America's Cup Recon: August 26 - Italians go flying
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 28 Aug 21:48 AEST
Luna Rossa (ITA) - Day 18 - August 26, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia © Ivo Rovira / America's Cup Recon
Italian America's Cup Challenger Luna Rossa returned to test sailing their AC75 on Wednesday, after a two-week break.
This is Sailing Day 18 for the Italians, who have an allowed sailing day quota of 49 days, which runs out in mid-January. They are only at 37% of their quota and are now only two days behind Emirates Team New Zealand, and should overtake the Kiwis next week. The only other team sailing AC76s, La Roche-Posay Racing Team (FRA), is on 10 days.
According to the declarations, this was the third day of sailing for the Italians on a new rudder.
The root cause of the issues has not been revealed - obviously it is foil control. The rudder rake controls the pitch (fore and aft trim) of the AC75.
However, as Flight Controller Vittio Bissaro explained, they are sailing under more pressure now in tacks/gybes and pre-start.
"It's not the manoeuvre itself - it's the speed at which you enter the manoeuvre. So the real goal is being able to go through that manoeuvre at the lowest speed possible with the shortest radius possible, so there's nothing special. It's just this process of trying to corner shorter and shorter that is really making our life harder."
The team had a rather spectacular lift-off in the session after the rudder lost grip and the AC75's hull leapt up.
But as can be seen in a photo comparison, a substantial part of the rudder blade and the elevator were still in the water, and, according to Bissaro, it was all relatively under control.
"It was kind of simple. Like we lost the rudder, so we didn't have any more control of the blade. Our reaction was just to make sure the rudder was in the water. So don't we care about the bow, or the distance of the bow from the water. We just have to try to keep the elevator in the water because it's what really can cause damage in that situation."
"I think it was well-managed and safe."
From the images of the AC75 when hauled out of the water at the team base, it is easy to see the white depth mark on the blade, which doesn't come clear of the water in any of the Recon shots.
According to the Recon Unit's comments, the rudder ventilated before the incident. No video of the 4-second incident was available. The video above is compiled from still images, and the speed has been slowed to make the key points more visible.
The issues may also be attributed to a new approach within Luna Rossa, where the designers develop the fastest possible kit, and it is up to the sailors to learn to sail it. That approach involved finding where the edges are, and, from flight controller Vittorio Bissaro's comments, it may well be that today's incident, while unintentional, had been rehearsed in the "flight" simulator, and that today's outcome was what they expected. His focus on keeping the rudder immersed and working, and on not losing control of the boat, is interesting.
Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 18, August 26 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia
Recon Unit track - Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 18 - August 26, 2026 - Cagliari - photo © Luna Rossa Recon Unit
Crew List:
- Port Helm: Marco Gradoni/Ruggero Tita
- Starboard Helm: Peter Burling (NZL)
- Port Trimmer: Gigi Ugolini (ITA)/Umberto Molinaris(ITA)
- Starboard Trimmer:Vittorio Bissaro (ITA)
- P5: Maria Giubilei (Port)- P6: Engineers
Wind & Sea Conditions:
- Sunny all day
- Wind: @11:55 9-10kts 175°, @12:05 7-9kts 190°, @12:15 7-9kts 190°, @13:35 11-13kts 165°, @15:10 10-12kts 145°
- Sea State: Flat, Chop 0.5m SE
Times and Tacks
- Dock Out: 1130hrs
- Dock In: 1600hrs
- Time sailed: 4hr 10min
- Foiling time: 135mins
- Tacks: No data
Recon Unit Report: Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 18, August 26, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia
After two weeks, the LR team rolled out the boat at 10:15. The wings were still equipped with slim camera poles on the pressure sides at mid-span. A new iteration of the rudder was noted, with more blade area at the top extending the leading edge forward, and slightly less area at the bottom of the blade. In terms of length, it appeared similar to rudder R05, to be confirmed by measurements for which shots were taken at crane-out.
Dockout was scheduled for 11:30. The legacy mainsail M1-8 was hoisted and paired with the J3-1 before being towed foilborne. The starting crew consisted of Marco Gradoni (helm), Gigi Ugolini (trim), and Maria Giubilei (5th) on port, and Peter Burling (helm), Vittorio Bissaro (trim), and an engineer (6th) on starboard. Later in the day, Ruggero Tita replaced Marco Gradoni, Molineris replaced Vittorio Bissaro, and several engineers rotated through position 6.
Once towline was spiked at 12:06, the seabreeze was still quite light, 7-9 kts from 190°, with a flat sea state, both forecast to ramp up quickly in the afternoon. The boat commenced sailing on shorter boards, executing some warm-up tacks on the first upwind. More offshore, the seabreeze reached 10-12 kts.
Beside a minor mistake entering the last tack with significant bow-down trim, tack execution appeared clean and dry, with bulb-to-bulb times of 5.5-6 seconds. After the first bear-away, some gybes followed, appearing well executed, with bulb-to-bulb times of 6 seconds. After the first roundup, upwind maneuvering practice ramped up, executing consecutive tacks within 10-second intervals. Jib ease appeared to be slower than usual on the bear-aways. Instead, the last downwind maneuvers appeared slightly more touch-and-go on the exits. Sailing stopped at 12:36.
The second foiling stint commenced at 12:52 as the seabreeze had decreased slightly and began to rotate to SE. Once foilborne, the team proceeded with the usual upwind tacks before switching to beam-reach mode, trimming the boat bow-up and immersing the whole rudder to gather footage of the updated steering system.
As these tests were completed, the boat practiced some aggressive one-board bear-aways followed by consecutive gybe series before switching back to bear-aways, now with the windward board half immersed. On one of these, the new rudder ventilated and stalled during the bear-away.
The boat trimmed bow-up significantly, broaching the water and crashing hullborne. No major damage occurred, as the crew reacted and kept on sailing shortly after. The team then repeated rudder loading on beam reach before switching to prestart practice closer to shore in 12 kts of seabreeze from 165°.
Before the third session began at 13:59, the seabreeze had turned to SE 145° at 13-14 kts. The crew rotated as described above. J3-1 was lowered at 13:45 to hoist J4-9, expecting the seabreeze to ramp up further, while the sea state had increased to short chop of 0.5 m. Once foilborne, the first tacks appeared slick and well executed, while the following gybes were more touch-and-go.
Sailing downwind, the boat appeared more unstable while maintaining course compared to the last sailing days, perhaps due to the new rudder iteration. After several upwind and downwind legs, the boat decelerated for a battery swap.
For the fourth session, sailing resumed at 14:33. Several minor rudder ventilations and losses were noted during straight-line sailing and maneuvering, suspected to have been voluntary as part of testing the new iteration. After short upwind and downwind legs, chase boats were positioned and a total of five prestart routines were practiced closer to shore in less breeze and less chop.
The team appeared to focus again on tight, full-circle execution in each routine. Sailing stopped at 15:10. J4-9 was lowered to rehoist the J3-1, as the breeze had decreased again to 12 kts. On the fifth and last sailing stint of the day, the team continued to practice prestart routines until heading back to the harbour and calling it a day, with 135 foiling minutes.
The liftoff sequence: