ARC Team USA Wins on Debut and Takes Fourth in First America's Cup Regatta
by ARC Team USA 27 Sep 12:01 PDT
September 25-27, 2026
ARC Team USA finish 4th in the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta © ARC Team USA
If luck represents the moment when opportunity and preparation cross tacks, ARC Team USA enjoyed an auspicious start to their multi-Cup campaign at the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta Naples, which just concluded in Naples, Italy.
The startup American-flagged team, founded by Karel Komárek and Chris Welch, and led by CEO Ken Read, foiled their one-design AC40 onto the America's Cup stage for the first time on Friday (September 26) to win the first of the event's eight fleet races before then delivering a string of solid starts in the regatta's remaining contests. The team, which is representing Sail Newport, ultimately finished in fourth place out of the nine-strong fleet of AC40 foiling monohulls, showing that, while there's still much to learn, the upstart American-flagged team can play ball.
Not bad for a team that didn't exist six months ago, but the team is realistic about where they currently stand against the fleet.
"We are very clearly an underdog," said Read of the team's mindset coming into the first event in their campaign for 38th America's Cup, which marks just the beginning of their multi-Cup effort to bring the Auld Mug back to the American shores by 2031.
"But an underdog can become a dark horse if you start showing some significant success," Read continued, noting that the team's current underdog status demands more from each team member, from the sailors to the shore crew, to make up for lost time.
Other teams started months, years, or entire Cup cycles ahead of the Americans.
While ARC Team USA approached the PR2 as an intensive training camp, their out-of-the-gate win in Race 1 delivered an important momentum boost.
"None of us expected things to go so well out of the gate. Everyone is putting in a huge effort, and with such little time ahead of the PR2, we're all proud of the first race." Harry Melges IV, Helm, ARC Team USA
Winning feels great, of course, but it's often the hard races that are the best teachers, and PR2 also delivered the team their share of teachable moments. This included a pair of seventh-place finishes in Races 2 and 4, an eighth-place finish in Race 6, plus a ninth-place result in Race 7.
"We had a lot of good takeaways," said Melges of these races. "We're so young and new that we need bad days to kick our butts into gear and accelerate our learning curve."
This learning curve is obviously steep, but the team's teachable moments were offset by their bullet in Race 1, a fifth-place finish in Race 3, and a fourth in Race 5.
But it was the team's impressive third-place performance in Race 8, right after their tough back-of-the-fleet finish, that shows that this team could become a dark horse by the start of the start of next spring's Louis Vuitton Cup, which determines the team will meet the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, for the 38th America's Cup.
"What amazes strangers who first come here the most is that it feels like this team has been together for 20 years, not 20 weeks," said Read of the team's heads-down, quietly-doing-their-jobs work ethic and culture. "Everybody is having fun, and I think that when people have fun, they do better."
Fun aside, Read was clear that this is a team that freely owns their mistakes.
"That's exactly the type of atmosphere you're looking for, where everyone wants to get better, and everybody is willing to put their hand up and say, 'you know what, I could have done this better'. And that's the type of culture we're building." Ken Read, CEO, ARC Team USA
This was evident across the teams soto-voce onboard communications across all eight fleet races.
Volume, timbre, and emotion were calm and controlled, irrespective of whether the sailing team, consisting of Lucas Calabrese, Melges, Michael Menninger, and Hans Henken, was commanding the pole position or fighting for scraps at the back of the fleet.
"We're a young team and obviously all-American, which is super-exciting for us," said Melges. "What's impresses me the most is how good the team atmosphere is at ARC Team USA, it's really inspiring. Everyone around you lifts you up and wants you to work really hard, even on the bad days."
While ARC Team USA was a dominant force on the PR2's starting lines, Race 6 is one that the team's coaches and sailors will be studying during their upcoming winter residence at the team's Pensacola, Florida, base. ARC Team USA nailed the start and was in contention for the first leg, before a tough first gate rounding depressed their leaderboard standing. The team fought for every racecourse meter, but they were out of the hunt by Leg 6, which took the fleet across the finishing line.
"We try to win every race," said Read, noting that there was no tension between the team's competitive nature and their strategy of using the PR2 as an intensive training camp. "We use every single lesson in every race to our advantage, looking to the future."
These lessons translated to hometown pride at Sail Newport's watch parties, where American fans rallied early each morning, despite a growling Nor'easter that's been pounding New England, to support their team. This was especially evident today, after the team landed in last place in Race 7, only to bounce back with a strong third-place finish in the final fleet race.
Queue the hometown cheers.
While points from May's PR1, which ARC Team USA didn't compete at, and this weekend's PR2 don't translate to any advantages come the start of next spring's Louis Vuitton Cup, Melges described the PR2 as a crucial event—and opportunity—for the team.
"It's really important for us to take the lessons from this weekend back to Pensacola over the winter, really study, and make sure that, when we get back to Naples next spring and summer, we're ready to go," Melges said.
While the team enjoyed good first outing, Read, who is Cup veteran, was clear that ARC Team is playing the long game in terms of their ambitions to bring the America's Cup home.
"We are in an incredibly unique position where our principals have said, 'we're going to be doing this for a while'," he said, noting that historically, most Cup teams are more focused on securing their next tranche of funding than considering their multi-Cup end game moves.
"It's a great problem to have, and also just more to put under the microscope to figure out how it's going to happen efficiently for the long term."
ARC Team USA congratulates Luna Rossa on their regatta win at the PR2, and the American-flagged team looks forward to meeting all competing teams again this spring at the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup.