Peter Burling lines up against the team he built. Ben Ainslie chases the trophy that has eluded Britain for 175 years. France returns to the America’s Cup after 13 years of absence. The 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Cagliari is where these collisions begin, four days of AC40 foiling in the Gulf of Angels that will reveal who is fast, who is fragile, and who might just win the oldest trophy in international sport.
The America’s Cup has always been about drama as much as sailing. The 1983 upset that broke the longest winning streak in sport (132 years of American dominance). The 2013 comeback where Oracle overcame an 8-1 deficit to win 9-8 in San Francisco. The 2024 final where Team New Zealand swept INEOS Britannia 7-2 in Barcelona. The 38th edition brings its own earthquake: the defending champion’s helmsman, Peter Burling, has switched sides to Luna Rossa, and the entire balance of power has shifted with him.
The AC40 is a 40-foot foiling monohull, a scaled-down version of the AC75 that will decide the Cup in Naples in July 2027. It foils. It is fast. And in the tight racing of a preliminary regatta, it reveals which teams have their foiling dialed and which are still searching. The data gathered over these four days in Cagliari will drive AC75 design decisions in the final months before the main event.
Racing starts at 13:00 CEST (UTC+2) each day. London viewers see 12:00 BST, a lunchtime appointment. New York gets 07:00 EDT, early but manageable for fans who understand that the America’s Cup is worth losing an hour of sleep. Auckland faces 23:00 NZST, a late-evening option that New Zealand fans will take without hesitation because this is their team’s legacy on the line.
The Gulf of Cagliari opens to the south, catching Mediterranean thermal breezes that build reliably through the morning. The water is warm, the light is sharp, and Luna Rossa considers this home. They train here year-round. This is the venue where Burling will first face Nathan Outteridge, the Australian who replaced him at the helm of Team New Zealand. Outteridge brings Olympic gold (49er, London 2012) and deep foiling experience from SailGP. He is not Burling. But he is fast.
GB1, operating as Athena Racing with Ainslie as team principal and Dylan Fletcher at the helm, arrives as Challenger of Record with the weight of British expectation. Great Britain has never won the America’s Cup. The trophy was literally named after the yacht that humiliated the British fleet in 1851 at Cowes. Fletcher’s SailGP Season 5 championship proves he can win when it matters. Whether that translates to the Cup is the question Cagliari begins to answer.
K-Challenge marks France’s return. INEOS Britannia has withdrawn amid a dispute with Athena Racing. Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s future is uncertain. The politics of the America’s Cup remain as fierce and unpredictable as the sailing itself. Cagliari is where the posturing ends and the racing begins.