Tudor Team Alinghi has named 11 sailors for its Women's and Youth America's Cup campaigns in Naples in 2027, pairing four veterans of the 2024 Barcelona campaign with seven fresh faces.
The squads got their first taste of the programme straight after the Preliminary Regatta in Naples, spending a week aboard the foiling AC40 to begin building towards next year's events.
The Women's America's Cup squad is Jessica Berthoud (SUI), Milly Boyle (GBR), Laurane Mettraux (SUI), Marie Mazuay (SUI) and Tine Rossel (SUI). Mettraux raced in the 2024 Women's America's Cup, while Mazuay competed in both the Women's and Youth events that year.
On the Youth side, Tudor Team Alinghi has selected Micha de Weck (SUI), Arnaud Grange (SUI), Joshua Richner (SUI), Nilo Schärer (SUI), Matthieu Sistek (SUI) and Nick Zeltner (SUI). Grange and Richner both sailed in the 2024 Youth America's Cup.
The returning sailors bring experience from the previous campaign. The newcomers, meanwhile, get to develop through the team's performance programme.
Nathalie Brugger, the team's Women & Youth programme leader, ran the Naples training camp. A thunderstorm wiped out one day, but the other four delivered what she called ideal learning conditions.
"It was a really successful week," says Brugger. "We had four days of proper sea breeze, with seven to twelve knots on flat water, perfect conditions for learning. By the end of the week, the sailors were driving together without any help from Jann Schüpbach and me, and the youth team even managed to sail the AC40 without a coach on board."
The AC40 is a 40-foot one-design foiling yacht crewed by four sailors, used for both the Women's and Youth America's Cups. That means the sailors are training on exactly the boat they will race in Naples.
For Joshua Richner, pulling on the Alinghi colours again means something beyond the result sheet.
"So many people know the story. I only have to say 'Alinghi', and everyone thinks of the two-time America's Cup winner. That motivates me and my generation enormously."
Laurane Mettraux, back for her second Alinghi campaign after Barcelona, is already thinking about what the team can become.
"There are a few things you want to achieve in life, and sailing with Alinghi is definitely one of them. I'm really looking forward to helping build a strong team, and it already feels great."
The Women's and Youth programmes sit at the heart of Tudor Team Alinghi's push to develop sailing talent and give the next generation genuine America's Cup level experience.
Simulator work will play a key role in the coming months. Further training camps are planned to settle crew combinations and lock in onboard roles before racing begins.
The next camp is pencilled in for March 2027, when the squads reconvene in Naples to resume preparations for the Women's and Youth America's Cups.
