It was a day that a Hollywood script writer would find hard to write, but for the hometown favourites Luna Rossa it was one of both high elation and brutal disappointment in front of their incredible fans that have made this first Preliminary Regatta on the ‘Road to Naples’ so memorable.
Sardinia, and the port city of Cagliari, have played such magnificent hosts to the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, and the final day of racing saw near-perfect conditions out on the Bay of Angels with 10-14 knots of readable breeze, a small wind chop and the brightest of blue skies above.
Going into today, all the talk dockside was about the remarkable form of Luna Rossa 1, the Women & Youth Team of Marco Gradoni and Margherita Porro. It seemed almost inevitable that they would at least seal a place in the Final after a stellar series, however the sporting Gods had very different ideas. Battling onboard technical issues with their time-on-distance displays, the Italian team were called over the line in the first race and, unable to expunge their penalty in time, were ultimately disqualified. They still led the overall standings going into the final race, but another OCS put paid to their charge.
It was left to the senior teams of both Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand to fight it out for the overall title, a tantalising prospect that pitted former team-mates Nathan Outteridge and Peter Burling against each other in the winner-takes-all battle for the magnificent trophy crafted by Sardinian sculptor, Roberto Ziranu.
A rare mistake from Nathan Outteridge with 52 seconds to go when in the command position on the lead-back to the starting line, gifted a clear start for Luna Rossa mid-line as Emirates Team New Zealand battled the clock on a time-on-distance run to the port (left) end of the line. As the starting clock ticked down, the Kiwi’s judgement was out by a fraction and they were called over the line early and required to drop 75 metres back behind the charging Luna Rossa who held all the aces over the next six legs. Try as they could, the Kiwis could never get fully back in contention as the Italians marked them out around the course in a display of supreme tactical acumen and ability. The finishing delta was 33 seconds and the momentum swing in this America’s Cup cycle went decisively the way of Luna Rossa.
Crossing the finishing line with Umberto Molineris’s fist in the air, all around the Bay of Angels, the on-water spectator fleet honked their horns in recognition of their hometown heroes, and the Celebration Moment was conducted onboard amidst sprays of champagne and the traditional ‘Winners’ banner being prominently displayed by the crew on deck.
Peter Burling, three-time Cup winner came ashore afterwards elated with the win in front of the cheering hometown support, saying: “I think all week we’ve felt like we’ve been sailing a lot better than the performances showed. Both days we just made a couple of little mistakes that kind of put us out of having the best day into kind of the second or third-best day. So, I’m just really proud of the way the group kept fighting for that performance and kept improving the way we were going about things, and we put together a really strong plan today and went out and executed it and I’m super-proud of the way we did that under quite a bit of pressure. We were gutted we couldn’t race our Youth and Women’s team in the final. They’ve been really setting the benchmark of what you can do with an AC40 this whole week but obviously had a tough day today but stoked to take a win for Luna Rossa in my first event.”
Max Sirena, CEO of Luna Rossa, reflected on what was an outstanding day for the team overall, despite the disappointment with the Women & Youth Team Saying: “When you get the chance to have two boats in the final, you want to take it, no? So it’s a little bit of a bittersweet victory, because we could have ended up with two boats in the Final. But this is sport, it’s part of the game. We’re going to review. For sure we did some mistakes, for sure we had a few issues with the technical software and the racing software, but that’s no excuse. But it’s good. It’s nice. Every time when you win, you should enjoy the victory, and everything is a lesson for the future.”
With crowds surrounding him, Sirena added: “I was saying to a few people when we were at the dock that I will never thank enough Cagliari, Sardinia, and all the fans for coming here for this weekend. I never saw so many people for a sailing event and so I’m super-thankful to the Cagliari people, and to the organisers, to the authorities, to the locals, to the volunteers – all of them. It’s great. I think it’s a big start. It’s a good start for this new cycle.”
Beaten finalist Nathan Outteridge was sanguine and ruing a day where they failed to cover the Luna Rossa move 52 seconds out from the starting gun and then were over the line early at the far end of the line: “We were about 0.8 of a second early for the pin in the end, unfortunately. But up until that, it was a pretty cool pre-start. There was a lot of manoeuvres being thrown at it, and we just needed to go with them (when they tacked off) – and that was the mistake we made. That’s the difference between thinking fleet racing for a whole week or two weeks and then you’re thrust into the match race. I’m sure if we were a little more polished on just focusing on the match racing events we would’ve known every time you go there. Because if we tacked there at that moment, they’re in a lot of pain, they’ve got a lot on. And so that’s why I’m kicking myself because I’ve done that move with Pete (Burling) several times and we let him off the hook in that one. But we’ll have plenty more times to go toe to toe.”
Marzio Perrelli, Chief Executive Officer of the America’s Cup Partnership reflected on what has been a spectacular regatta in Sardinia, saying: “Terrific regatta, terrific organisation. This is the start of a new journey that will take us from Cagliari down to Naples in September, and then in June of the next year. So, I think it’s a great start and the bar has been set pretty high, and I’m extremely confident that this Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup edition will be a great success.”
Down in the Race Village after an eventful and thrilling day, the Luna Rossa Women & Youth team of Margherita Porro, Maria Giubilei, Marco Gradoni and Giovanni Santi collected the Women & Youth trophy before an adoring and appreciative audience before the senior team came to the stage. The crew of Peter Burling, Ruggero Tita, Umberto Molineris and Vittorio Bissaro plus reserves Gigi Ugolini and Federico Colaninno welcomed coach Josh Junior and Team CEO Max Sirena to the stage. In a nice touch, the team also brought out shore team members plus the Women & Youth sailors behind their ‘Winners banner’ and lifted the magnificent trophy on behalf of whole Luna Rossa family.
Sardinia has played host to one of the highest quality regattas in terms of action on the water, whilst off the water the town has been alive to the America’s Cup with huge crowds every day enjoying both the Race Village and the FanZone Lazzaretto. Undoubtedly the regatta has set the bar high ahead of the second Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta planned for Naples on the 24-27th September 2026.
Be there.
QUOTES FROM THE TEAMS
Margherita Porro, Luna Rossa Women & Youth Helm
Well, in the first race, yes, we had some issues with our racing software. So well, it’s okay. It’s life. We thought we reset it. And in the second one, the goal was to be conservative at first, but then we have taken too many risks in the start. So that’s the biggest mistake that we have taken. I’m so sorry for the guys at home cheering for us. I’m really, really sorry. I cried already. But now I think we have to analyse our regatta. It’s a Preliminary Regatta. Of course, we wanted to win. I wanted it. But it’s sport. We will try to learn from this day.”
Marco Gradoni, Skipper, Luna Rossa Women & Youth
“We went out today to be in the final and to win the final. We knew that we could do this, and we got unlucky. I’m not going to go into the details, but this is a technology sport and if technology’s not going well, you have a huge handicap…I’m not a guy that talks about blaming these things, but I’m a professional and I know how to do my job. We are doing our races in millimetres, but that’s life. No problem.”
Dylan Fletcher, Skipper GB1
“I think that it’s been super challenging for the whole team. We’ve worked really hard. We’ve done three camps here before this event, done about 20 days sailing, and it really felt like we were very excited to see where we were in the lineup. Last time around, the team really struggled with the AC40 racing. And it was, I guess, felt like we were in a good place to deliver after the practice racing. So yeah, hugely challenging, but I think we take the positives. I remember at the start saying it was about looking at the big picture. We wanted to win, but there were a lot of underlying goals. And so for us, feeling like we were getting on top of the starts sort of felt like we were progressing through the fleet more than most. We had the boat speed and felt as though if we had been able to complete all the racing, the result could have been very different.”
Paul Goodison, Skipper Tudor Team Alinghi
“The first day, I think the team sailed really well. We’re on the back foot with older generation sails. We were missing four or five degrees of flap angle that first day, so we all knew we were in for a bit of a hiding if we weren’t careful. But we sailed the boat quite well and got round with a couple of slip-ups. But then yesterday, we had a shocker, and that was on all fronts, from stopping because the foils quite weren’t working properly after a big change overnight, and then to putting the thing on the bottom (grounding into sand) while we waited for the flyby. So, a lot of damage to the foils. And then not sailing very well. We didn’t put our best foot forward yesterday. But to come back today and do a much better job, obviously, we’re a bit down on speed, but we started very well. We executed our game plan, and we were a bit more competitive, especially in that last race. So going away, we’re frustrated, because we want to do much better than we are doing. We expect to do much better than we are, but a little bit of reality hits that we’ve not done very much time. We’ve got older generation foils, and the boat wasn’t working as well as we needed to. But as a team, we made good steps forward, and on the shore side, how we operate, on the sailing side, how we debrief and operate. So, looking forward, we’re frustrated, but we’re excited for the next one.”
Quentin Delapierre, Skipper La Roche-Posay Racing Team
“I think overall it’s super positive. Little bit of frustration from Friday and Saturday because we were, I think, able to do way better, but we had too many mistakes in terms of racing. But I think overall, we are quick, steady manoeuvres, and just need to put everything together in one day. This is what we did today. So yeah, it’s really nice for the team. It’s a huge step forward, and we’re looking forward for another one.”
