Sardinia sparkled on the opening day of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta, with near perfect ‘champagne conditions’ of 16-21 knots that challenged the very best sailors in the world. As a venue, it was as close to perfection as possible with huge crowds gathering in the superb Race Village along the port and the Via Roma, and out to the FanZone Lazzaretto. The America’s Cup in Italy is a big deal and today they were treated to some of the finest racing ever seen in the AC40 class.

Paul Goodison, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi and one of the most experienced sailors in the America’s Cup in this cycle put it best saying: “I think Cagliari is an awesome venue. You see today, that was some of the best racing I’ve done for a long, long time.”

As the wind built through the afternoon, the chop whipped up in the Bay of Angels making manoeuvres in yachts hitting speeds in excess of 42 knots, difficult. Nobody came away unscathed and we saw capsizes, broaches, and some dramatic nose-dives throughout the afternoon. Over long courses the cream rose to the top and local hometown favourites, Luna Rossa, were very much the talk of the Race Village after racing had concluded.

The Luna Rossa Women & Youth Team won the first race in commanding style and it felt very much like they had carried their form from the Official Practice Racing into the regatta. Skippered by Marco Gradoni, the current Youth America’s Cup winner, alongside Margherita Porro and Maria Giubilei, the current Women’s America’s Cup winners, with newcomer Giovanni Santi, Luna Rossa 1 were the team to beat all afternoon. They sit at the top of the leaderboard overnight after scoring two race wins and a second place, ahead of the senior team led by Peter Burling with Ruggero Tita on co-helm, although that’s not the full story and the Italian Women & Youth team certainly didn’t have it all their own way.

Emirates Team New Zealand, the current Defender of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, came into the regatta keen to know where they stood in relation to the other teams and after a tricky first race where they incurred a number of penalties, came out with everything to prove in races 2 and 3. In winning the second race through some superb tactical sailing, fending off the Luna Rossa duo, they came into the third race and quickly established a lead. Nathan Outteridge and newly crowned 49er World Champion Seb Menzies, sailed supremely until the last leg to the finish when a foil oscillation led into a vicious ‘porpoise’ followed by a resultant nosedive. It ended their race and handed a victory to the hard charging Luna Rossa Women & Youth Team. How different the leaderboard could look this evening.

Speaking afterwards, Nathan Outteridge reflected on the day saying; Our boat’s going really well. We learned a lot in the practice racing in the last couple of days, and the guys are doing a great job to give us a boat that’s going nice and fast. The middle race was probably the highlight of the day. It felt like we had a Luna Rossa boat everywhere I looked - on the left, on the right - but it was really fun racing those guys. And the last race it looked like we stepped out to a pretty nice lead, and you’ve got to start these boats hard, you’ve got to push them hard, but it feels like every time you go for a gybe, it’s a bit of a roll of the dice in that sea state. The boats do a bit of bouncing and wobbling and unfortunately, we got a big bounce and then the rudder popped out - it was sort of all over from there.”

Margherita Porro, co-helm on the overnight leaders Luna Rossa Women & Youth was modest in victory, saying: “The trimmers onboard are super good, and in a day like today with choppy conditions and strong wind, trimmers make the difference. We were super-fast, so big shout out to them. Today it was hard because at the end of the day, we just wanted to keep things simple, don’t fall off the foils, and it wasn’t easy at all, especially downwind.

Reflecting on their position as leaders of the regatta, Margherita added: “I think it’s a good sign that Women & Youth are first at the moment. It’s a huge sign for women, a huge sign for young people to keep pushing and believe in themselves.”

Ruggero Tita, co-helm alongside Peter Burling on Luna Rossa 2 saw it as no surprise that their stablemates were doing so well saying: “We knew that we were coming here with big expectation, and of course, we did our homework at home during this winter. The Women & Youth had a bit more sailing in the one design boat. We sailed the AC40 as well, but in manual configuration, so it was a bit different. But we are slowly getting into it and taking more and more confidence with the one design system.”

Elsewhere, some of the greatest foiling sailors of a generation reflected on a tough sea-state with Quentin Delapierre, skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team saying: “I think, honestly, below 16 knots of true wind speed, we were super confident. First race we had a good comeback. We felt comfortable onboard and tactically we had a good communication, and we were probably on the momentum. When the wind increased, with the sea state, it was challenging for us...I don’t think the boat is difficult. It’s just managing and understanding the autopilot behaviour that is quite tricky - especially when you have sea state, the autopilot cannot anticipate what will come. So you have to tweak it and find good things to make sure that it will stay stable, especially during the gybes.”

Dylan Fletcher confirmed the boat damage onboard GB1 that kept them out of the first race and then forced the team to retire early in the second race, saying: “In the warm-up to the first race, we sheared the traveller sheave in the port side. We got a repair, which we managed to do for the second race, but then that broke unfortunately, so finally third time’s the charm. We got it fixed for that last race, and it was nice to get that race in. Felt like we were a bit green into it. Everyone else had warmed up. But I think we showed that we’ve got some of the pace out there.”

Hannah Mills of Athena Pathway, who had a ‘tough day at the office’ including a capsize in the second race commented: Definitely more wind than we’ve sailed in ever before and it was especially tough for our new people on board. It was a big day out for us and just lots to learn and take-away but you could see everyone struggling with the gybes and the roundups and yeah we learned that the boats like to bounce!”

Paul Goodison, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi reflected on the racing, saying: “It was a great day to get out there and get into some real racing. We’ve had a few issues the last couple of days with the boat not working and a couple of other little gremlins the guys sorted out. But we found out this morning that we’re missing some flap range on our foils, which was a bit daunting when you go out in that much breeze. But I think the team dealt with it really well."  

Overall it was a spectacle of high-class foiling America’s Cup racing. The opening races of the first Prelim Regatta on the ‘Road to Naples’ was sensational and the forecast looks like more of the same into the weekend. The front-runners are established. The bar is set high. Whoever comes out on top on Sunday in the match-race final will have deserved the win.

Sardinia is putting on a spectacle. It’s utterly amazing.