One year out from the 38th America’s Cup in Naples, Italy the two frontrunning teams – Emirates Team New Zealand and the Italian syndicate Luna Rossa – have both this taken the opportunity to put in some valuable training time on the expected AC38 racecourse.
Luna Rossa were the first team to launch their matched pair of AC40 foiling yachts, taking to the waters of the Gulf of Naples on July 3. They were joined yesterday by the America’s Cup holders from New Zealand who took advantage of a midday southwesterly sea breeze to make their debut at the Cup venue.
The two teams have a dual purpose in each scheduling their training blocks within the window of next year’s racing period for the 38th America’s Cup Match. As well as being able to get a vital first feel for the possible weather conditions off Naples at this time of year, the two squads will also be keen to sharpen their AC40 racecraft ahead of the second AC38 Preliminary Regatta which takes place in Naples from September 24–27.
As at the first preliminary regatta in Cagliari, Sardinia at the end of May, both teams will field two AC40 entries – a ‘senior’ crew and a second boat raced by members of the teams’ youth and women squads. In Cagliari the Italian Y&W crew led by Marco Gradoni dominated the early stages of the regatta, but fell out of contention on the last day to allow the Italian senior crew – led by Kiwi Peter Burling – to race off against Nathan Outteridge’s senior Emirates Team New Zealand crew in the final match race.
That head-to-head went decisively the way of the Italians after a prestart mistake by the Kiwi crew and that experience will doubtless have left Outteridge hungry for revenge in Naples.
The New Zealand and Italian teams are widely considered to be furthest along in their preparations of the seven teams set to compete in the 38th America’s Cup next year. The pair were the first to launch their modified AC75s and in recent months both have been racking up valuable hours on the water.
So far, only one other team has been AC75 sailing. The French La Roche-Posay Racing Team splashed their newly-liveried boat at the end of June and have since been on the water three times as they begin the complex commissioning process.
The British GB1 syndicate have continued to train in AC40s from their temporary base in Cagliari. Despite the court case lodged in the UK by previous sponsor INEOS that questions the ownership of the team’s AC75 Britannia, the British outfit have recently begun construction on their team base in Naples, and are believed to be set to move there permanently after the second preliminary regatta.
The Swiss Tudor Team Alinghi have also started work on their team base in Naples. The team, skippered by British Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison, completed an initial block of two-boat AC40 training in Barcelona shortly prior to the Cagliari event, but do not appear to have sailed again since.
The Swiss team’s AC75 is believed to be undergoing an overhaul to repair the hull damage sustained in a training incident in Barcelona after the 37th America’s Cup and to bring the boat in line with the new crew configurations put in place for AC38.
Meanwhile, there has been little in the way of news coming out of the two new teams competing in AC38 – American Racing Challenger Team USA, led by Ken Read and Tom Slingsby’s Team Australia...
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The 2026 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 European Championships are officially underway. The event opened this evening with the opening ceremony in the boat park, where sailors, race officials and the entire organizing committee came together for a dinner hosted by the organizers — with beers and drinks flowing for everyone. It was the perfect way to bring the fleet together before the serious business begins on the water.
And there is plenty of serious business ahead. With 372 athletes — just shy of 400 — representing 37 different countries, this is a huge European Championship, arriving less than two months after an unforgettable World Championship in Quiberon, France.
Teams to watch...
49er
If you want a form line for Eckernförde, look no further than Kiel Week, raced just down the coast two weeks ago in near-identical Baltic conditions. There, young Swiss duo Joshua Richner and Nilo Schärer were absolutely on it, taking their first big international win. It was a huge achievement — measured, mature sailing at the top of a stacked fleet — and they have well and truly set their mark as a team to look out for.
Of course, the top ones to look out for remain Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush. The Kiwis arrive as both the defending European Champions and the newly crowned World Champions — and until someone beats them at a major, the title runs through New Zealand.
The chasing pack is deep. France's Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin, the 2024 World Champions, are coming off a super strong year that included wins in Kiel and Palma last year. Britain's James Grummett and Rhos Hawes are almost permanently at the sharp end of the fleet, while Ireland's Robert Dickson and Seán Waddilove — after a bit of a dip since the Paris Olympics — are looking strong again on the back of a run of successful events. Add in Uruguay's Hernán Umpierre and Fernando Diz and the American pairing of Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid — both firmly among our favorites — and the 49er podium is anyone's guess.
And no surprise: there is a big contingent of German boats on the entry list. With the championship being hosted in Eckernförde and Germany boasting one of the deepest skiff squads in the world, the home fleet will be out in force. Keep a special eye on Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger, who at one point during the World Championship were sailing so well they had a genuine shot at the world title.
49erFX
The most likely to take the title? Probably Canada's Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance. The sisters have been sailing extremely well at every regatta this season, arrive as the defending European Champions, and just won Kiel Week too — they are really on it right now.
But Spain's Paula Barceló and Maria Cantero will have something to say about that. The 2025 World Champions were left heartbroken in Quiberon, where — despite a healthy lead going into the final day — the new scoring format saw them lose the gold in the final races. They arrive in Eckernförde fired up to prove themselves all over again.
Norway's Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland are the ones who beat them to that world title — and it seems Norway is on a serious winning streak at the moment, with the football team stunning Brazil in the World Cup just yesterday. Sweden's Vilma Bobeck and Ebba Berntsson, silver medallists at the 2025 World Championship, are another seriously strong team to watch.
Italy's Jana Germani and Giorgia Bertuzzi are back together in the boat — and we know exactly what they are capable of, so we would not be surprised at all to see them at the top of the fleet. Meanwhile, Olympic Champion Odile Lambriex-van Aanholt has confirmed she will sail the whole campaign with Karlinde van Arendonk, who comes to sailing from top-level field hockey — one of the most intriguing new partnerships in the class.
And once again, watch out for the Germans. The Olympic team of Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille lead a group of really promising home teams, but all the German FX crews have proved themselves capable — anything could happen.
Nacra 17
In the Nacra 17, there's a fascinating new German entry. Alica Stuhlemmer — Olympic bronze medallist from Tokyo 2020 — is back in the class after a short spell transitioning to the iQFOiL. She has decided to return to the Nacra and will be racing this week with new partner Julian Hoffmann.
The rest of the fleet is stacked too: France's Tim Mourniac and Aloise Retornaz arrive as silver medallists from the Worlds, while Britain's John Gimson and Anna Burnet — the defending European Champions, fresh off a dominant Kiel Week win — lurk dangerously in the background.
One notable absence: the newly crowned World Champions, Ugolini and Giubilei, will not be racing in Eckernförde, which leaves the door wide open.
The brisk Meltemi which yesterday propelled the fleet off to a fast start has continued to persist into the second day of this 6th edition of the AEGEAN 600 organized by the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club (HORC) and Olympic Marine.
The breeze has held at 15-20 knots throughout most of the race course, giving all teams fast reaching and downwind rides throughout the first half of the 605-mile race.
The race leaders based on elapsed time – Claudio Demartis's Reichel/Pugh 90 Procesecco Doc Shockwave 3 (ITA) and George Procopiou's Volvo 70 Aiolos (GRE) - were match racing most of yesterday and into last night, including while transiting the spectacular caldera at Santorini.
Yet Shockwave managed to take the lead and extend up until the notorious wind holes in the lee of the island of Rhodes, where Ailoos fell back and Frederic Puzin's Carkeek 54 Daguet 5 (FRA) took the runner-up position. Two-thirds along the upwind leg towards the next turn at Kandelioussa, Aiolos managed to take back second place.
Due to the quick pace of the race most of the fast boats in the fleet went through the transit gate at Santorini in darkness, but in the early morning hours the back half enjoyed spectacular views on the volcanic structures of this world-famous collapsed caldera. There are few scenes like this in all of offshore sailing.
At the halfway point in the race at the north end of Rhodes, SHOCKWAVE's average speed around the course was 12.6 knots, shy of the 13.6 knot average pace that the Farr 100 LEOPARD 3 (MON) had while setting the monohull course record in 2023, but not insurmountable if the Meltemi holds in strength and direction for the remainder of their race. It will depend on the depth of any future wind holes that may arise in the lees of islands on the eastern half of the race course.
At the 30-hour mark since the start, the overall race leader on IRC corrected time is Deguet, followed by another French team, the Mach 50 Palanad 4, with Russ Whitworth's TP52 Final Final (USA) in third. In ORC scoring the overall leader was Paval Stole's JPK 10.30 Mary S (CZE), who was just rounding the southern end of Karpathos, while Paris Kyriacopoulos's XR 41 Xiphos (GRE) was ahead headed for Rhodes and third-placed Pneuma (POL), Andrzej Rozycki's JPK 10.30, was behind just breaking away from Kasos.
Sailing with team mate Maciej Marczewski, Rozycki leads the ORC Double Handed division, while Massimo Juris and Pietro Luciani racing on their JPK 10.80 Colombre (ITA) maintain their lead from yesterday in IRC scoring, as does Michalis Aftias and Stathis Balomenos's Outrider 4x Lynx (ITA) in the Multihull division.
