America's Cup: Recon Diary - March 24, 2026 - Three teams sailing in Auckland and Cagliari
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 24 Mar 21:16 PDT
25 March 2026
- Emirates Team New Zealand, Taihoro, AC75, Day 6 - March 24, 2026 © Sam Thom / America's Cup Recon
Three teams sailed in Auckland, NZ, and Cagliari, Sardinia, on Tuesday as they build up towards the 38th America's Cup.
But for the Cagliari-based teams, the focus is on the upcoming Preliminary Regatta in Cagliari, just under two months away, starting on May 21.
The British Team GB1 and the Italian Luna Rossa, sailed their two AC40s out of Cagliari, while their AC75s have yet to make an appearance.
Emirates Team New Zealand sailed for the sixth occasion in their AC75, in easily the strongest breeze yet, an easterly that looked to be squirting up to 20kts. Recon Unit reports have not yet been posted for the Kiwis' session. We watched it for an hour or so via high-powered binoculars as they sailed in their regular training ground, or the "Back Paddock", and from PredictWind observations, allowing for elevation, the breeze was a solid 15-20kts or higher.
Again, given that this is just the sixth day of training for a largely new crew, it was another impressive performance. The Kiwi team is taking an obviously calculated risk, sailing what will be their 2027 race boat in these conditions with a crew short on AC75 experience. However, that has always been ETNZ's practice - with maybe the logic running that if something does break, then they'd rather find out sooner than later. They did the same thing early in their 2024 campaign, with the same boat, but with their 2021 Cup-winning crew on board. At that juncture, current skipper Nathan Outteridge was an AC75 rookie.
With the next few days due to be unsailable due to strong winds, Tuesday's sail, which was their third in four days, might be the last for the week. By our calculations, they have 39 days left on their 2026 sailing quota of 45days, the lowest of any competing team.
A lighter day in Cagliari
While the Kiwis slept, the Italians and British sailed, in much milder conditions, reported to be 7-14kts, getting lighter as the sessions progressed.
Both teams sailed two boat sessions in their AC40s.
After docking out at 08:00hrs, Luna Rossa's self-Recon report said their pair of AC40s initially sailed separately to warm up the crews, before moving to upwind and downwind legs, sailing full one-lap races. Boat 1 was co-helmed by Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita, with Marco Gradoni and Margherita Porro co-helming Boat 2. Porro was the co-helm on the winning Italian crew in the 2024 Womens America's Cup.
The crews started on the J2 jib, switching to the smaller J3, and then back to the J2, after the wind lightened after 10:30hrs.
In their second bracket of six races, after a break, the breeze dropped slowly and became more shifty.
New sailing squad member Max Antoniazzi was swapped on Boat 2 after a second break at 11:35hrs. They stayed out for more sailing after the two-boat session ended, docking in at 13:00hrs.
Two squads form British crews
The British started their two-AC40 session, docking out an hour after the Italians, also in a NW breeze of 8-14kts.
They sailed a mix of one and two-lap races, primarily focused on starting practice.
Like the Italians, they changed up to a J2 jib as the breeze lightened. New signing Andrea Tesei (ex Luna Rossa) sailed the Athena AC40 skippered by Dylan Fletcher. The British self-recon report didn't name crew positions, although five sailors were listed for Athena, and six in the Hannah Mills skippered AC40 Sienna. Of the 11 sailors listed in the crew lists, seven were shown as being part of the Athena Pathways program and just four for the GB1 program.
The British docked at 13:45hrs after a 4-hour 45-minute session.
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