Things are moving fast on the road to the 38th America’s Cup. Following a dominant showing in late May, the teams have shifted focus entirely to development, tech overhauls, and structural testing.
1. Luna Rossa Hits the Water: Setup and Testing
After high-intensity structural tests inside their secretive Molo Ichnusa base, Luna Rossa officially rolled out and splashed their re-commissioned AC75 (codenamed B3). The Italians are optimizing every inch of this boat under their 49-day sailing quota for the 2026 season.
The Hardware Setup
The focus of this block is pure data collection, calibration, and stress-testing legacy gear before introducing major 2026 design upgrades.
- The Rig & Mast Track: The team spent extensive time step-rigging, noting minor modifications to the main lock hooks and base mast track. They applied heavy hydraulic ram loads to simulate extreme forestay, mainsheet, and jib car tensions.
- LiDAR Integration: Recon teams spotted brand-new hull inserts on both the port and starboard sides. These are custom inlets for LiDAR poles, which the team spent hours aligning to precisely measure sail shape and draft in real-time.
- Foil and Rudder Tweaks: Luna Rossa is running a legacy rudder from their 2024 campaign, but the foil arms featured new paint jobs and shorter torpedoes. The team heavily monitored foil-cant arms and rudder pitch angles using a matrix of six wing-mounted cameras.
Testing on the Gulf of Angels
During their opening four-hour session, the team dealt with a fading sea breeze, forcing them into tow-testing at speeds up to 32 knots.
The crew lineup turned heads: Peter Burling (the high-profile Kiwi recruit) took the starboard helm pod, flanked by trimmer Vittorio Bissaro and youth prodigy Marco Gradoni in the 6th spot. On the port side, Olympic champion Ruggero Tita shared helming duties with Umberto Molineris and Maria Giubilei. They focused heavily on evaluating immersed wing amounts and rudder rakes across different cant angles.
2. Current Point Standings
| Position | Team | Total Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇮🇹 Luna Rossa 2: Principal Team (Match Race Winner) | 63 |
| 2 | 🇳🇿 Emirates Team New Zealand | 60 |
| 3 | 🇮🇹 Luna Rossa 1: Women & Youth Team | 59 |
| 4 | 🇫🇷 La Roche-Posay Racing Team | 55 |
| 5 | 🇳🇿 Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth | 50 |
| 6 | 🇨🇠Tudor Team Alinghi | 40 |
| 7 | 🇬🇧 Athena Pathway Women & Youth | 38 |
| 8 | 🇬🇧 GB1 | 27 |
Luna Rossa sits comfortably at the top of the standings after defeating Emirates Team New Zealand in a tense final match race. Meanwhile, their secondary “Luna Rossa 1” crew proved the terrifying depth of the Italian program by taking 3rd place overall and claiming the standalone Youth & Women’s trophy.
3. Athena Pathway: A Quick Catch-Up
It was a wild, mixed-bag week in Sardinia for Great Britain’s Athena Pathway, the team representing the UK in the Women’s and Youth categories. Led by double Olympic gold medalist Hannah Mills OBE alongside Paris 2024 kiteboarding gold medalist Ellie Aldridge MBE, the team arrived in Cagliari with high expectations.
“We are absolutely buzzing to get out there racing again… there will be no holding back on the start line.” — Hannah Mills, Athena Pathway Team Principal
The Rollercoaster in Sardinia
- Day 1 Heartbreak: Athena Pathway’s campaign got off to a brutal start during practice when the crew suffered a dramatic high-speed nosedive and capsize, resulting in minor gear and structural damage.
- The Bounce Back: Showing incredible resilience, the shore crew patched the AC40 up, and by Day 2, the team went out and secured an empathic race win in the fleet racing series, proving their raw speed when the boat is firing on all cylinders.
- Youth Development: The regatta served as a massive trial-by-fire for the team’s newly expanded youth roster. Newcomer Sam Webb (20) was integrated directly into the trimmer rotation alongside Matt Beck, logging invaluable racing hours against seasoned America’s Cup veterans.
While 7th place overall (38 points) wasn’t the final leaderboard result they wanted, the British squad proved they have the pacing to win races. They are now shifting focus to simulator development and domestic training camps as they build toward the second Preliminary Regatta in Naples.
