America's Cup PR2: ARC Team USA score first, but Luna Rossa shine - Day 1
by America's Cup Media 25 Sep 18:42 PDT
La Roche-Posay Racing Team - Day 1 - Louis Vuitton America's Cup - Preliminary Regatta Naples - September 25, 2026 © Ty Baird/ America's Cup
Following days of sunshine and light sea breezes in the Bay of Naples, an overnight Atlantic front brought cooler, unstable air with rain and thunderstorms across central and southern Italy, delaying the start of racing for spectators in the Race Village.
After two false starts in Race 1, racing got underway as a 14–15 knot breeze, gusting to 18 knots, filled in to produce a short chop.
The entire fleet started on starboard tack. ARC Team USA started one boat down from the windward end, finding a clear lane to tack onto port toward the middle of the course into clear air that Harry Melges later termed "golden." The American crew—Melges and Lucas Calabrese helming alongside trimmers Michael Menninger and Hans Henken—executed clean manoeuvres and communication to establish early control.
Pursued by Luna Rossa 1 (helmed by Peter Burling and Marco Gradoni, who won all three practice races the previous day), ARC Team USA extended their margin to roughly 250 metres. The Italian crew held second while defending against Cobham-Ultra GB2 (Hannah Mills and Ellie Aldridge), who steadily reduced the gap over the course.
Luna Rossa Women & Youth held fourth position throughout. After six legs, ARC Team USA laid the line on the final run to claim the opening win. Their home club, Sail Newport, hosted an early morning watch-party in Rhode Island.
Calabrese noted the crew's established dynamic: “I feel like we have pretty good chemistry with each other. We’ve sailed together before quite a bit on the AC40 in the last campaign, and we also were a part of a TP52 season together, so I guess we know each other a lot. Harry is the calmer one; I’m the fiery one! It’s a good mix.”
He added regarding trimmers Menninger and Henken: “We really believe in them. We know how good they are, and that’s why we trust them so much. I feel like we have a pretty flat hierarchy on our boat, and I think if we can make that machine work smoothly, we have a big advantage. So, we’re trying to use everybody’s talent.”
Melges agreed: “Michael and Hans are really standout trimmers and teammates. And I’m also very lucky to be driving alongside Lucas. So I’m very excited for the future. I think it was a great day of sailing, honestly, with the first race. But there’s also a ton of lessons we have taken from the day. There’s a lot more for us to be able to do out there.”
Meanwhile, pre-regatta contenders GB1 suffered gear failure as racing began. Dylan Fletcher explained: "It was kind of how we expected it today with quite fickle breeze and we were waiting for that breeze to fill in. When it did, unfortunately, the cover plate ripped off our starboard foil - this is our race arm that we put back on after the damage (in practice racing), but it was all fixed up. It was off for the first race, which is why we were struggling gybing, had no grip, had loads of leeway, going slow on port, tacking, everything. Everything other than sailing on starboard was terrible. It never rains, bit it pours!”
For Cobham Ultra GB2, the outcome was more positive. Following their third-place finish, Hannah Mills commented: “We just felt like it sort of started clicking a bit today in terms of the comms and how we’re racing the boat and just how we’re sailing the boat, all feeling like it was coming together. So yeah, we just felt really like we were going fast, going roughly in the right direction, which was not easy on that racecourse.”
Race 2 began with gusts reaching 18 knots and a building swell. At the start gun, La Roche-Posay Racing Team was over the line early. On the bear-away to restart, the French boat's bow dug in, lifting the rudder clear of the water. Helmed by Quentin Delapierre and Diego Botín, the boat pitch-poled and capsized, forcing their retirement. The crew was uninjured and the boat was righted.
During the incident, GB2 avoided a direct collision to leeward, though their raised windward foil clipped the French boat's rudder stack. Mills recounted: “The French were doing a big hard bear-away to restart and must have got it wrong. We were just to leeward and then they pitch-poled right in front of us and when it happened, obviously so fast, I just fired it up into wind to try and avoid hitting them and I think did everything we could in that moment to stop a major collision.”
Off the line, Luna Rossa 1 worked the left side before crossing on port tack to seize the lead. They extended down the first run, followed by Tudor Team Alinghi (helmed by Paul Goodison and Phil Robertson), who held second and separated from the fleet behind them.
Gradoni outlined their performance: “In the second race we had a good start compared to the first one that I think we didn’t manage perfectly. But yeah, we had the speed. I think the guys picked up the pace and did a really good job because it was not easy. We saw also what happened with the French and we had the speed and we just executed, to be fair. We got to the boundary; we turned first and then we know how to stay there. I think the boats are all the same and it’s just about the coordination between us and the precision that we put into what we do between us four. So, we work a lot. We keep improving because we’re not at our 100% but I think we’re going to get there.”
Behind the leaders, positions shifted across the fleet. Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies (Emirates Team New Zealand) recovered ground on the final run, securing third place at the line just ahead of their development squad, Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth (helmed by Jake Pye and Erica Dawson).
Dawson commented on their day, which left them tied on points with Tudor Team Alinghi: “I think we had a solid day. We made quite a few little errors, but overall, we’re happy with the way we’re sailing, and the kind of steps made forward recently.”
Andy Maloney, trimmer on the senior Emirates Team New Zealand boat—tied for second overall—pointed to needed improvements: “It was pretty difficult for our boat out there today, as we haven’t quite managed to put a full race together yet. We’re not getting off the line that cleanly, and then we’re still making mistakes around the racetrack. So, we find ourselves in difficult positions in the pack and making unforced errors and we’re better than that, and we’re sort of putting ourselves in difficult positions. So a little bit frustrating as a crew today overall but probably the best thing of the day is that the crew on board stayed tight as a unit, and we managed to keep positive and keep chipping away.”
Luna Rossa Women & Youth finished fifth, ahead of Mills and Aldridge on GB2. Race 1 winners ARC Team USA dropped to seventh following an error at the second leeward gate, while GB1 finished eighth due to their foil issue.
Luna Rossa 1 holds the overnight lead with a tight points spread across the top half of the fleet heading into Day 2.