Sardinia delivered a stunning backdrop for the opening day of the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta, with champagne conditions of 16 to 21 knots putting the world's best sailors through their paces. Ashore, the Race Village along the port and the Via Roma teemed with spectators, and the energy overflowed into the FanZone Lazzaretto. For a nation welcoming the America's Cup to its own waters, the occasion carried genuine weight, and the AC40 fleet delivered racing that more than matched the moment.
Paul Goodison, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi and one of the most seasoned competitors across this entire America's Cup cycle, captured the mood precisely: "I think Cagliari is an awesome venue. You see today, that was some of the best racing I've done for a long, long time."
As the afternoon progressed, the wind strengthened and the bay threw up a lively chop that made every manoeuvre a serious test aboard boats regularly hitting speeds above 42 knots. No team was spared a moment of alarm. Capsizes, broaches and violent nosedives punctuated the session, yet when the racing was done, it was the home nation that had the Race Village buzzing.
The Luna Rossa Women and Youth Team seized command from the very first gun, carrying what had clearly been strong form from the Official Practice Racing straight into competition. Marco Gradoni, the reigning Youth America's Cup champion, skippered alongside co-helm Margherita Porro and Maria Giubilei, both current Women's America's Cup winners, with newcomer Giovanni Santi completing the crew. Luna Rossa 1 was the boat the rest of the fleet spent the day trying to chase down.
At the close of racing, the Women and Youth crew sat atop the overnight standings with two wins and a second place. Behind them, the senior Italian crew of Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita on co-helm occupied second, though the full picture is more nuanced than the leaderboard suggests. The Women and Youth team did not have things entirely their own way.
Emirates Team New Zealand arrived in Cagliari as defenders of the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup, keen to benchmark themselves against the assembled fleet. A difficult opening race, during which penalties accumulated, left them with a point to prove, and they set about proving it with real conviction.
Their second-race victory was built on sharp tactical decision-making, holding off both Luna Rossa crews under sustained pressure over the full course. Heading into the third race they built another promising lead. Nathan Outteridge and newly crowned 49er World Champion Seb Menzies were sailing at a high level until the final downwind leg, when a foil oscillation triggered a severe porpoising sequence that ended in a violent nosedive. Their race was over in an instant, and Luna Rossa Women and Youth came through to take the win. The standings could quite easily have looked very different by the end of the afternoon.
Outteridge gave an honest account of the day afterwards: "Our boat's going really well. We learned a lot in the practice racing in the last couple of days, and the guys are doing a great job to give us a boat that's going nice and fast. The middle race was probably the highlight of the day. It felt like we had a Luna Rossa boat everywhere I looked - on the left, on the right - but it was really fun racing those guys. And the last race it looked like we stepped out to a pretty nice lead, and you've got to start these boats hard, you've got to push them hard, but it feels like every time you go for a gybe, it's a bit of a roll of the dice in that sea state. The boats do a bit of bouncing and wobbling and unfortunately, we got a big bounce and then the rudder popped out - it was sort of all over from there."
Margherita Porro was generous in deflecting credit toward her crewmates: "The trimmers onboard are super good, and in a day like today with choppy conditions and strong wind, trimmers make the difference. We were super-fast, so big shout out to them. Today it was hard because at the end of the day, we just wanted to keep things simple, don't fall off the foils, and it wasn't easy at all, especially downwind."
Asked about what it means to lead the regatta overnight, Porro was reflective: "I think it's a good sign that Women & Youth are first at the moment. It's a huge sign for women, a huge sign for young people to keep pushing and believe in themselves."
Ruggero Tita, sharing the helm of Luna Rossa 2 with Peter Burling, was unsurprised to see his junior stablemates performing at such a level: "We knew that we were coming here with big expectation, and of course, we did our homework at home during this winter. The Women & Youth had a bit more sailing in the one design boat. We sailed the AC40 as well, but in manual configuration, so it was a bit different. But we are slowly getting into it and taking more and more confidence with the one design system."
Quentin Delapierre, skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team, was candid about where the challenge lay for his crew as conditions intensified: "I think, honestly, below 16 knots of true wind speed, we were super confident. First race we had a good comeback. We felt comfortable onboard and tactically we had a good communication, and we were probably on the momentum. When the wind increased, with the sea state, it was challenging for us...I don't think the boat is difficult. It's just managing and understanding the autopilot behaviour that is quite tricky - especially when you have sea state, the autopilot cannot anticipate what will come. So you have to tweak it and find good things to make sure that it will stay stable, especially during the gybes."
Dylan Fletcher outlined the mechanical troubles that plagued GB1 throughout the day: "In the warm-up to the first race, we sheared the traveller sheave in the port side. We got a repair, which we managed to do for the second race, but then that broke unfortunately, so finally third time's the charm. We got it fixed for that last race, and it was nice to get that race in. Felt like we were a bit green into it. Everyone else had warmed up. But I think we showed that we've got some of the pace out there."
Hannah Mills of Athena Pathway, whose crew endured a capsize in the second race, was straightforward about the scale of the day: "Definitely more wind than we've sailed in ever before and it was especially tough for our new people on board. It was a big day out for us and just lots to learn and take-away but you could see everyone struggling with the gybes and the roundups and yeah we learned that the boats like to bounce!"
Paul Goodison returned to the subject of Tudor Team Alinghi's afternoon, acknowledging the hurdles they had managed: "It was a great day to get out there and get into some real racing. We've had a few issues the last couple of days with the boat not working and a couple of other little gremlins the guys sorted out. But we found out this morning that we're missing some flap range on our foils, which was a bit daunting when you go out in that much breeze. But I think the team dealt with it really well."
From first start to final finish, the opening day of the first Preliminary Regatta on the road to Naples was a genuine spectacle. The forecast promises more of the same through the weekend, and the front-runners have already made themselves known. Whoever claims the match-race final on Sunday will have earned it.
Sardinia is putting on a spectacle. It's utterly amazing.
Race 1
GB1 invoked their permitted delay card before the first race, citing issues at the rear of the port pod, but could not be ready in time and were scored a DNS. Marco Gradoni chose the space option at the leeward end of the line on the lead-back, finding room to drive Luna Rossa 1 out to the left-hand boundary with the boat fully powered up. The slingshot start put the Italian Women and Youth team a couple of boatlengths clear, and when Gradoni handed the helm to Margherita Porro in the port pod she was able to cross both Emirates Team New Zealand and Tudor Team Alinghi to build an early advantage.
The Kiwi and Swiss crews battled for second until Emirates Team New Zealand were penalised on the tack back, the first of several in the opening legs, which effectively removed them from the fight for the top places. Luna Rossa Women and Youth stretched away, with Tudor Team Alinghi chasing and La Roche-Posay Racing Team, who had started on port and pushed to the right boundary, also in the mix.
The first run passed without incident, but the second windward leg saw Gradoni and Porro extend into a lead that was never threatened, the delta at the second windward mark approaching 30 seconds. Behind, Emirates Team New Zealand Women and Youth, Luna Rossa 2, La Roche-Posay Racing Team and Tudor Team Alinghi were locked in a hard fight for the remaining podium places. At the second leeward gate it appeared Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita were holding second, until a poor layline call forced a gybe-gybe around the mark that brought a heavy broach and dropped them off the foils.
That effectively ended Burling and Tita's race. Quentin Delapierre and Diego Botín steered around them into second, while Athena Pathway also struggled at the gate. A conservative final windward leg, the breeze nudging above 20 knots, let Gradoni and Porro sail clear, while Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies capitalised on a penalty against Tudor Team Alinghi to squeeze into third. Luna Rossa 1 pinched the ride-height low and powered past the final mark at above 40 knots, finishing 36 seconds clear.
First blood to Marco Gradoni and Margherita Porro, who continued their dominant form from Thursday's Practice Racing. They were almost untouchable throughout, recording an average VMG of 26.72 knots and completing fewer manoeuvres than any other crew in the fleet.
Race 2
Seb Menzies, fresh from winning the 49er World Championship, showed his composure from the gun as skipper Nathan Outteridge called for a port tack start. Outteridge, known within the circuit as the wind whisperer, had read a late shift, and Menzies executed the angle perfectly, crossing the fleet to put Emirates Team New Zealand out in front early. A repaired GB1 got away cleanly but had to retire shortly after the start, while Tudor Team Alinghi were burdened with multiple penalties and fell out of contention.
What followed quickly became a three-boat contest, Emirates Team New Zealand fighting to hold the lead against Luna Rossa 2 with Burling and Tita, and Luna Rossa Women and Youth pressing hard. Emirates Team New Zealand surrendered the lead only once, on the first downwind leg, before clawing it back with a gutsy one-board rounding of the first leeward mark while Gradoni and Porro chose the conservative option of going around with both boards down.
The Italians recovered, but their wider angle allowed Outteridge and Menzies to gain a windward position and tack off toward the middle of the course. Over the next four legs the racing was relentlessly close. The Kiwis covered when they could, accepted some tense side-by-side speed testing against both Italian boats, and made the right tactical calls when it mattered. The two Luna Rossa crews split the course upwind and downwind, trying everything to crack them, but by the final leg the fight for the lead had effectively become a fight for second.
In fleet racing, second place earns nine points, and famously in the America's Cup there is no second. Burling and Tita held the edge in that battle and split at the final windward gate, but Gradoni read the layline to the finish with precision and snatched second from them, extending Luna Rossa Women and Youth's lead at the top of the standings. Further back, Athena Pathway capsized and La Roche-Posay Racing Team endured a massive nosedive on the final downwind leg.
Race 3
After a DNS and a retirement in the first two races, GB1 returned for the third and made an immediate impression, launching off the middle of the line on starboard tack and leading the pack toward the left-hand boundary. Dylan Fletcher handed over to Ben Cornish on the first tack, and GB1 held the early lead, crossing the starboard-tack Luna Rossa Women and Youth and Emirates Team New Zealand, both of whom had started on port.
Rounding the first mark ahead, GB1 chose the right side of the run and arrived at the left-hand leeward gate just ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand, who took the right gate. A one-board rounding saw GB1 get high on the foils before crashing down and dropping a place to Luna Rossa Women and Youth. Emirates Team New Zealand, meanwhile, had a clear lane to take the lead and they seized it, recognising, as in the second race, that this was shaping into a two-boat contest between themselves and the relentless pairing of Gradoni and Porro.
The Kiwis held that advantage through superb fleet racing and tactical discipline over the next three legs, bearing away around the final windward gate with the win seemingly in hand. It was not to be. With the swell building and the breeze above 21 knots, Emirates Team New Zealand gybed on the left-hand boundary and on the exit began to porpoise high on the foils, triggering a heavy nosedive. The fleet sailed through.
Out on the right boundary, Luna Rossa Women and Youth executed a gybe without fault and crossed the finish line to collect their second win of the day, cementing a commanding lead in the overall standings. GB1 recovered to finish second, with Luna Rossa 2 taking the final podium place. The Emirates Team New Zealand Women and Youth crew, consistently in contention throughout the pack, rounded out the day with a fine fourth-place finish.
