America's Cup Recon: June 24 - Luna Rossa - Day 4
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 25 Jun 14:53 BST
Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 4 - AC38 Recon - Luna Rossa Team - June 24, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia © Ivo Rovira / America's Cup
Italian America's Cup Challenger, Luna Rossa sailed for its fourth day of the 2027 America's Cup cycle, from the team's base in Cagliari, Sardinia.
Recon Report
After 10 days in the shed and having packed up both AC40s, LR rolled out at 0900hrs. A new device was mounted at the masthead alongside an anemometer. The wings were again equipped with the usual cameras on the centre sections. Rudder appeared not modified, to be confirmed by further shots and measurements.
Once docked out at 1030hrs, the following crew was on board: on port, Ruggero Tita (helm), Umberto Molineris (trim), and Maria Giubilei (5th); and on starboard, Peter Burling (helm), Vittorio Bissaro (trim), and Gigi Ugolini (6th).
As soon as the AC75 was towed out of the harbour, initial rudder trim for boat pitch tests were carried out at approximately 26 knots of boat speed. As the offshore Maestral gradually died off, the seabreeze slowly filled in. The legacy MN1-8 mainsail was hoisted and paired with the J1.5 at 1113hrs. The first session started at 1120 with a tow-to-foil. The boat sailed in a straight line for 8 minutes, while a sailor carefully observed the jib track. When the boat stopped, the sailors debriefed with the sail designer and sailmaker.
After standing by for a while awaiting for the pressure to fill the bay, the second session started at 1200hrs with another tow on starboard tack. The boat sailed mostly long straight-line legs, while occasionally loading the rudder downwards trimming the boat bow up. These tests were observed throughout the training session in different manouvers and modes. When the boat came to a stop after 12 minutes of sailing, the breeze had built to 6–8 knots. The J1.5 was lowered and the J2 was hoisted.
The third session focused mainly on manoeuvre execution, with a large number of consecutive tacks and gybes as the breeze increased to 11–13 knots. Bulb-to-bulb times on gybes were six seconds, an improvement compared to the previous sailing session in similar conditions. When the boat came to a stop, technicians boarded and the batteries were swapped. With the breeze at 12–14 knots, the J2 was lowered and the J3 hoisted.
For the fourth session, Marco Gradoni replaced Ruggero Tita, and Gigi Ugolini replaced Umberto Molineris. Then the team appeared to focus on series of consecutive gybes. At 14:10hrs, the breeze had increased to 15 knots from 180°, and the J3 was lowered in favour of the J4. Including several bear-aways, manoeuvres seemed more touch-and-go in the stronger breeze and choppier sea state.
For the sixth session, the boat appeared to struggle slightly with self-takeoff, particularly in keeping the platform flat once speed had been gained. Once foil-borne on two boards, a series of aggressive manoeuvres such as bear-aways, round-ups, tack bear-aways, and similar combinations were carried out. Once again, rudder downforce loading was observed across all sailing modes, especially in high-and-slow mode this time. The final part of the training involved pre-start manoeuvres inside a virtual box. Aside from a significant heel error during one gybe, the boat appeared to be under good control.
The team docked in at 16:25hrs, concluding the day with approximately 164 minutes of foiling time, 46 tacks, and 57 gybes.
Recon Interview:
Maria Giubilei was today's Recon interview but didn't reveal too much. She is a top Nacra 17 crew and was a trimmer on the Italian AC40 which won the Puig Women's America's Cup in Barcelona.
Additional Images: