Cup Spy: "Burling Rule" unlikely to be changed. Pressure goes on for Protocol sign-off

America's Cup Prizegiving - Peter Burling - March 2021 - Auckland © Stefano Gattini

Despite the shift of three times America's Cup winner, Peter Burling from Emirates Team New Zealand to Italy's Luna Rossa, it is understood that there is unlikely to be any softening of the Nationality rule to enable Burling to compete in the 38th America's Cup.

The rule in the "Final Draft" of the Protocol for the 2027 America's Cup, prohibited sailors who competed in the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona, from sailing for a new team in the forthcoming, or 38th America's Cup in Naples.

While that rule has been one of the negotiation points between the Challengers, currently represented by the Royal Yacht Squadron as the Challenger of Record, it is believed that the Defender will not yield any further ground on that point.

Emirates Team New Zealand has now lost two of its sailing team to the Italian Challenger, and while it may be hard for some of the Challengers to understand, the Defender is not going to allow open season on its sailing team.

Although no formal announcement has been made, Josh Junior, a former winner of the Finn Gold Cup - the most prestigious trophy in monotype sailing - slipped over to the Italian team earlier this year, in a coaching and support role.

Burling is expected to occuppy a similar role within the Italian team - which means many hours in the support boat watching the team train. However he is also expected to have an F1 style test driver role, setting boat performnace benchmarks for the two already nominated Italian helmsmen, Max Gradoni, a four times World Optimist champion, and double Olympic Gold medalist Ruggero Tita.

Luna Rossa has to replace both its co-helmsmen from the 2024 America's Cup, following the retirement of Australian and two-times America's Cup winner Jimmy Spithill. He now leads the Italian SailGP team. Also gone is one of the great characters of America's Cup sailing Francesco Bruni - who sailed five America's Cups - four with Luna Rossa, and in 2003 with the Latin Rascals, Mascalzone Latino (ITA).

After being eliminated in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Final, Luna Rossa went sailing for a final day with Gradoni and Tita in the co-helm positions, and making a clear statement for all to see, that they were the future of Italian America's Cup sailing.

Both are going to need tutoring at the feet of a Master, and that is the role Peter Burling is likely to fill. Whether they can come up to speed and win the America's Cup at their first attempt was always a big question - but their task has certainly been made easier with the addition of Burling.

The addition of Burling and Junior to the Luna Rossa coaching team, creates some questions as to the fate of the other team members from 2024 - Hamish Willcox, Philippe Presti and Jacopo Plazzi. The latter did not have a high profile role externally, but proved to be a very good coaching and training organiser, enabling the Italians to get through their training routines, with a minimum of down time - an area where many challengers suffered in the last Cup.

His skills will be especially important in the upcoming Cup - assuming the cap on sailing days in the AC75 and AC40 test boats remain. Teams won't be able to play catch-up in the way they did previously with no limits on training time. This time around, the training days meter will be running as soon as the towline is dropped and the boat is free sailing.

Presti and Willcox bring a huge amount of Cup experience to any team - both have won two America's Cups as coaches - and some hard decisions are going to have to be made by Luna Rossa CEO Max Sirena, on the size of the team, assuming Presti and Willcox are still avaialable, and where Francesco Bruni fits in.

In the bigger picture, the Defender will have a softer attitude towards crew engagement by first time America's Cup Challengers, but with the Protocol and Rules for the forthcoming Cup still in limbo, everyone is just shadow boxing at this stage.

Today eight months have lapsed since the conclusion of the 2024 America's Cup in Barcelona. That is about the median time between the end of a Match and the announcement of the Protocol for the next America's Cup.

Sail-World's sources say that while progress is being made, the fact remains that a Protocol has not been announced, with the upcoming America's Cup less than two years distant.

There has been no word from the Challenger of Record's team Athena Racing that they have the financial wherewithall to mount a credible challenge, following their estrangement from their original backer INEOS, and the collapse of the named challenger INEOS Britannia.