In short, Luna Rossa were sublime on the final day of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta, Naples. On a day where the Bay of Naples served up 11-14 knot breezes that oscillated, built, faded and built again, it was the Italian challenger who simply showed no weaknesses, winning the final two fleet races and then totally dominating the Match Race final against Emirates Team New Zealand.
It was a statement win that sent the tens of thousands of fans who lined the Race Village, and the thousands of vessels on the racecourse, into raptures.
Cheers rang out across Naples as Peter Burling and Marco Gradoni, with Maria Giubilei and Gianluigi Ugolini brought their AC40 home having never been headed once at any marker buoy across all three races and delivered a masterclass match-racing performance right when it mattered.
The opening of the two fleet races saw Luna Rossa stretch into an impressive lead of several hundred metres in double-quick time from where they could control everything, but the end of the day was decided early with Emirates Team New Zealand battling hard against La Roche-Posay Racing Team to secure a second and their place in the match-race final.
The French team, who impressed mightily on Saturday with pace and tactical nous, were again on the pace and it was hard work for the Kiwis over all five legs to keep them behind. Eventually on the final windward leg, Emirates Team New Zealand got some tactical leverage and gapped away, but the Luna Rossa team were off in the distance and took the win.
Come the second race, there was little for the Luna Rossa or Emirates Team New Zealand principal teams to gain, but Burling and Gradoni wanted total dominance and lead off the starting line to the right-hand boundary and never looked back. Once again, the Italians built a massive lead, but the real battle behind was for the final podium place and a fascinating tussle for the Women & Youth title.
After Tudor Team Alinghi, the team that sat in third place overnight, faded after the first windward leg, La Roche-Posay Racing Team capitalised, showing boatspeed, power and great communication to keep the Luna Rossa team honest. However, there was little they could do to close the gap and the French and Italians streaked away from the pack with Luna Rossa taking their second win and La Roche-Posay Racing Team whooping across the line as they took third place on the podium.
Back in the fleet though it was nip and tuck between Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth and Luna Rossa 2. Jake Pye, skipper of the Kiwi team alongside Erica Dawson on co-helm, kept a tight watching brief on Margherita Porro and Max Antoniazzi in the Italian boat and as the race unfolded, the two were neck and neck down the final leg to the finish with the Kiwis just ahead. No mistakes from Emirates Team New Zealand, they flew across the finish line, gybing right on the line and took the title – a sure-fire marker for next year’s Women’s and Youth America’s Cup competitions.
All eyes were immediately on the final between the two powerhouse competitors who dominated this Preliminary Regatta. Luna Rossa elected to come in from the port (left) side of the line, leaving ETNZ to bear-away on starboard gybe in from the right-hand marker buoy, 10 seconds later. The initial exchanges saw ETNZ dictating the battle, attempting to get on the stern of the Italian boat and the action continued high above the line on the right side of the course. On the lead back into the starting line, ETNZ sat to leeward seeking a hook that looked promising but didn’t stick. The only option for the Kiwis, led by Nathan Outteridge and with Seb Menzies on co-helm was to tack away to the starboard end of the line whilst Luna Rossa crossed at full pace and seized the initiative.
It was a crucial moment of the race as Luna Rossa covered the ETNZ tack out to the right boundary and could then ‘cover’ aggressively – sitting on ETNZ’s wind and forcing them into the vortex zone of ‘dirty air.’ Try as they might, ETNZ couldn’t shake the cover, and it was textbook sailing from Burling and Gradoni who were in no mood to offer up a passing lane. Over the next five legs it was a similar story. The Kiwis threw everything they could, splitting tactics at the gates but finding a dogged Italian team sitting on their wind and covering every manoeuvre.
By the final upwind leg, Luna Rossa was over 200 metres in the lead and sat in complete control. Their boat-handling was on-point, their tactics were supreme and as Marco Gradoni took the wheel for the final bear-away at the top gate, the result was inevitable. Gybe-covering Emirates Team New Zealand down the final leg, Luna Rossa was some 350 metres up and flying. Fans held their breath in the Race Village but really didn’t need to as this outstanding team who put a real stamp of authority on the day, kept it calm, gybed and sailed the perfect layline in pressure to take the winning gun and the overall Preliminary Regatta. Powerful sailing from a team at the very top of their game in the America’s Cup.
Marco Gradoni, the mercurial co-helm alongside skipper Peter Burling, came ashore enthused by the performance that the whole team displayed in Naples, saying: “Today was a big day for our team, and I think we managed to finish the job that we started since the practice racing, and many months ago when we started this journey with Pete, Maria, and Gigi. I think we showed to the world that at this event, we were the best by far, and I’m super happy with the result. Today was sea breeze conditions, and it’s the day that you can control more compared to the northeast breeze. In the final we did the perfect start, we did the perfect race, and we won.”
And Marco reflected on bouncing back from a cruel last day in Sardinia at the first Preliminary Regatta in May 2026, saying: “It’s a big emotion to me because me and Maria suffered a lot some months ago, and it’s really nice to see all the supporters there at the main stage cheering us, and I think they will cheer us a lot next year. It’s nice… I think Luna Rossa has a big chance to win the America’s Cup.”
Nathan Outteridge naturally was disappointed to lose the final and dissected the start that ended up being so costly, saying: “I think you always feel disappointed when you come up a little bit short, and we had that feeling at the last event. In this event, we really were a lot better prepared for it in terms of the match racing side of things and probably compromised a little bit of our fleet racing performance to focus on the match racing. So, you sit here and reflect on the match race. We actually were pretty happy with how our final position was going into the start, we really wanted to go to the right as we thought the right was going to be quite strong, and we needed to tack earlier. That was the reality of it. We were pushing them into the pin; we were both early and just the little execution of the exact moment we needed to lead the turn-up tack and take the right. We were trying to stay unlocked. So ,we were trying not to get overlapped above and below. But Pete (Burling) and the Luna Rossa guys did a good job of dragging the game quite low. And when you drag it low, time disappears quite quickly, and by the time we tacked, we were late for the boat. So, those guys are really good in the AC40s. We’ve seen that this event, the last event, the amount of two-boating they get to do. And we probably suffered just a little bit from just not executing the details well enough to beat them this week.”
Jake Pye, winning skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth was clearly pleased with how his team approached the regatta, but clear on where improvements can be made ahead of the Youth America’s Cup next year, saying: I really had no idea what the points were until that last race. I’m happy with the result, but definitely we had a few hiccups. If we take the good times that we had and the ones we managed to put together, I think if we could have kept it simple and averaged it out, we could’ve done quite well. But that aside, we played it pretty cool, and it was all in, to the end. So definitely, I am looking to the future for the Youth America’s Cup, but also, I’m going to be there to try and play my part and push these guys (the senior team) as hard as I can into the America’s Cup.”
Quentin Delapierre, skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team who, to many, showed some of the greatest racecraft and speed, was pleased with the team’s performance, saying: “I think overall it’s really nice for the whole team. Not only the sailors, but also the large racing team, the whole structure. We’ve been thinking a lot about how we want to work as a team, and I think we showed that this week, we can be super accurate and powerful. So yeah, I’m super happy. A little bit 50/50 on the result, because I think we show some really nice strengths through the weekend, but unfortunately, we did not achieve consistent boat handling, with those two capsizes. I’m not sure we could do anything on the second one, but obviously we did capsize, so we need to figure out how it happened… but we have a vision, and we want to put it together. The structure, I truly believe is very good, but as with everything and with every challenge, you need to make sure that you stick to the plan, and that’s our challenge.”
Lucas Calabrese, co-helm on ARC Team USA reflected on a stellar regatta for the American team who impressed everyone in Naples, saying: “It kind of felt like a rollercoaster to me. We were a little bit inconsistent, and a lot of it was self-inflicted, which is a good thing because that means if we clean up a few things, we can be up there with the top teams. So overall, super positive. I think we ignited the spark now in the team. Everybody’s excited, and there’s so much work ahead that’s important. I think my favourite part of the regatta was our toughest part, which was after the first race today. We shook that off really well, and to me, that was the highlight of the event. And like I always stated, we all get along really well, not only the four that are on board, but also all the rest of the sailors. We have a good relationship, and it shows that in the tough moments, you can recover. We were just happy racing together. We’re all going to miss racing these boats. They’re so much fun. By far is the most fun thing I’ve ever raced. It was amazing.”
Paul Goodison, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi was frustrated but very much looking to the future, saying: “I’m sitting here now really frustrated. We were one gybe away from a good result. Like you saw, we were second round the top in that last race; and we did a bad gybe and flopped into touchdown and then kind of got sucked back into the back and that cost a lot. Without that gybe, I think we’d be sat here quite cheery and happy, but now obviously I’m pretty hacked off. I wanted to do better than we have done. But looking on the other side, it was actually a lot of positives this week. I think we raced quite well in the upper range yesterday, which was a really good step forward from where we’ve been. But from here we’ve got to learn from the mistakes. We don’t have many opportunities to go racing and to clean up some of the mistakes we’ve made. There was quite a few errors this week, simple own goals that we need to clean up, but being realistic, we haven’t sailed together very much, so with that in mind, we’ve got to move forward and understand that every second we have on the water, is super important.”
For GB1 and GB2 it was a tough regatta and they move on, very much looking to future. Dylan Fletcher, skipper of GB1, was resigned to the results but full focussed on the pathway ahead, saying: I” think that the focus of the campaign has been on the big boat, and so between the last event and this event, we’ve been sailing the boat in a different format when we were sailing it, and so yeah, we didn’t switch back into the one design mode until just basically when we arrived here. We knew we were on a back foot, but the goal is to win the America’s Cup next year. There’s a big push at the moment to get our AC75 out on the water and ultimately, that’s what we need the time in. I think this event showed that…so our focus is on getting the big boat on the water and getting the days under our belt.”
With the sun dipping down over the city, the Preliminary Regatta came to a fitting conclusion with the Luna Rossa team treated to almost rock-star status as they made their way to the main stage in the Race Village to collect their trophy in front of the adoring local crowd. It was a fitting end to a memorable regatta that perfectly showcased the city of Naples and its wonderful people, architecture and culture to the broadest international audience.
The Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup is a few short months away. Naples is perfection in every sense. It promises to be unforgettable.
Naples. Be there.
