America's Cup Recon: France returns - Three AC75s sailing this week
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 5 Aug 15:06 BST
La Roche-Posay - Day 5 - August 4, 2026 - Lorient, France © Pierre Bouras / America's Cup
Three America's Cup AC75 teams have been on the water in the first three days of this week.
On Tuesday, the Italian Challenger, Luna Rossa sailed out of their base in Cagliari, Sardinia for the 14th sailing day. The boat has stayed in the same configuration for mast and foils, however has trialled several rudders - probably from the 2024 America's Cup campaign.
The French team La Roche-Posay also went sailing again on Tuesday for the first time since their capsize, almost a month ago, on July 7. The French sailed from their base in Lorient, France, and had a productive, 3hr 20 min sailing session, following several hours of dockside checks
Today, Wednesday, Emirates Team New Zealand resumed sailing after an eight-week break, in their AC75 deep into the Hauraki Gulf, for the 17th Day of their allowed 45-day quota. They struck a nice if chilly weather window with sunny conditions, but a cold SE - SSW breeze of 15-17kts. The Defenders appeared to have a straightforward 5-hour session, docking out around 1000hrs and returning around 1500hrs.
No Recon report, videos or images of the ETNZ session were available at the time of publication or 2200hrs UTC Wednesday. Due to illness, we were unable to get our own content of the ETNZ session.
La Roche-Posay Racing Team - Sailing Day 5, August 4, 2026 - Lorient, France
Crew List:
- Starboard Helm: Quentin Delapierre (FRA)
- Port Helm: Diego Botin (ESP)
- Trimmer/Flight Control: Jason Saunders (NZL/FRA)
- Trimmer/Flight Control: Florian Trittel (ESP)
- Position 5: Maelenn Lemaitre (FRA)
- Position 6: Antoine Rucard (FRA)
Wind & Sea Conditions:
- Summary: Broken cloud, Sunny, Rain squall after midday
- PM Wind: 250-260°: 11-15kts initially easing to 8-10kts5-7kts
- Sea State: Choppy easing later
- Dock Out: 1346hrs
- Dock In: 1812hrs
- Time sailed: 200minutes
Recon Report – Sailing Day 5 – August 4, 2026
La Roche-Posay Racing Team returned B1 to the water at Lorient for its first sailing day since the D7 [Sailing Day 4] incident on 7 July, after what appeared to be an extended repair and rebuild period of close to a month.
The mast rolled out around 09:55 and the boat came out of the shed at 10:07. Two small white sensors appeared to have been added at the masthead, along with a masthead windex and anemometer unit. The foils, extension fences, wings, flaps and rudder shaft all appeared consistent with the configurations used on previous sailing days; the port wing tip carried a slightly shinier silver area, with nothing else obviously changed. On the aft face of the mast tube the two upper openings appeared to have been covered over, possibly with a film. Work appeared to be continuing on the spare mast outside the shed, with a good deal of sanding work observed.
The morning ran to a westerly breeze of around 10 kt on the pontoon, with the mast raised late for stepping to keep it out of the wind. The boat was lifted around 11:15 and then held for a long first commissioning wait hanging just above the water, with the foils lowered and raised for testing. Most of the attention through this phase appeared to centre on the port central pod, with sustained discussion and work there, and a shorter moment on the Cunningham system. A brief rain squall passed around midday.
The boat was put in the water around 12:10 for a second wait, during which the control-system routine checks were run, with repeated control-system noises, traveller and sheeting-angle movements and mast rotation to both sides, the remaining concern again appearing to come from the port central pod. The dock exit was held well past its expected time, with a delay announced to the harbour on the radio, before the boat docked out at 13:46.
Sailing took place through the afternoon in a shifting WSW breeze, read at around 250 to 260 deg at Feu de Kerroch, with a distinctly lighter patch in the lee of Groix. On arrival in the sailing area the breeze was still fairly firm and shifty, over a notably choppy, almost swelly sea. Once towed out, the mainsail and a jib (appearing to be J3-2) were hoisted, and after a further wait the boat got sailing, making a first brief self-start onto the foils at 15:07 on a starboard reach.
Foiling continued from around 15:14, with a mix of bow-tow assisted starts and, later in the day, self-starts without a tow. The breeze went light around these early runs, which appeared characterised by short legs, frequent touchdowns and unstable ride height and direction in the light, choppy conditions. A jib change, appearing to be to J2-1, was made around 15:48.
Through the rest of the afternoon, the breeze became more constant, and the sea flattened, and the boat looked genuinely more stable in this later part.
The boat appeared to accelerate quickly when bearing up. On one gybe exit, the boat heeled significantly, resulting in a heavy touchdown (10:16–10:45 in the video highlights). On one or two occasions, the boat also appeared slow to rebuild speed following a gybe. A battery change was carried out around 17:07 before the final run. Estimated angles from the RIB track put upwind around 40 to 50 deg and downwind around 140 to 155 deg.
Sailing finished at 17:30, the jib and then the mainsail were dropped, and the boat took a tow back to the marina, docking in at 18:12 to visibly happy faces aboard. In an interview at the dock, Antoine Rucard attributed the layoff to the D7 incident, which he related to water ingress that led to a battery fire, and said the systems had been stripped out of the boat for the repairs, with the boat still in a commissioning phase. The boat was back in the shed at 19:56.
Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 14, August 4, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia
Crew List:
- Port Helm: Marco Gradoni/Ruggero Tita
- Starboard Helm: Peter Burling (NZL)
- Port Trimmer: Gigi Ugolini (ITA)
- Starboard Trimmer: Vittorio Bissaro (ITA)
- Pos: 5: Maria Giubilei (Port)
- Pos 6: Francisco Avezedo (engineer)
Wind & Sea Conditions:
- Wind: @12:15 4-6kts 140°, @12:55 6-8kts 190°, @13:30 9-11kts 135°, @14:25 11-13kts 140°
- Sea State: 0.4m Chop; Cloudy day
- Dock Out: 1210hrs
- Dock In: 1640hrs
- Time sailed: 5hrs
- Foiling time: 118mins
- Tacks: No data
Recon Unit Report: Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 14, August 4, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia
For their 14th sailing day, the team rolled out their boat at 10:00 with a refined bow paint job and with the longer legacy rudder R06 mounted, perhaps indicating that modifications are being carried out on the newer R05. The GoPros were removed from the starboard wing, leaving only the usual slim camera housings on both wings. The mast was quickly stepped, and the boat splashed. Dock-out was scheduled for 11:30. Under a cloudy sky, the sea breeze had already filled in by then. Just outside the harbour, however, conditions were rather light, with 6–8 knots from 140° and a short 0.4 m chop.
The starting crew consisted of Marco Gradoni (helm), Umberto Molineris (trim), and Maria Giubilei (5th) on port, and Peter Burling (helm), Vittorio Bissaro (trim), and Francisco Avezedo (engineer/6th) on starboard. Later in the day, Ruggero Tita replaced Marco Gradoni, Ugolini replaced Bissaro, Pietro De Luca (engineer) replaced Francisco Avezedo, and engineer Pietro De Luca also rotated into Maria Giubilei's position. By 12:00, J2-9 was hoisted and paired with mainsail M2-1, on which additional red stripes were noted on both skins near the head. To be confirmed whether a reinforcement has been added on top two main battens skin portion.
The first session began with a tow-to-fly by the chase boat. The yacht started sailing on starboard tack, successfully completing first tacks in patchy and light conditions. At 12:12, the boat splashed hull-borne following a mistake while exiting the first gybe. Further offshore, the sea breeze had eased even further to approximately 5 knots, prompting the team to attempt a self take-off, successfully executed. Foil-borne again by 12:15, the boat quickly bore away to resume downwind sailing. Several upwind and downwind legs were completed during the first session, with a higher number of touch-and-goes and touchdown manoeuvres observed. As on previous days, the mainsail head leech tended to remain quite open, leaving a visible gap between the two skins on some modes (see recon selects).
For the second session, the breeze had increased slightly by 12:55 to 6–8 knots from 135°. Foil-borne once again, the team practised several tacks followed by a tack-bear-away sequence. The chase boat then stopped, and an extended period of freestyle sailing with what appeared to be pre-start manoeuvring routines was observed until approximately 13:20. At this point, the first of two battery swaps was carried out, together with the first crew rotation. Throughout the day, the team appeared to focus considerably more on pre-start routines and manoeuvring than on straight-line sailing. Tight and complex manoeuvres such as double tacks, double gybes, full circles, and JKs were practised intensively. Although a few mistakes were observed, the overall level of consistency remained good.
By 13:30, the sea breeze had built to 9–11 knots from 135°. J2-9 was lowered and the team took a relatively long floating break. During this period, technicians were observed working on the first batten hardware as well as the mainsail track beneath the fairing panels. RU visibility was obstructed by the crew and the chase boat, making it unclear whether the team was addressing a real hydraulic issue or simply conducting a longer routine inspection.
Sailing resumed approximately one hour later. J3-1 was hoisted at 14:25 in 11–13 knots. Once foil-borne, the yacht completed several tacks before touching down and decelerating during a bear-away, possibly due to excessive rudder pull-down combined with wave impact. After two upwind and downwind legs, the team returned to intensive pre-start manoeuvring. A total of five pre-starts were sailed, alternating between port and starboard entries. Occasional but minor rudder stalls and ventilation events were observed during the sharper turns. Batteries were swapped again and crew rotated in positions 5 & 6.
Following a short debrief between the sailors and coaches, the fourth session commenced, with the yacht foil-borne again by 15:10. The breeze had eased slightly to 10–12 knots under the persistent cloud cover, and the team went directly into three additional pre-start practice runs near Sella del Diavolo. The boat then decelerated just in front of the LR base inside the harbour, the sails were lowered, and the team docked in after approximately 118 minutes of total foiling time.