The start shaped everything that followed. Emirates Team New Zealand went hard for the pin end, arriving just under half a second ahead of the gun. Skipper Nathan Outteridge attempted to scrub the excess speed at the last moment, the boat splashing down in a bid to bleed off the knots, but the effort fell short. Luna Rossa nailed their entry, locked in the lane they wanted from the opening seconds, and were never troubled from that point on.
"It was a little disappointing that start," Outteridge said afterwards. "We were in a really strong spot. Just charged for the pin end a bit early. Couldn't quite kill it at the end. It gave them a start, and then after that there weren't many opportunities."
Peter Burling and his crew of Ruggero Tita, Umberto Molineris and Vittorio Bissaro sailed with composed authority, keeping their manoeuvre count low and staying clean through every leg while building their margin steadily. ETNZ pressed hard on the final downwind run but could never close enough to mount a genuine challenge. Luna Rossa took the gun and the match race final was done.
Tita spoke plainly in the moments after the finish. "The whole team did an incredible job. We felt this morning something was clicking. We started pushing really hard from the start and everything came together."
For Burling, the victory completed a week that had required some resetting. Luna Rossa's principal team opened the regatta with a seventh on day one and worked through a series of errors across the first two days, even as the Women and Youth crew were already pressing hard through the broader fleet. Winning both races on the final day, capped by the match race result, brought the campaign to a strong close.
"Obviously the first race in the grey uniform, it was great," Burling said. "We gave ourselves a bit of work to do early in the week. We made a few mistakes. But to come out like we did today and really show what we've got, and win the first event for Luna Rossa, super pleasing. The way Marco and the Women and Youth team have been pushing us on and making our lives hard in training just managed to raise the level for everyone. Amazing day to wrap it up."
The result carried significance beyond any trophy. Luna Rossa team director Max Sirena rebuilt the programme around a combination of America's Cup experience and emerging Italian talent, and Sunday in Sardinia was the first public proof of that approach. Burling's arrival at the team, Tita's move from Olympic classes to the AC40, and the sustained pressure Marco Gradoni's Women and Youth crew applied through the fleet racing all came together on the final day.
AC38 MATCH RACE FINAL RESULT – paste into WordPress Classic Editor > Text tab
| Louis Vuitton PR1 Sardinia – Match Race Final | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Team | Result |
| 1st | Luna Rossa – Principal Team | Winner |
| 2nd | Emirates Team New Zealand | |
ETNZ will not linger on the defeat. They reached the final, performed solidly through the qualifying series, and Outteridge framed the week in its proper context. "The America's Cup is next year," he said. "We'll take a lot of learnings out of this. We didn't win the first event last campaign either. We came back much stronger. I'm sure we'll be a lot better for the next event."
Luna Rossa's Women and Youth team were on the dock to celebrate alongside the principal crew, though their own week finished on a sour note. Having dominated much of the fleet racing, Gradoni's squad struggled at the start gun in their final two races and missed out on the result their earlier form had warranted. The standard they set through the week raised the tone of the entire regatta and pushed the senior team to sharpen their own performance.
The next preliminary regatta follows later this year, with Naples 2027 the destination. On the strength of what Sardinia produced, Luna Rossa will arrive with plenty to say.
