America's Cup PR2: Emirates Team NZ second in Naples thriller. Women & Youth win team trophy

Emirates Team New Zealand Womens and Youth - Day 2 - Louis Vuitton America's Cup - Preliminary Regatta Naples - September 26, 2026 © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup

Emirates Team New Zealand wraps up a high-stakes preliminary event on the Gulf of Naples with a hard-fought second place overall for the senior team led by Nathan Outteridge, falling just short against Luna Rossa in a classic Match Race Final.

Meanwhile the Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth squad, skippered by Jake Pye, delivered a strong regatta to secure fifth overall and lifted the Women & Youth trophy.

Staged in front of close to one hundred thousand passionate fans packing the America’s Cup Race Village at the iconic kilometre-long Naples Lungomare waterfront, the concluding day delivered the pinnacle of three days of intense AC40 fleet racing in pristine conditions.

The morning opened with maximum pressure on the fleet as the battle for the top two spots intensified. In Race 7, a shifty first beat following a split-line start rewarded those working the left side of the course. Helms Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies with their trimmer, Andy Maloney and Iain Jensen, rounded the top mark in second and held off heavy pressure from both Luna Rossa 1 and the French squad to secure a runner-up finish. The resulting nine points guaranteed Emirates Team New Zealand’s ticket to the winner-takes-all Match Race Final with a race to spare.

In the same race, Jake Pye and Erica Dawson steered the Women & Youth crew together with trimmer Serena Woodall and Josh Armit, across the line in fifth, finishing two places clear of their rivals, the Italian Women & Youth team, to set up a tense showdown for their division's title in the final fleet encounter.

The final fleet race brought immediate drama at the start line. Tangled in a crowded right-hand start, Outteridge tacked away at the gun but was hit with an umpire penalty that relegated the Kiwis from first to last as they burned time clearing the infringement. A determined comeback saw the boat battle back into fourth position before eventually finishing seventh, turning their focus squarely toward the impending duel with Luna Rossa. Meanwhile, the Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth team engaged in a relentless, race-long battle with the Luna Rossa Women & Youth squad, ultimately crossing the line just ahead of the Italians to seal the Women & Youth regatta trophy.

The regatta climaxed with the rematch fans had anticipated since Cagliari, Sardinia, pitting Emirates Team New Zealand against Luna Rossa in a one-on-one duel. Following a fierce, full-throttle pre-start battle, the boats launched off the line on split tacks before locking into a tight tacking exchange up the right hand boundary. Luna Rossa edged ahead at the first mark and mounted a textbook defence, shadowing every tactical split and attack the Kiwis threw at them. Despite relentless pressure from Outteridge and his crew across every leg, the Italians sailed a commendable race on home waters to hold the lead to the finish, leaving Emirates Team New Zealand with a hard-earned second place to conclude an electrifying weekend in Naples.

While the team savours a fiercely competitive weekend on Italian waters and celebrates the Women & Youth squad’s trophy triumph, attention now immediately pivots across the globe as Emirates Team New Zealand heads home to Auckland, dialling all focus and energy back into the critical design, engineering, and development testing of Taihoro, the AC75.

Over the four day event, the electric atmosphere along the Naples waterfront provided an unforgettable stadium for high-octane racing, with hundreds of thousands of passionate fans packing the America’s Cup Race Village along the iconic Lungomare with many more watching from the streets and houses on the hills of Naples.

The Preliminary Regatta Naples showcased the city’s ability to host the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, with an engaged local community, great organisation, and a setting that brought the racing right into the heart of the city. With the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup returning to Naples next year, the Preliminary Regatta has offered a glimpse of what is to come: and a strong foundation for an even bigger event in 2027.

Quotes from the Sailors:

Nathan Outteridge, skipper & helm Emirates Team New Zealand: “It's a tough way to finish the regatta. Everyone in the team has high expectations, and we're always been a very successful team. When you don't get the win in these events, I think it hurts everyone. At the end of the day, we've got a few things to improve on. We don’t want to come away thinking there is nothing to improve: there is always more we can do ahead of next year. We had some challenges throughout the fleet racing, but we made it into the final.

“In the Match Race Final, we really wanted the right-hand side in the start. We fought hard for it but we were a little bit late with our final tack and trigger off the line. If you give Pete [Burling] and the Luna Rossa crew just an inch, they'll take a mile. And we paid the price for that.”

“This day concludes the senior team’s AC40 sailing now. While the AC40s are similar to the AC75, the AC75 is a different beast. It's all about developing that boat in speed. We are all heading back to Auckland tomorrow, and next week we're straight into sailing and developing Taihoro again with a lot of new equipment coming. We will debrief this event and think about how we can race the boat better, but over the next coming months, it's all about our development work on the AC75. When we're back here in Naples at the start of next year, we'll be here for 5 months—which we are really looking forward to.”

Jake Pye, skipper & helm Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth team: “It was a great way for the Women & Youth team to end the Preliminary Regatta Naples. It has been a massive push from the entire team and we've had an amazing team and Shore Crew behind us that have been able to put the boat back together for us and get us out on the water today. We are very happy to come away with the category win.”

“Overall, the event leaves us on a good note. There have been a few hiccups on the way through the regatta that we didn't quite manage to iron out. We now know what steps we have to take now, having better insight to what we need to improve on and focus on leading into the event next year. We are excited to get into it, and there's definitely some work to do. We have still left some things in the tank.”

Erica Dawson, helm Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth team: “For the Women & Youth team, it was a great regatta. Big highs and some lows. We are proud of a few of our races where we really put things together, and it was a really cool event. Coming away with the Women & Youth category win is a great reward for the hard work we put into this.”

“Naples is such an incredible sailing venue, and this preliminary event has really showcased what we're in for with the America's Cup next year. We will see awesome sailing, amazing fans, and a really cool city to host the event.”