Newport, Rhode Island: America is back on the racecourse. ARC Team USA has confirmed the four sailors who will race aboard its AC40 at the 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Naples September 24th–27th, as the new American challenger prepares to line up against its America’s Cup rivals for the first time.

Lucas Calabrese and Harry Melges IV will take the helm, with Hans Henken and Michael Menninger completing the four-person crew. Riley Gibbs will serve as team reserve.

The announcement follows an intensive final training camp in Naples and represents a significant milestone for a team that has been built at remarkable speed. In a matter of months, ARC Team USA has brought together its sailing, design, technical and operational groups, returned its boats to the water and established the foundations of a new America’s Cup campaign.

The Preliminary Regatta will be the first opportunity to see how that work translates into competition.

“Getting to the regatta start line is a big moment for us. What this entire team has achieved in such a short space of time has been pretty extraordinary, and we’ve just come off a really strong training camp where the progress has been clear every day.

Every sailor in this group has pushed hard and earned the opportunity to represent ARC Team USA. Lucas, Harry, Hans and Michael have earned their places on the boat for Naples, and Riley has been every bit as important to the progress we’ve made as a group.

We also have to be realistic about where we are. Some of the teams we’re racing have been together for years; we’ve been together for months. We’re not going to Naples expecting to have all the answers. We’re going there to race hard, learn quickly, understand where we stand against the fleet and come away better than we arrived. This is the first real benchmark for us – and we can’t wait to get started.” - Ken Read, ARC Team USA CEO

The final training camp has given the sailing team an intensive period on the water together, allowing the group to develop its communication, boat handling and race processes before facing the fleet.

“It’s been a very productive camp. We’ve asked a huge amount of this group in a short period of time and they’ve responded brilliantly. The standard and intensity have continued to rise, and the competition for these places has been exactly what we wanted.

Selecting four sailors was never going to be easy. Every one of them has earned the right to be here and contributed to getting us to this point. For Naples, we believe Lucas, Harry, Hans and Michael give us the right combination, but this is very much a team effort and Riley is a very important part of the overall racing group.

Now we get to put ourselves under proper race pressure. That’s where we’ll learn the most.” - Giles Scott, ARC Team USA Sailing Director

ARC Team USA heads into its first racing appearance with growing momentum around the campaign. In recent weeks, the team has announced a strategic partnership with US Sailing focused on helping grow the audience for sailing and the America’s Cup in the United States, alongside CODE-ZERO becoming the team’s Official Technical Apparel and Teamwear Supplier.

Those developments form part of the wider build-up of a new American challenger with a long-term ambition: to build a team capable of returning the America’s Cup to the United States.

For now, however, the focus is much closer.

Four sailors. One AC40. And ARC Team USA’s first starting line.

America’s back.