Maria Giubilei, Marco Gradoni, Margherita Porro, and Giovanni Santi—the Luna Rossa Women and Youth Crew—had no interest in playing supporting roles. Race 1 of the Sardinia Preliminary Regatta on the Bay of Angels in Cagliari was theirs from the gun to the finish, leaving the senior teams, including the defending champions, well behind on the scoreboard.
Given the new AC38 rule requiring at least one female sailor aboard every AC75 in Naples next year, the timing of that performance could hardly have been better chosen.
GB1 drama before the start
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. Five minutes on the dock wasn’t enough. Tools, wrenches, and laptops came out, the repair centred around the trimmer’s area behind the cockpit, but with outside assistance called in, GB1 were out of the race before the gun fired.
A hard way to begin for a team that had trained hard through the Sardinian winter and had looked quick in the build-up. Fletcher had come into this regatta with plenty to prove in his first event as GB1’s lead helm. Instead, the Challenger of Record sat on the water and watched.
A perfect start, a dominant win
With seven boats on the line, Luna Rossa’s Women and Youth crew—Giubilei, Gradoni, Porro, and Santi—timed their start better than anyone, hitting the line with pace and pulling clear immediately. Within moments they had 40 metres on the fleet and were still pushing.
The Bay of Angels served up a 13 to 18 knot Sardinian sea breeze with a lively chop building on the right side of the course. Luna Rossa’s young crew read it well, favouring the cleaner water on the left side of the upwind and managing every foiling transition with a calm that the occasion did not deserve. These are home waters. The team has been based in Cagliari for the better part of a decade, and it showed.
Three of the four sailors aboard were Barcelona Cup winners. Porro and Gradoni had taken the inaugural Youth America’s Cup and Women’s America’s Cup titles in 2024. Giubilei had since added the Nacra 17 World Championship. The results were not a surprise to anyone watching closely; the final margin was.
The senior teams struggle
Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita had a race to forget. A misjudged lay line at the top mark forced two extra gybes, killed their boat speed at the worst possible moment, and handed positions to the remainder of the fleet who had been behind them. Recovering from that kind of error at 40 knots on a tight, congested course is painful work. They got around, but the damage was already on the scoreboard.
Emirates Team New Zealand were worse off. Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies fought from behind all race and picked up two penalties along the way, the second for failing to clear the first within the required time. Fourth place, behind the French and the Swiss, was not what anyone in the Kiwi camp had pencilled in for race one of their four-peat campaign.
French and Swiss impress
Second and third were won by consistent, error-free sailing. La Roche-Posay Racing Team, with skipper Quentin Delapierre alongside Olympic 49er gold medallists Diego Botín and Florian Trittel, found real speed on the downwind legs and held on for second. A strong debut for a French squad that has put together one of the more exciting rosters in the fleet.
Tudor Team Alinghi took third. Paul Goodison and Kiwi match racing veteran Phil Robertson kept it clean throughout, and after a quiet build-up to the regatta, third place was a statement of intent from the Swiss.
The ETNZ Youth and Women’s crew of Erica Dawson, Jake Pye, Josh Armit, and Serena Woodall crossed in fifth. Athena Pathway, GB1’s youth and women’s entry with Hannah Mills and Olympic kite foiling gold medallist Ellie Aldridge at the helm, took sixth.
| Race 1 Results | ||
|---|---|---|
| POS. | Team | Points |
| 1st | Luna Rossa Youth and Women | 10 |
| 2nd | La Roche-Posay Racing Team | 9 |
| 3rd | Tudor Team Alinghi | 8 |
| 4th | Emirates Team New Zealand | 7 |
| 5th | Emirates Team New Zealand Youth and Women | 6 |
| 6th | Athena Pathway | 5 |
| 7th | Luna Rossa | 4 |
| DNF | GB1 | — |
With two more fleet races on the Bay of Angels today, Luna Rossa’s Women and Youth crew have the points lead and, right now, the momentum too.
