America’s Cup, from Cagliari the new route towards Naples 2027 begins

The route towards Naples 2027 enters its first visible phase with the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Sardinia. It will be the first official event of the new cycle and will bring the AC40s to the Gulf of Angels: one-design foiling boats designed to place the quality of the crews at the centre, rather than open development of the platform.

The programme includes an initial practice day, followed by a series of fleet races that will take the top two crews into a match race final. It will not yet be time for the AC75s, the boats that will contest the Cup in Naples in 2027, but Cagliari will still carry real weight: it will be the first opportunity to see the teams racing again after Barcelona and to understand who has already begun to interpret the new cycle most effectively. Although the Preliminary Regatta will have no impact on the standings of the main event in Naples, it will still be an important step in building rhythm, confidence and an early psychological advantage.

The real novelty will be the presence of a richer and more layered fleet already in Cagliari, with eight AC40s on the water and three teams, Emirates Team New Zealand, GB1 and Luna Rossa, ready to field a second boat assigned to their Women & Youth programmes. For the first time in an official America’s Cup circuit regatta, the Women & Youth crews will race on the same course and in the same races as the senior crews: a moment in which “reputations are on the line”, precisely because young sailors and women will not be competing in a separate event.

For Emirates Team New Zealand, Defender of the Cup and the team SLAM supports as Official Technical Apparel Supplier, Cagliari will also be the first public test of a dual-track approach. The main line-up will be led by Nathan Outteridge alongside Seb Menzies, with Andy Maloney and Iain Jensen as trimmers. The second boat, Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth, will feature Erica Dawson and Jake Pye at the helm, with Serena Woodall and Josh Armit as trimmers.

Nathan Outteridge explained the technical meaning of this dual presence clearly: “Having two boats on the start line will allow the team to raise its internal standard even further, bringing experience, new energy and communication processes into direct comparison within a highly competitive fleet".

The landscape of the 38th America’s Cup expanded on the eve of the Sardinian event with the entry of Team Australia, confirmed among the Challengers for Naples 2027. It is a historic return, recalling one of the most iconic chapters in America’s Cup history: the victory of Australia II in 1983, when the Auld Mug left the New York Yacht Club for the first time after 132 years.

With the new Australian challenge, the fleet for the next Cup rises to seven confirmed teams, the highest number since the historic Valencia 2007 edition. It is a figure that also changes the perception of the new cycle: Naples 2027 will not only be the first America’s Cup in Italy, but also a Cup with greater competitive depth than in recent editions.

Team Australia has officially lodged its challenge for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup through the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club in Sydney, with the challenge accepted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The project brings together names of major significance: Tom Slingsby, Olympic gold medallist, SailGP champion and two-time World Sailor of the Year, will be Head of Sailing; Glenn Ashby, three-time America’s Cup winner and a central figure in modern foiling, will be Head of Performance & Design; Grant Simmer, a crew member on Australia II in 1983 and later a key figure in many America’s Cup campaigns, will be CEO of the team.

Tash Bryant also linked the project to the new role of women in the Cup: This feels like an exciting new era for the America’s Cup.”

The reference is to the rule that will introduce, for the first time, at least one woman in the AC75 racing crew, opening up more visible pathways between the Women’s America’s Cup, the Youth America’s Cup and the main teams.

With the Australian entry, the number of confirmed teams for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup in Naples 2027 rises to seven: Emirates Team New Zealand, Defender of the Cup, and six Challengers. GB1 will be the Challenger of Record, while the other confirmed Challengers are Luna Rossa, Tudor Team Alinghi, La Roche-Posay Racing Team, Team Australia and American Racing Challenger Team USA.

This expansion gives the new cycle a different breadth. After several editions with smaller fleets, Naples 2027 is shaping up with a larger, more international line-up, closer in spirit to the great European editions of the Cup, particularly Valencia 2007.

For the Italian public, this will be a powerful narrative element: not only is the America’s Cup coming to Italy for the first time, but it is doing so with broader participation, new teams, new sporting stories and the return of Australia, a nation linked to one of the most iconic chapters in the history of the Auld Mug.

The 38th America’s Cup will also be different from a technical perspective. In Naples 2027, the AC75s will not start from a blank sheet: teams will have to reuse or adapt “legacy” hulls from the 36th or 37th America’s Cup, while new teams will be able to purchase an existing AC75 or replicate an already built design. It is a choice intended to contain costs, shorten development times and bring the fleet closer together in terms of starting performance.

This does not mean that the next Cup will be less technological. On the contrary, development will move into less visible but decisive areas: foils, flaps, rudders, control systems, electronics, hydraulics, sails and energy management. Hull modifications will be very limited, mainly allowing work required to integrate the new internal systems. The one-design foil arms will be reused, while teams will be able to work on foil wings, flaps and rudders within the limits set by the regulations.

The mast area will also remain tightly controlled. Teams that had already built two masts during the 37th America’s Cup will not be allowed to build new ones. The only exception concerns La Roche-Posay Racing Team, formerly Orient Express Racing, which built only one mast in Barcelona and will therefore be able to produce a second one within precise parameters. The rules also include mandatory modifications to legacy mast tubes, according to technical specifications defined by the class.

Richard Gladwell summed up the scale of the change well in Sail-World, writing that Naples 2027 will be “the first in the Cup’s 157-year racing history, where new hull designs are not permitted”, in other words “the first time in the Cup’s 157-year racing history that new hull designs are not allowed.” The novelty will therefore not come from the external shape of the boat, but from the optimisation of what sits above, below and inside the hull.

For the new teams, this opens up interesting scenarios. American Racing Challenger Team USA has acquired the AC75 Patriot and two AC40s from American Magic, which will form the basis of its campaign towards Naples. Team Australia, according to Yachting World, has instead acquired Te Rehutai, the AC75 with which Emirates Team New Zealand won the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland in 2021, and will work on major modifications to the bow, electronics, hydraulics, foils, rigging and sails.

Technology, then, is not disappearing: the playing field is changing. With the disappearance of the cyclors and the move to battery-powered systems, the weight of performance will shift even further towards skill, strategy, flight control and integration between crew and onboard systems. In this sense, the words of Dan Bernasconi, Chief Designer of Emirates Team New Zealand, remain central: “All of the gains were in foils and systems.” That is where much of the technical challenge towards Naples 2027 will be played out.

The specialist sailing press is reading Australia’s return as one of the strongest signals of the new cycle. Richard Gladwell, writing for Sail-World, had already anticipated that Australia would be among the Challengers for the 38th America’s Cup, linking the project to the return of a nation with a central place in Cup history.

Yachting World described it as a return awaited for more than 25 years, noting that rumours of a new Australian challenge had been circulating for months before the official confirmation. Other international publications also picked up the news, highlighting the significance of names such as Tom Slingsby, Glenn Ashby and Grant Simmer, and the connection with the legacy of Australia II in 1983.

Australia’s entry is not simply the addition of another team. It marks the return of a nation that changed the history of the Cup, ending the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year reign in 1983.