Luna Rossa claimed a famous home victory on the final day of the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta in Cagliari, yet the result arrived wrapped in equal measures of joy and pain for the Italian camp. No Hollywood scriptwriter could have conjured a more dramatic finish.
Sardinia provided a breathtaking stage for this opening event on the Road to Naples. Cagliari's Bay of Angels delivered near-perfect conditions on the closing day of competition: 10-14 knots of breeze, a light chop, and brilliant blue skies stretching across the water as the regatta built toward its climax.
Before a single boat had crossed the start line that morning, dockside conversation had focused almost entirely on one crew: Luna Rossa 1, the Women & Youth team skippered by Marco Gradoni and helmed by Margherita Porro. Their form through the series had been exceptional, and a place in the Final seemed a near certainty. Then sport had its say. Technical problems with their time-on-distance displays led to the crew being called over early in their first race, and they were unable to clear the penalty before it became a disqualification. Going into their final race they still led the overall standings, but a second OCS ended their campaign entirely.
That turn of events reduced the overall title fight to a two-boat showdown between the senior Luna Rossa crew and Emirates Team New Zealand, with former team-mates Nathan Outteridge and Peter Burling facing each other in a winner-takes-all contest for the magnificent trophy crafted by Sardinian sculptor Roberto Ziranu.
The race turned on a moment 52 seconds before the gun. Holding the controlling position on the lead-back to the line, Outteridge made an uncharacteristic error that handed Luna Rossa a clear lane from mid-line while the Kiwis fought the clock on a time-on-distance run to the port end. Emirates Team New Zealand crossed fractionally early and were required to drop back 75 metres, handing the Italians an advantage they never looked like surrendering. Over the following six legs Luna Rossa sailed with composed tactical discipline, neutralising every move the Kiwis attempted. They crossed the finish line 33 seconds ahead, and in that moment the momentum of this America's Cup cycle shifted decisively toward the Italian camp.
Umberto Molineris's fist punched skyward as the bow crossed the line. Out on the Bay of Angels, the spectator fleet erupted in a chorus of horns, champagne sprayed across the deck, and the crew hoisted their Winners' banner for the crowd.
Peter Burling, a three-time Cup winner, came ashore to the roar of the Cagliari faithful. "I think all week we've felt like we've been sailing a lot better than the performances showed," he said. "Both days we just made a couple of little mistakes that kind of put us out of having the best day into kind of the second or third-best day. So, I'm just really proud of the way the group kept fighting for that performance and kept improving the way we were going about things, and we put together a really strong plan today and went out and executed it and I'm super-proud of the way we did that under quite a bit of pressure. We were gutted we couldn't race our Youth and Women's team in the final. They've been really setting the benchmark of what you can do with an AC40 this whole week but obviously had a tough day today but stoked to take a win for Luna Rossa in my first event."
Luna Rossa CEO Max Sirena acknowledged the mixed emotions of a day in which triumph and disappointment ran side by side. "When you get the chance to have two boats in the final, you want to take it, no?" he said. "So it's a little bit of a bittersweet victory, because we could have ended up with two boats in the Final. But this is sport, it's part of the game. We're going to review. For sure we did some mistakes, for sure we had a few issues with the technical software and the racing software, but that's no excuse. But it's good. It's nice. Every time when you win, you should enjoy the victory, and everything is a lesson for the future."
With well-wishers pressing in from all sides, Sirena turned his thoughts to the city that had made the regatta so special. "I was saying to a few people when we were at the dock that I will never thank enough Cagliari, Sardinia, and all the fans for coming here for this weekend," he said. "I never saw so many people for a sailing event and so I'm super-thankful to the Cagliari people, and to the organisers, to the authorities, to the locals, to the volunteers - all of them. It's great. I think it's a big start. It's a good start for this new cycle."
Nathan Outteridge was candid about the decisive pre-start moment. "We were about 0.8 of a second early for the pin in the end, unfortunately," he said. "But up until that, it was a pretty cool pre-start. There was a lot of manoeuvres being thrown at it, and we just needed to go with them (when they tacked off) - and that was the mistake we made. That's the difference between thinking fleet racing for a whole week or two weeks and then you're thrust into the match race. I'm sure if we were a little more polished on just focusing on the match racing events we would've known every time you go there. Because if we tacked there at that moment, they're in a lot of pain, they've got a lot on. And so that's why I'm kicking myself because I've done that move with Pete (Burling) several times and we let him off the hook in that one. But we'll have plenty more times to go toe to toe."
America's Cup Partnership CEO Marzio Perrelli made no effort to hide his satisfaction with the week. "Terrific regatta, terrific organisation," he said. "This is the start of a new journey that will take us from Cagliari down to Naples in September, and then in June of the next year. So, I think it's a great start and the bar has been set pretty high, and I'm extremely confident that this Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup edition will be a great success."
The prize-giving in the Race Village brought both Luna Rossa crews together before a jubilant crowd. Margherita Porro, Maria Giubilei, Marco Gradoni and Giovanni Santi were first to the stage, collecting the Women & Youth trophy, before the senior crew followed. Peter Burling, Ruggero Tita, Umberto Molineris and Vittorio Bissaro, supported by reserves Gigi Ugolini and Federico Colaninno, were joined by coach Josh Junior and CEO Max Sirena. In a generous touch, the team brought out their shore crew members and the Women & Youth sailors to stand behind their Winners' banner as the magnificent trophy was lifted on behalf of the entire Luna Rossa family.
From the racing on the water to the packed Race Village and the FanZone Lazzaretto, Cagliari delivered an America's Cup atmosphere that will be difficult to match. The second Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta, scheduled for Naples from 24-27 September 2026, now has a formidable standard to live up to.
QUOTES FROM THE TEAMS
Margherita Porro, Luna Rossa Women & Youth Helm "Well, in the first race, yes, we had some issues with our racing software. So well, it's okay. It's life. We thought we reset it. And in the second one, the goal was to be conservative at first, but then we have taken too many risks in the start. So that's the biggest mistake that we have taken. I'm so sorry for the guys at home cheering for us. I'm really, really sorry. I cried already. But now I think we have to analyse our regatta. It's a Preliminary Regatta. Of course, we wanted to win. I wanted it. But it's sport. We will try to learn from this day."
Marco Gradoni, Skipper, Luna Rossa Women & Youth "We went out today to be in the final and to win the final. We knew that we could do this, and we got unlucky. I'm not going to go into the details, but this is a technology sport and if technology's not going well, you have a huge handicap...I'm not a guy that talks about blaming these things, but I'm a professional and I know how to do my job. We are doing our races in millimetres, but that's life. No problem."
Dylan Fletcher, Skipper GB1 "I think that it's been super challenging for the whole team. We've worked really hard. We've done three camps here before this event, done about 20 days sailing, and it really felt like we were very excited to see where we were in the lineup. Last time around, the team really struggled with the AC40 racing. And it was, I guess, felt like we were in a good place to deliver after the practice racing. So yeah, hugely challenging, but I think we take the positives. I remember at the start saying it was about looking at the big picture. We wanted to win, but there were a lot of underlying goals. And so for us, feeling like we were getting on top of the starts sort of felt like we were progressing through the fleet more than most. We had the boat speed and felt as though if we had been able to complete all the racing, the result could have been very different."
Paul Goodison, Skipper Tudor Team Alinghi "The first day, I think the team sailed really well. We're on the back foot with older generation sails. We were missing four or five degrees of flap angle that first day, so we all knew we were in for a bit of a hiding if we weren't careful. But we sailed the boat quite well and got round with a couple of slip-ups. But then yesterday, we had a shocker, and that was on all fronts, from stopping because the foils quite weren't working properly after a big change overnight, and then to putting the thing on the bottom (grounding into sand) while we waited for the flyby. So, a lot of damage to the foils. And then not sailing very well. We didn't put our best foot forward yesterday. But to come back today and do a much better job, obviously, we're a bit down on speed, but we started very well. We executed our game plan, and we were a bit more competitive, especially in that last race. So going away, we're frustrated, because we want to do much better than we are doing. We expect to do much better than we are, but a little bit of reality hits that we've not done very much time. We've got older generation foils, and the boat wasn't working as well as we needed to. But as a team, we made good steps forward, and on the shore side, how we operate, on the sailing side, how we debrief and operate. So, looking forward, we're frustrated, but we're excited for the next one."
Quentin Delapierre, Skipper La Roche-Posay Racing Team "I think overall it's super positive. Little bit of frustration from Friday and Saturday because we were, I think, able to do way better, but we had too many mistakes in terms of racing. But I think overall, we are quick, steady manoeuvres, and just need to put everything together in one day. This is what we did today. So yeah, it's really nice for the team. It's a huge step forward, and we're looking forward for another one."
