Day one of the Louis Vuitton AC38 Preliminary Regatta in Sardinia produced three fleet races on the Bay of Angels in Cagliari, and one team made it theirs from the very first gun. By the time the fleet came off the water, the Luna Rossa Women and Youth crew had two wins, a second place, and a nine-point lead over a four-team logjam behind them.
Race 1: The Italians announce themselves
Before a race had been sailed, GB1 were already in trouble. Dylan Fletcher and Ben Cornish’s crew were forced to use their one permitted delay card after a technical issue emerged in the final minutes before the start. Tools, wrenches, and laptops came out, outside assistance was called in, and GB1 were out of the race before the gun fired.
That misfortune cleared the way for the story of the day to begin. Margherita Porro, Marco Gradoni, Maria Giubilei, and Giovanni Santi hit the line with pace and pulled clear immediately. Within moments they had 40 metres on the fleet in a 13 to 18 knot Sardinian sea breeze, and they never looked back. These are home waters for the team, which has been based in Cagliari for the better part of a decade. Three of the four sailors aboard were Barcelona Cup winners, and it showed. The final margin was not a surprise to anyone watching closely.
The senior Luna Rossa boat had a race to forget. A misjudged lay line at the top mark cost Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita two extra gybes and dropped them down the fleet, and they carried penalties on top of that. They finished seventh. La Roche-Posay Racing Team took second, Tudor Team Alinghi third, and Emirates Team New Zealand fourth.
Race 2: Outteridge takes control, then the conditions bite
The breeze built for Race 2, gusting past 21 knots with a short, steep chop on the Bay of Angels. GB1’s technical issue remained unresolved and they retired for the second time. Athena Pathway capsized on the final downwind run when a gust loaded the boat before the mainsail could be trimmed, ending their race at Gate 5.
Emirates Team New Zealand read a left shift in the dying seconds of the start, held their nerve, crossed the fleet on port tack, and hit the pin end clean. Nathan Outteridge, Seb Menzies, Andy Maloney, and Iain Jensen led every gate. But Luna Rossa gave them no peace, the Women and Youth crew pushing hard from the opening upwind while Burling and Tita split the course from the other side, hunting from both flanks. On the final run, a sharp mark rounding pushed Luna Rossa Women and Youth wide, and an untidy gybe from the Luna Rossa principal boat cost them ground at the critical moment. Outteridge got the gap he needed and held it to the finish.
La Roche-Posay had a punishing afternoon. A hard splashdown at speed sent the whole crew underwater, Diego Botín surfacing minus his goggles. They recovered and finished sixth. Tudor Team Alinghi collected two penalties and finished fifth, over three minutes back.
Race 3: A lead that vanished two jibes from home
Race 3 was a messy one from the gun. Multiple boats were over the start line early. Athena Pathway were caught worst, forced to sail all the way back and re-cross from scratch. La Roche-Posay and GB1 were also over, and the Luna Rossa principal boat crossed early and then collected a boat-on-boat penalty, leaving Burling and Tita with two punishments to clear before the race had properly begun.
GB1 made the most of their fresh start, settling after the start line drama and leading at the top gate for the first time in the regatta. ETNZ worked through and took the lead as the race moved into its final stages, building a gap that looked solid on a shortened course. Emirates Team New Zealand’s Women and Youth crew were sitting comfortably in fourth, their best result of the day taking shape.
Then, on the final downwind run with two gybes left to the finish, the ETNZ principal boat got it wrong. The bow drove under, the foils lost rhythm, and the boat went from over 40 knots to nothing. The rest of the fleet flew past. ETNZ crossed the line in eighth.
Luna Rossa’s Women and Youth crew picked up their second win of the day. Gradoni was gracious afterwards, telling media that New Zealand had deserved to win the race. GB1, remarkably, took second.
The story of Day 1
Three races in, the headline writes itself. Luna Rossa’s Women and Youth crew—Maria Giubilei, Marco Gradoni, Margherita Porro, and Giovanni Santi—are the team of the regatta so far. Fast when they need to be, clean when others are not, and consistent across conditions that caught out nearly every other boat at least once.
Behind them, four teams sit level on 20 points: Luna Rossa’s principal boat, Emirates Team NZ Women and Youth, Tudor Team Alinghi, and Emirates Team New Zealand. La Roche-Posay are a single point further back on 19. The racing resumes tomorrow with four more fleet races on the Bay of Angels.
Full race-by-race coverage: Race 1, Race 2, Race 3
| Standings After Race 3 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Team | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | Points |
| 1st | Luna Rossa – Women & Youth | 110 | 29 | 110 | — | — | — | — | — | 29 |
| 2nd | Luna Rossa | 74 | 38 | 38 | — | — | — | — | — | 20 |
| 3rd | Emirates Team NZ – Women & Youth | 56 | 47 | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | 20 |
| 4th | Tudor Team Alinghi | 38 | 56 | 56 | — | — | — | — | — | 20 |
| 5th | Emirates Team New Zealand | 47 | 110 | 83 | — | — | — | — | — | 20 |
| 6th | La Roche-Posay Racing Team | 29 | 65 | 65 | — | — | — | — | — | 19 |
| 7th | Athena Pathway – Women & Youth | 65 | DNS | 74 | — | — | — | — | — | 10 |
| 8th | GB1 | DNS | RET | 29 | — | — | — | — | — | 9 |
