The Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup Preliminary Regatta Sardinia has officially begun in Cagliari, in the Gulf of Angels, with the opening press conference preceding the first racing sessions. The event puts eight AC40s on the water across five teams, marking the first competitive appointment in the 38th America's Cup cycle, whose final act is scheduled for Naples in 2027.

A new feature of this edition is the ability for teams to simultaneously field two boats: a senior crew alongside a second boat sailed by Women's and Youth sailors. Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa and the GB1/Athena Pathway pairing will each compete with two crews.

For Emirates Team New Zealand, the senior crew consists of Nathan Outteridge as skipper and starboard helmsman, Seb Menzies on the port helm, Iain Jensen on port trim and Andy Maloney as starboard trimmer. The Women's and Youth crew is led by Jake Pye as skipper and port helmsman, with Erica Dawson on the starboard helm, Josh Armit on starboard trim and Serena Woodall on port trim.

The press conference also introduced the sixth and seventh teams entered in the 38th America's Cup: Team Australia Challenge with Tom Slingsby and American Racing Challenger with Ken Read, who are not on the water in Cagliari but officially join the cycle.

"It's really exciting. It's been a while since there's been an America's Cup event and to be here lined up in the AC40s is an important step for all the teams," said Nathan Outteridge. "The America's Cup is ultimately to be sailed on the AC75s, which is also about a design competition. This week, it is about racing and putting the new sailing teams together for most of these teams. We've got a really exciting lineup. Seb Menzies, who joined our campaign and just won a 49er World Championship. It has been awesome to be sailing with him this week. We are really excited to be racing. As the Defender, we really just want to get involved by sailing with the Challengers right now. To see where we stack up and work out how we can keep improving."

On his relationship with Peter Burling, sitting beside him at the press conference, Outteridge added: "It's been a few years sitting side-by-side like this in a lot of meetings and now you are against each other. But Pete and I have had a great relationship over the last 15 years. Whether we were training together, competing against each other, working together, and we are racing against each other again. This is really cool."

"It's an incredible opportunity for us to get to race with these Cup teams and be involved with the real tight team within Emirates Team New Zealand," said Erica Dawson. "Our learning curve is just so steep at the moment for our Women's and Youth Team and every hour on the water, we are learning so much. We are really excited to go out racing, and if we sail well and take races off these teams, we'll be stoked."

When asked how the in-house duel was going, Dawson replied: "We are working really closely together and just trying to help each other the best we can. It is going really well."

Fleet races will run from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 May, with up to three races daily on Friday and Saturday and two on Sunday, followed by a final match race between the leading teams. Results will not count toward the 38th America's Cup in 2027.