Patrizio Bertelli's reigning 12 Metre world champion is racing in Italy this week, and he's steering it himself, while he backs Luna Rossa's push for Naples 2027 with Peter Burling now part of the campaign.
Seven 12 Metre yachts are lining up at Imperia Sailing Week 2026 this week, and one of them will be steered by a man who is also spending big on the next America's Cup. Patrizio Bertelli, chairman of Prada Group, owns Kookaburra II, the reigning 12 Metre world champion, and at Imperia he is taking the helm himself, with Tommaso Chieffi alongside him in the cockpit. He also founded Luna Rossa, Italy's team for the 38th America's Cup off Naples in 2027.
The billionaire in the fleet
Despite the name, a 12 Metre isn't 12 metres long. The class rating comes from a design formula, not a length, and Fremantle-generation boats like Kookaburra II run closer to 20 metres overall. She was built in 1985 at Perth's Parry Shipyard for Australia's defender trials, the brutal internal shootout that decided who would sail against Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes 87. She finished third, behind Kookaburra III and Australia IV, and didn't make the cut. Kookaburra III went on to win that shootout and then lost the Cup itself 4 to 0. Kookaburra II never got her shot at the big stage in 1987.
In 2026, she's rumoured to be the boat to beat. Skippered by Torben Grael (whose daughter is SailGP's Martine Grael, a celebrated Brazilian professional sailor and double Olympic gold medalist and now the first female driver in SailGP history, taking the helm for the Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team), she won the Grand Prix division of the 2024 12 Metre World Championship at Porquerolles, taking all six races. Bertelli founded the team that became Luna Rossa back in 1997. Six America's Cup campaigns later, including another Louis Vuitton Cup final defeat in 2024, he still hasn't won it. Naples 2027 is his seventh crack at the Cup, in a modern AC75 foiler nothing like a 12 Metre.
Burling crosses into the Italian camp
Peter Burling, winner of three consecutive America's Cups with Emirates Team New Zealand, parted company with the team in April 2025 and signed with Luna Rossa that June, joining its sailing performance and technical development effort for 2027. Burling is now part of a campaign backed by the man who has spent nearly three decades trying to beat New Zealand at its own game.
Same length, different planet
A 12 Metre and a modern AC75 foiler are, on paper, close to the same size. Kookaburra II runs close to 20 metres overall. The AC75 measures 22.86 metres, exactly 75 feet. Almost the same length. Separated by nearly four decades of yacht design and an extraordinary difference in speed.
| Kookaburra II (1985) | AC75 (2027 fleet) | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1986/87 Cup generation | 2021 onward |
| Type | Displacement monohull | Foiling monohull |
| Length overall | Around 20m | 22.86m |
| Foils | None | Twin canting T-foils |
| Recorded racing peak | Not directly comparable | 55.5 knots (Britannia, 2024 Louis Vuitton Cup Final) |
Fremantle's old rivals meet again
Kookaburra II is not racing alone. The Imperia fleet includes Kookaburra III, the actual 1987 defender, KZ5, another 1986-87 New Zealand-built 12 Metre now racing for an Italian club, French Kiss, beaten 4 to 0 by New Zealand in that year's Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals, South Australia from the same Australian trials, France, and Kiwi Magic, KZ7, New Zealand's 1987 challenger finalist. Three further yachts, Emilia, Vanity and Thea, will be moored at Imperia on display rather than racing. Four decades on, several of Fremantle's best known boats are back on the same start line, this time in the Mediterranean rather than the Indian Ocean.
The 12 Metre World Championship runs from 28 August to 1 September, opening Imperia Sailing Week, which continues through to 6 September as the event marks its 40th anniversary.
