The Bay of Naples produced some of the best fleet racing seen in the modern history of the America's Cup on day two of the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta. Four races were completed, and Sunday's finale is shaping up as a cracker.
A packed Race Village on the Lungomare Caracciolo watched a spectacle that eclipsed anything else in world sailing this year. Naples provided a stunning backdrop, and on the water it was fireworks from the fastest sailors alive, with near-misses, a capsize and thrilling close-quarters action.
Luna Rossa 1, the Principal Team led by skipper Peter Burling alongside co-helm Marco Gradoni, streaked into an early lead and never looked back. The overnight overall leaders punched speeds beyond 47 knots on the bear-away manoeuvres at the windward gate, in winds nearing the upper limit of 21 knots at times. It was a powerful opening performance from the Italian team, and shoreside the question on everyone's lips was simple: who can match them?
The answer arrived in races two, three and four. La Roche-Posay Racing Team, with Quentin Delapierre and Diego Botín on the helms, finally showed the turn of pace they'd been promising all week. Race 4 was electric, the French squeaking ahead of a tight pack at the first windward gate after a stellar start, then streaking away to lead around every mark. It was sensational sailing, and while the French took the win, a coming force also emerged that day: Emirates Team New Zealand.
Overnight the Kiwis were tied on points for second overall, and knew Saturday was the day to deliver. After an opening race to forget, Race 4 saw them fight through to second and lead a charge that cemented their place in the crucial top two. Eight races decide who reaches Sunday's winner-takes-all Match Race final, and a second place, just ahead of Tudor Team Alinghi, put Emirates Team New Zealand firmly on the charge.
Then came Race 5, and drama. It was so tight at the first windward gate that even seasoned observers struggled to pick the pecking order. La Roche-Posay Racing Team out-thought the fleet again, bearing away at the port marker gate with perfect positioning to leap into a lead as others fell off the foils, infringed in the boundary zone and came uncomfortably close to contact. No harm done, but penalties followed from Chief Umpire Richard Slater, and the pack was reshuffled.
Up front, the French had no such trouble. They picked their lanes, picked the pressure, and eased around the course, stretching their lead to 300 metres after two laps of the 1.4 nautical mile course. At the final windward gate they were ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand's Women & Youth team, led by Jake Pye with Erica Dawson on co-helm, and looked set for a second win of the day.
It wasn't to be. On the final gybe onto the layline, a pulse of the day's strongest wind hit down the right side of the course. La Roche-Posay rode impossibly high on the foils, ventilated, lurched into the wind and slow-capsized. The onboard audio caught the team's frustration, and there was nothing they could do as the fleet screamed past at speeds beyond 40 knots.
The Kiwis were the biggest beneficiaries. They kept calm, gybed inside the French, and aced the final layline for a popular win, a strong marker for what is shaping as two outstanding events in 2027: the Women's America's Cup and the Youth America's Cup. Onboard, the sailors were delighted.
Behind them, Luna Rossa 1 overtook Emirates Team New Zealand's Principal Team on the final downwind to score a vital second, further cementing their spot at the top of the standings after fighting hard through the mid-fleet.
Race 6, the last of the day, had everyone watching La Roche-Posay for signs the capsize had rattled them. It hadn't. After a brilliant start they worked the right side of the windward leg, called a perfect tack back across the fleet, and held a small lead at the windward mark. Emirates Team New Zealand gave chase, with GB1, the Challenger of Record, close behind.
What followed was a tussle of epic proportions between the French and the Kiwis, on a shifting, tactical racecourse as the breeze began to falter mid-course in the late afternoon. At times the lead looked to be swinging New Zealand's way, but a perfectly read final windward leg from Delapierre and Botín saw the French bear away at the final gate into an unassailable lead of over 250 metres. The Kiwis could do little but consolidate second, while all eyes turned to the tight pack behind, where Luna Rossa 1 emerged through smart boat positioning. The French took the win at a canter. Luna Rossa ends the day on top.
Peter Burling reflected on a day full of variables. "We're trying to learn and improve as much as we can. We definitely made some massive mistakes today, but I think the way we can just reset is great and try and get the next shift. All three of the races when we were behind, we got right to the front and then unfortunately in that second one we dropped right back again. But yeah, I think it just shows you that it's so shifty and dynamic out there that any of these boats can put together an amazing race and any of the boats can have big problems as well."
Margherita Porro, skipper of Luna Rossa 2 and hopeful of guiding her team to the Women's & Youth title in Naples, took the positives from a tough day. "For sure it was tight racing, especially at the top gate. We had some marginal situations. But yeah, we are a new team, and we struggled a little bit today. I think we were fast, but it's hard to take everything together to connect all the points. But we did some good starts. We were in the pack, so it's a good starting point."
Jake Pye, skipper alongside trimmer Serena Woodall of the crew that won the second race of the day, was pleased with how it came together. "So, it really was a really well-constructed race, I think, from us as a team. We've really been trying to put it together as best as we can, and we feel like it's taken us about as long as it has to figure out the racecourse, and it felt good to be able to put it all together... it really is, for us, just keeping it simple and making sure we can get the craft across the line. But throughout the race, as it opens up, you take the opportunities where they present themselves, and we did just that."
Serena Woodall added: "I think as a team, we know we've got the potential and it's just all about having a clear lane off the start, keeping it simple, and really knowing our roles. And in that race, we really put it all together, it was up-range, and we just had to keep it close because with the French, that race we were with them on that downwind. And then, yeah, a bit of fortune for us, I guess, when they capsized."
Diego Botín, co-helm on the standout team of the day, stayed upbeat. "I think we've had very good moments in the past few days as a team, and obviously today, but we haven't raced together a lot as a team and the more we race together, the more in line we are, the better decisions we take. And we managed to amplify those good moments today and together with good speed and good boat handling also. Shame about the capsize, it obviously wasn't ideal, but look, overall, we are very happy with the day and confident, which is important."
Jason Saunders, starboard trimmer for skipper Quentin Delapierre, called it one of the best days he's had racing. "These boats, in reasonably flat water and good breeze, are a force to sail and the fact that it was coming off the shore it was really shifty and so very tactical. It was important to be really proactive in getting on top of those shifts so yeah, when you're not trimming and you're on the leeward side, you have time to talk and to look around, and I think it's really important, that input, to help the guys that are trimming the boat at that period and make the right next decision. Like Diego said, we're just sailing more together now and we're trying to learn our roles and it's coming together much nicer, which is pleasing."
Ellie Aldridge, co-helm on GB1 alongside skipper Hannah Mills OBE, was honest about a frustrating day. "I think we felt like we were sailing really well at times. There's a lot of good points to take away from it, and a lot of good learnings, but just felt like we couldn't really bring it all together. Like, it felt like we should've been able to. But it was an amazing day of racing, really. Like super tight, loads of position changes, and it was all really down to the end of the race. You're still in it, even if you don't think you're in it. At the end of the day, it's really easy to be frustrated with days like today but actually we are still learning from this event. Like, yes, we want to do well but the end goal isn't this event, it's next year."
Dylan Fletcher, skipper of GB1, spoke more broadly about the regatta. "It was really tough, close racing. Obviously a number of key teams had some good wheels, unfortunately we weren't one of them. So we had a few issues as well with the board sucking down and stuff like that, which we'll have to look into, but I thought it was a fantastic day to showcase the AC40s."
The AC40s shone in perfect conditions on the Bay of Naples. As the sun set, the scorecard hinted at a rematch of the first Preliminary Regatta in Sardinia, where Luna Rossa's Principal Team and Emirates Team New Zealand fought out the overall crown.
It's on the cards. But in sailing, anything can happen, and this one could go down to the wire.
Two final races on Sunday will decide the top two boats for the Match Race final.
