Sailing-Italy shows America's Cup intent with preliminary regatta victory

Italy clinched victory in the first America's Cup preliminary regatta on Sunday, beating defenders New Zealand in a demonstration of speed and resilience on home waters. After eight fleet races between ‌eight boats over three days, Luna Rossa's principal crew came out top of the leaderboard, just three points ahead of New Zealand in second, to set up a head-to-head final between the long-time rivals.

The winning Italian crew was co-helmed by Ruggero Tita and Pete Burling, who jumped ship from ‌New Zealand to Luna Rossa after lifting the America's Cup for a third time with the Kiwis in Barcelona in 2024. Sunday's final "match ‌race" began badly for the New Zealand crew, co-helmed by Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies, who were penalised for being fractionally over the line at the start.

ONE-SIDED CONTEST A one-sided contest ensued, with Italy making the most of champagne sailing conditions with flat seas and a consistent breeze to control the race, sailing almost flawlessly and not ⁠giving the ​New Zealand yacht any opportunity to pass.

The ⁠preliminary regatta in Cagliari, Sardinia, was the first in a series of warm-up events ahead of the 38th America's Cup itself which will be contested in Naples, Italy, ⁠next year. Teams from New Zealand, Italy, Britain, France and Switzerland all entered crews in the event, with late America's Cup entrants Australia and the United States ​sitting it out.

Crews included the women's and youth teams in a single event for the first time, pitting sailors from the ⁠same teams against each other as they put their skills to the test in four-person AC40s, smaller versions of the AC75 foiling monohulls in which the America's Cup itself ⁠will ​be contested in 2027. The British principal team's hopes of making a mark in the Mediterranean were dashed by technical problems on the first two days of the regatta, although a first and a third position on the final day were a welcome consolation prize.

Italy's women and ⁠youth crew, who had set the early pace in the regatta, ended up third overall on the weekend leaderboard only one point behind ⁠New Zealand, showing the depth of ⁠the home team's squad and their potential for the women's and youth events which will also be held in the summer of next year. France ended up fourth, New Zealand's women and youth team in ‌fifth and Switzerland sixth ‌overall, with the two British crews filling the final two positions.

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