Groundbreaking at Emirates Team New Zealand's Bagnoli base has shifted the 2027 America's Cup campaign from blueprint to reality, with construction now under way on the team's operational home in Naples.
The site sits just under 10km from the city centre on a former industrial waterfront that has been undergoing significant reformation for the past year. When complete, it will house all seven team bases, a Women's and Youth America's Cup training facility, event infrastructure, and a large FanZone for thousands of fans.
First cab off the rank is the boatshed. The team is reconstructing the 1750sqm Mar-Key structure it used in Barcelona to house AC75 Taihoro, a building that includes a 593sqm mezzanine sail loft, a rig bay, and space for the containerised workshops travelling from New Zealand. It stands 15 metres high and measures 35 by 50 metres. Assembly and fit-out is expected to take around three months.
Base manager Andy Nottage has been on the ground in Naples for months working towards this point, and the toll of that is visible in how he talks about the milestone. A nine-campaign veteran, he knows better than most how much rides on what happens ashore.
"From my perspective we have to be working months in advance of where the team is and what they are working on," he said. "The start of construction of the base this week is really the first step to ensuring the base is completely operational for when the team and the AC75 arrive in Naples next year to start sailing in the critical final build up to the competition."
Getting there required navigating Italian regulatory and legislative processes, tight timeframes, and cross-agency coordination. Nottage was direct in his acknowledgements.
"A huge thank you to the Ministry of Sport, Sport e Salute / Invitalia for delivering a clean canvas on which we can now construct the building. Also to the Naples City Council, Mayor's Office, to America's Cup Event for their ongoing support throughout the journey, and also to Studio Cavuoto, Filippo and his team, for expertly guiding us through the Italian processes and protocols to reach this point. After many months of online meetings and planning, Mar-Key will now forge ahead with the assembly of the boat hangar."
He was equally pointed about what tends to get overlooked. "While most people focus on the race yacht itself, one of the most critical and often overlooked elements of a successful campaign is the foundation that supports the team. The team base is a vital piece of that puzzle."
The boatshed is phase one. Team offices and an administration building are scheduled to begin in September, with completion set for December, ready to accommodate the team's arrival in early 2027.
"The clock is always ticking in the America's Cup," Nottage said. "So it is all go here in Bagnoli for Emirates Team New Zealand."
