While we wait for the information floodgates to finally open, let’s take a run through the most pressing questions taxing America’s Cup fans.
Who will be the independent CEO of the newly-formed America’s Cup Partnership?
One of the big changes for this latest Cup cycle is transfer of responsibility for organising AC38 and future editions from the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand to a new governing body called the America’s Cup Partnership. The ACP’s board of directors is made up of representatives from the competing teams who each pay a multi-million dollar fee for a seat on the board.
Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton is the interim CEO of the ACP with a new full-time appointee expected to be announced before the end of 2025. Just who this individual will be remains unknown at this stage – it cannot be anyone from one of the teams – but whoever it is is going to need to be tough as old boots to deal with the ACP governance board.
Once appointed the new CEO will need to recruit the internal management team and staff that will be responsible for organising AC38 and beyond. It is likely that getting this person in place will alleviate the prevailing decision-making logjam and free up the flow of information out into the public domain.
How many Challengers will we see and who will they be?
While the British Athena Racing challenge is well known, detailed information has been scarce so far. The team recently announced the appointment of British double Olympic medallist Ian Walker as its new CEO and team principal Sir Ben Ainslie told Reuters last week that full details around the British syndicate’s backers would be revealed within four weeks.
Likewise, the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli are known to have challenged – and have been actively training in AC40s from their base in Cagliari on Sardinia for many months now.
Confidence also seems high around the French K-Challenge (who competed in AC37 as Orient Express Racing Team) staging a challenge. Although there has been no official word, the team has also been active in its AC40 on the waters off Lorient, France.
While the US AC37 Challenger American Magic recently announced it would not be returning for AC38, hopes are higher that the Swiss outfit Alinghi will now take part in AC38 – despite having previously declared itself out.
Although four challengers is a decent number for a selection series, there are rumours that a fifth Challenge could be on the cards – with rumours of an Australian entry becoming firmer over recent weeks.
With American Magic out, where might helmsmen Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison now land?
Experienced AC75 helmsmen are valuable assets so it is hard to believe that the likes of Slingsby and Goodison would not be recruited somewhere for AC38. Athena Racing could do worse than add Goodison to their helming roster alongside Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher, while Alinghi are rumoured to have been courting Slingsby.
Will Peter Burling take part in AC38 as a helmsman or a coach?
When the three-time America’s Cup-winning helmsman first made the move to the Italians the rules in place at the time prohibited him from being on the boat in AC38. Now that rule has gone and Burling is available for selection. It’s a nice problem to have, some would say, for Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena to have to choose between the likes of Burling, fellow Kiwi recruit Josh Junior, and Italian talents Ruggero Tita and Marco Gradoni. Tita was recently bumped out of the helming role on Jimmy Spithill’s Italian SailGP team and replaced by the mercurial New Zealander Phil Robertson.
How will Nathan Outteridge manage his America’s Cup and SailGP commitments?
When Peter Burling left Emirates Team New Zealand a key reason appeared to be restrictions the Kiwi team wanted to put on him that would have prevented his participation in SailGP in 2027. Now the New Zealand team’s replacement skipper Nathan Outteridge has set himself up with a SailGP team of his own in the form of the Swedish Artemis Racing syndicate. Quite how this news was received by the America’s Cup Defender’s executive management team is not known, but it could be that Outteridge and Burling’s roles in the team off the boat – Burling was a key link between the sailing team and the designers – could mean it is less of an issue for Outteridge to compete in both competitions.
Will Ben Ainslie return as helmsman for the British team in AC38?
Ainslie stepping back from racing SailGP in the run up to the 37th America’s Cup, has meant speculation around whether the five-time Olympic medallist would also take a shoreside role in AC38, leaving Dylan Fletcher to partner with a younger fresher face on the wheel of the British AC75. It would be easy to make the logical argument for him doing just that – and he has said publicly that it is not about what is best for him but best for the team that matters – but somehow, given the intense ferocity of his competitive nature, it is difficult to see him stepping away. The arrival of Ian Walker as CEO should relieve Ainslie of a massive workload and leave him free to hone his skills on the water. A British AC team without Ainslie onboard is hard to imagine.
When and where will the 2026 Preliminary Regattas take place?
There’s been no official news on venues at this stage but Grant Dalton revealed in a meeting with international sailing media that the first AC40 event will take place in May. Unconfirmed at this stage but Cagliari would seem like an obvious venue for this first event. A second event in Naples during 2026 would also make sense to give the teams a taste of the AC38 race area but whether that is practical from an onshore logistics point of view is uncertain right now.
When and where will we first see an AC75 sailed in this latest America’s Cup cycle?
Teams can start sailing their AC75s on January 16 next year, but are limited to 45 days sailing in the following 12 months up to January 15 2027. All the teams with boats from the last cycle of the Cup will have been busy modifying their hulls in line with the new five person crew numbers (plus a guest racer spot) and the elimination of Cyclors in favour of battery power. The most likely candidates to be the first to launch would probably be Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
