Peter Burling finished the opening day of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta where he spent practice day, in front. His Luna Rossa crew took a second and a win from the two races the Bay of Naples allowed on Friday. They lead by five points from Emirates Team New Zealand and American Racing Challenger Team USA.
It took most of the afternoon to get that far. The 2pm start came and went with the breeze hovering around the AC40’s 7.5 knot minimum, filling in and fading again. At Thursday’s press conference, GB1 trimmer Andrea Tesei had described what the fleet could expect. The sea breeze starts in the south-west and swings west as it comes off the Posillipo hillside, arriving shifty and gusty. It is nothing like the steady breeze they raced in off Cagliari in May.
The first go at Race 1 found around 8 to 9 knots at the top of the course and 5 at the bottom. La Roche-Posay Racing Team led until it came off the foils near the top gate. GB1 kept flying through the gate and took over, but downwind even the British couldn’t keep moving, and the race committee called it off.
The second attempt hurt more from a New Zealand point of view. Emirates Team New Zealand’s two boats were first and second approaching the top gate when Nathan Outteridge’s principal crew fell off its foils in a tack. Soon after, the breeze faded across the whole course and the race was abandoned again.
Team USA gets away at the third try
By the third start the wind had swung well to the right. All nine boats came into the line on starboard, foiling at around 30 knots. GB1 was over early and penalised. Team USA found a clear lane, led at the first gate and was never caught.
Harry Melges IV steered the winning boat from the starboard pod on a broken foot. He broke it stepping onto a support RIB in Naples the week before. On Thursday he told reporters that “all you need is your head and your hands to sail this boat”. The shore team had also fixed a breakdown that morning just to get the boat on the water.
Melges and co-helm Lucas Calabrese beat Luna Rossa 1 by 18 seconds, with Hannah Mills and Ellie Aldridge third on GB2. “We’re stoked,” Melges said afterwards. It was the Americans’ first scoring race at a preliminary regatta this cycle. Anyone who watched them finish second overall in Thursday’s practice races wasn’t surprised.
Outteridge and Seb Menzies were in touch early but slipped to fifth. The New Zealand Women and Youth crew finished seventh.
Capsize on the line
Race 2 was only seconds old when La Roche-Posay went over. The French boat was early at the gun and bore away hard to go back and restart. Mid-turn the rudder came clear of the water, and with no steering the crew could only watch the boat roll. They got it upright, but the results show a DNS and no points.
The team’s AC75 had a smoother arrival. It came into the new Bagnoli base by barge on Thursday morning after a two-week trip from Lorient, making the French the first team to get their AC75 to Naples. The AC40 programme was always going to be rustier. Co-helm Diego Botín had admitted the crew hadn’t sailed the boat since Cagliari.
Burling covers the Swiss
Tudor Team Alinghi, with Kiwi Phil Robertson on port helm, hooked into a shift on the first beat and led briefly. Burling and Marco Gradoni were ahead by the first gate. From there they sat on the Swiss, matching every move, and won by 21 seconds.
Second was a big result for Alinghi after last place in Race 1. Skipper Paul Goodison had said the team arrived underprepared in Sardinia and that the boat was getting quicker and more reliable by the day. The Swiss had also helped a rival earlier in the week, lending GB1 their spare foil arm after the British boat collided with the Alinghi chase boat in training.
Further back, the two New Zealand boats had their own race. Jake Pye and Erica Dawson’s Women and Youth crew held third for most of the course. On the final run Outteridge’s crew found an extra gear and came past just short of the line, beating their teammates by a second.
Team USA went the other way, dropping to seventh. After practice, Mills had said the top mark here is “so tight” that one bad tack can drop a boat to the back of the fleet. Several crews found that out on Friday.
How the scoring works
Race winners take 10 points, with one point less for each place down to 2 for ninth. A DNS scores zero, which is why the capsize cost the French so dearly. Eight fleet races decide the two boats that meet in Sunday’s one-race final, winner takes all.
None of it carries over to the 2027 America’s Cup. What the teams get is racing time on next year’s water and a proper look at each other. The five-minute delay card is also gone from the fleet racing, and teams can now only use it before the final.
Standings after Day 1
| Pos | Team | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luna Rossa | 19 |
| 2 | Emirates Team New Zealand | 14 |
| 3 | American Racing Challenger Team USA | 14 |
| 4 | Luna Rossa 2 Women and Youth | 13 |
| 5 | Cobham-Ultra GB2 | 13 |
| 6 | Tudor Team Alinghi | 11 |
| 7 | Emirates Team New Zealand Women and Youth | 11 |
| 8 | GB1 | 6 |
| 9 | La Roche-Posay Racing Team | 5 |
Saturday
Friday was scheduled for three races and managed two, so four are planned for Saturday to keep the regatta on its eight-race schedule. That makes for another very late night for anyone watching from New Zealand. If you’d rather sleep, Boating NZ will have the full report on each day’s racing the following morning.
The city forecast is sunny and 26°C, with the marine outlook again pointing to light air. Sunday carries the last two fleet races and the final.
