at full pace and seized the initiative.

It was a crucial moment of the race as Luna Rossa covered the ETNZ tack out to the right boundary and could then ‘cover’ aggressively – sitting on ETNZ’s wind and forcing them into the vortex zone of ‘dirty air.’ Try as they might, ETNZ couldn’t shake the cover, Italy gave no opening for a pass.

“I think we showed to the world that at this event, we were the best by far, and I’m super happy with the result,” noted Gradoni.

Outteridge was disappointed to lose the final and dissected the start that ended up being so costly. “We actually were pretty happy with how our final position was going into the start, we really wanted to go to the right as we thought the right was going to be quite strong, and we needed to tack earlier. That was the reality of it.

“We were pushing them into the pin; we were both early and just the little execution of the exact moment we needed to lead the turn-up tack and take the right. We were trying to stay unlocked. So, we were trying not to get overlapped above and below.

“But Pete (Burling) and the Luna Rossa guys did a good job of dragging the game quite low. And when you drag it low, time disappears quite quickly, and by the time we tacked, we were late for the boat.

“So, those guys are really good in the AC40s. We’ve seen that this event, the last event, the amount of two-boating they get to do. And we probably suffered just a little bit from just not executing the details well enough to beat them this week.”

Watch broadcast:
September 25, Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/live/cEztv-kITdU?si=S-4XFt_0Naxs382z
September 26, Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/live/IjCeELV5qmA?si=sah-JicUM777SLvT
September 27, Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/live/_1zTwUT0_po?si=R0L0d63yM7ElhD7Z

Event details: https://www.americascup.com/naples
Results: https://www.americascup.com/results
YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/@americascup

The AC40 has a helm and trimmer on each side of the boat. Teams were allowed to enter two boats, but the second boat had to be crewed by women and youth (W&Y).

Final results:
1. Luna Rossa, 2-1-1-6-2-3-1-1, 71
2. Emirates Team New Zealand, 5-3-8-2-3-2-2-7, 56
3. La Roche-Posay Racing Team, 6-9-6-1-9-1-3-2, 48
4. ARC Team USA, 1-7-5-7-4-8-9-3, 44
5. Emirates Team New Zealand (W&Y), 7-4-9-4-1-9-5-5, 44
6. Luna Rossa 2 (W&Y), 4-5-4-5-8-5-7-6, 44
7. Tudor Team Alinghi, 9-2-2-3-5-6-8-8, 44
8. GB1, 8-8-3-9-6-4-4-4, 42
9. GB2 (W&Y), 3-6-7-8-7-6-5-9, 36

Naples crew list:
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL): Nathan Outteridge/Seb Menzies (helm), Andy Maloney/Iain Jensen (trim)
• Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL): Jake Pye/Erica Dawson (helm), Serena Woodall/Josh Armit (trim)
• Athena Racing (GBR): Dylan Fletcher/Ben Cornish (helm), Bleddyn Mon/Andrea Tesei (trim)
• Athena Racing (GBR): Hannah Mills/Ellie Aldridge (helm), Sam Webb/Matt Beck (trim)
• Luna Rossa (ITA): Peter Burling/Marco Gradoni (helm), Gianluigi ‘Gigi’ Ugolini/Maria Giubilei (trim)
• Luna Rossa (ITA): Margherita Porro/Max Antoniazzi (helm), Maria Vittorria Marchesini/Giovanni Santi (trim)
• Tudor Team Alinghi (SUI): Paul Goodison/Phil Robertson (helm), Nicolas Rolaz/Pietro Sibello (trim)
• La Roche-Posay Racing Team (FRA): Quentin Delapierre/Diego Botín (helm), Jason Saunders/Florian Trittel (trim)
• American Racing Challenger Team USA (USA): Lucas Calabrese/Harry Melges IV (helm), Hans Henken/Michael Menninger (trim)

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.

The AC75 has a helm and trimmer on each side of the boat along with a fifth crew position and a sixth passenger position.

38th America’s Cup: https://www.americascup.com/

38th America’s Cup 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
• Team Australia (AUS) – Challenger

After the 2024 event, Barcelona, Spain declined hosting another edition, with the venue moved to Naples, Italy. Challenger racing is May 22 to July 4 before the 38th Match on July 10-19. Full details.

Preliminary Regattas:*
May 22-24, 2026 – Cagliari, Italy
September 24-27 – Naples, Italy

* The Protocol noted how there would be as many Preliminary Regattas as possible, with the intent to have three during 2026 and one possibly in early 2027, and a final event at the Match Venue immediately prior to the challenger series. Only two have been thus far revealed.

Source: AC media