Australia has a seventh entry in the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup. The Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club’s challenge has been accepted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, making the Naples fleet the largest since the 2007 Valencia Cup.
Team Australia has assembled a notable group of names. Tom Slingsby, Olympic gold medallist and two-time World Sailor of the Year, is Head of Sailing. Glenn Ashby, three-time Cup winner and a confirmed inductee to the America’s Cup Hall of Fame later this year, is Head of Performance and Design. Grant Simmer, who was aboard Australia II when it ended the New York Yacht Club’s 132-year winning streak in 1983, is Chief Executive.
The campaign is backed by John Winning and family, who funded the Australian entries in the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024.
Simmer has been involved in every America’s Cup edition since the early 1980s, including Australia’s hosting of the event in Fremantle. He said the opportunity to bring Australian talent back together under one flag was what the campaign was built around.
Slingsby, a close friend of backer Herman Winning for more than 30 years, said representing Australia with an Australian team had been a career ambition. Ashby, who had spent the better part of his career without an Australian entry to join, said the campaign was only possible because of the Winning family’s willingness to back it.
Team Australia will take a seat on the America’s Cup Partnership board. Grant Dalton, ACP Chairman and Emirates Team New Zealand CEO, welcomed the entry and noted that antipodean sailing has a habit of producing the best in the Cup. He will expect them on the start line in Naples in the summer of 2027.
The 38th Cup brings two rule changes. AC75 crews must include at least one female sailor in each race for the first time in the event’s history. The switch to battery-powered systems places greater weight on skill, strategy and flight control, and is designed to strengthen the pathway between the Youth and Women’s programmes and the senior fleet.
Team Australia sailor Tash Bryant said both changes represented an important moment for visibility and opportunity in elite sailing.
Further details can be found here.
