America’s Cup: USA good out of the gate

The American Racing Challenger Team USA was a late entry for the 38th America’s Cup, revealing their status on April 8, 2026. Without enough time to compete in the first Preliminary Regatta on May 22-24 in Cagliari, Italy, they set their sights on the second event on September 25-27 in Naples, Italy.

If luck represents the moment when opportunity and preparation cross tacks, the American squad enjoyed an auspicious start to their multi-Cup campaign in Naples. The startup team won the opening race in the 8-race series to finish fourth place in the nine-boat fleet of AC40s.

“We are very clearly an underdog,” said CEO Ken Read. “But an underdog can become a dark horse if you start showing some significant success.”

While other teams started months, years, or entire Cup cycles ahead of the Americans, it was a good showing for a group that didn’t exist six months ago, but the team remains realistic about where they currently stand against the fleet.

“None of us expected things to go so well out of the gate,” admitted co-helm Harry Melges IV. “Everyone is putting in a huge effort, and with such little time ahead of the PR2, we’re all proud of the first race.”

Winning feels great, of course, but it’s often the hard races that are the best teachers, and PR2 also delivered the team their share of teachable moments. This included a pair of seventh-place finishes in Races 2 and 4, an eighth-place finish in Race 6, plus a ninth-place result in Race 7.

“We had a lot of good takeaways,” said Melges of these races. “We’re so young and new that we need bad days to kick our butts into gear and accelerate our learning curve.”

This learning curve is obviously steep, but the team’s teachable moments were offset by their bullet in Race 1, a fifth-place finish in Race 3, and a fourth in Race 5.

But it was the team’s impressive third-place performance in Race 8, right after their tough back-of-the-fleet finish, that shows that this team could become a dark horse by the start of the start of next spring’s Louis Vuitton Cup, which determines the team will meet the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, for the 38th America’s Cup.

“What amazes strangers who first come here the most is that it feels like this team has been together for 20 years, not 20 weeks,” said Read of the team’s heads-down, quietly-doing-their-jobs work ethic and culture. “Everybody is having fun, and I think that when people have fun, they do better.”

Fun aside, Read was clear that this is a team that freely owns their mistakes.

“That’s exactly the type of atmosphere you’re looking for, where everyone wants to get better, and everybody is willing to put their hand up and say, ‘you know what, I could have done this better’. And that’s the type of culture we’re building.”

“We’re a young team and obviously all-American, which is super-exciting for us,” said Melges. “What’s impresses me the most is how good the team atmosphere is at ARC Team USA, it’s really inspiring. Everyone around you lifts you up and wants you to work really hard, even on the bad days.”

While ARC Team USA was a dominant force on the PR2’s starting lines, Race 6 is one that the team’s coaches and sailors will be studying during their upcoming winter residence at the team’s Pensacola, Florida, base.

ARC Team USA nailed the start and was in contention for the first leg, before a tough first gate rounding depressed their leaderboard standing. The team fought for every racecourse meter, but they were out of the hunt by Leg 6, which took the fleet across the finishing line.

“We try to win every race,” said Read, noting that there was no tension between the team’s competitive nature and their strategy of using the PR2 as an intensive training camp. “We use every single lesson in every race to our advantage, looking to the future.”

While points from May’s PR1, which ARC Team USA didn’t compete at, and this weekend’s PR2 don’t translate to any advantages come the start of next spring’s Louis Vuitton Cup, Melges described the PR2 as a crucial event—and opportunity—for the team.

“It’s really important for us to take the lessons from this weekend back to Pensacola over the winter, really study, and make sure that, when we get back to Naples next spring and summer, we’re ready to go,” Melges said.

While the team enjoyed good first outing, Read, who is Cup veteran, was clear that ARC Team is playing the long game in terms of their ambitions to bring the America’s Cup home.

“We are in an incredibly unique position where our principals have said, ‘we’re going to be doing this for a while’,” he said, noting that historically, most Cup teams are more focused on securing their next tranche of funding than considering their multi-Cup end game moves.

“It’s a great problem to have, and also just more to put under the microscope to figure out how it’s going to happen efficiently for the long term.”

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