A stiff sea breeze rolled into the Bay of Naples for the first day of official practice racing in the America's Cup, and Luna Rossa's Principal team seized it with both hands, winning all three races by margins as large as 500 metres.
Practice races are usually treated with wary respect by sailing teams, with plenty of skippers deliberately avoiding winning them so as not to tip their hand too early. Luna Rossa clearly didn't get that memo.
It was a masterclass of pace, precision and patience from the new-look Luna Rossa crew, led by Peter Burling in the starboard pod, alongside co-helm Marco Gradoni and trimmers Maria Giubilei and Gigi Ugolini. Their starts were conservative by their own high standards, but each time they found a gap, they wriggled through the fleet, seized the lead and streaked away.
Luna Rossa read the wind to perfection, predominantly playing the right-hand side of the course looking upwind, bouncing off the starboard boundary and picking off the wind bends at the top of the course. Conditions were southerly, shifting south-west as the afternoon wore on.
Nobody else in the AC40 fleet could match that level of control, though there were flashes of real pace elsewhere. The most striking performance came from ARC Team USA, who proved right on the mark after coming together in training out of Pensacola, Florida, and more recently in Naples. Harry Melges IV and Lucas Calabrese showed a smooth style through their tacks and gybes, even making a double gybe look easy at the leeward gate in race two, and finished second overall in practice racing that does not count towards the regatta.
It was a trickier day for Emirates Team New Zealand. Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies had some start-line gremlins that kept them fighting out of the pack, though a good race in the second flight of the day will give the team encouragement heading into a hard debrief.
The Kiwi crew very nearly pulled off the move of the day in race two, lining up a port tack start before wisely ducking out at the last moment.
Luna Rossa's second entry, the Women & Youth team skippered by Margherita Porro with Max Antoniazzi on co-helm, improved as the afternoon unfolded. They were regularly at the front of the fleet, pushing the Principal team hard, and by the third race they looked polished and composed, a coming force for the regatta ahead.
Challenger of Record GB1 were well in the hunt all afternoon and finished tied on points with the Luna Rossa Women & Youth crew, ruing some mis-steps that would have seen them finish higher. A fall off the foils, on what looked like a miscommunication, was the lowlight, but there were plenty of positives to take from the day.
Tomorrow brings three more races from 2pm CEST, with the forecast looking tricky. The Bay of Naples could well be at its trickiest, and in conditions like that, you can't win the regatta, but you can certainly lose it.
