America's Cup Recon: June 26 - Luna Rossa - Big Day 5
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 27 Jun 16:17 BST
Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 5 - AC38 Recon - Luna Rossa Team - June 26, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia © LR Recon / America's Cup
Italian America's Cup Challenger, Luna Rossa sailed for its fifth day of the 2027 America's Cup cycle, from the team's base in Cagliari, Sardinia.
Sail Design team member Marco Capirani - a member of Luna Rossa since its first competition in the 2000 America's Cup in Auckland, gave a good interview. He was on board Luna Rossa today swapping between the 5th and 6th cockpits - getting a look at both co-helms Peter Burling and Marco Gradoni.
There is an interesting video sequence of a crew member working on the mainsail clew adjustments - while the AC75 is foiling, we guess at 30kts, in a likely apparent wind of 40kts.
Recon Report
The Italian team rolled out at 1100, stepped mast and craned in by 11:30hrs. Starlink devices were mounted on the primary chase and boats media post. The anemometer and the previously mounted device on the masthead were removed for this day. GoPros were positioned on the jib track, both port and starboard. With dock-out scheduled for 12:10, the M1 mainsail was being locked in. To hoist the first upper battens, technicians used a soft hammer.
Once out of the harbour, M1-8 was hoisted and paired with J3-9. Breeze was 10–12 kts from 150°. For the first session, 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 Marco Capitani (6th, sail designer, on interview).
The first session started at 1250hrs with a tow-to-foil. The boat sailed mostly straight and longer boards upwind, one on each tack, appearing quite unstable in ride height but stable in pitch. Unsure whether this was linked to any new crew rotation or testing behaviour. On the other hand, downwind it appeared more stable in ride height. On the longer downwind boards, a crew member on deck checked the main clew and tack using a tool. More manoeuvres were executed downwind, with bulb-to-bulb times again counted at approximately 6 seconds. Similar to the previous sailing day, the crew occasionally loaded the rudder downwards, trimming the boat bow-up with leeward heel.
The sea breeze increased closer to shore to 11–13 kts, turning right to 180°. After a quick lunch and sailor debrief, the boat was back foilborne at 13:50hrs. The second session focused on more manoeuvring, back-to-back upwind and downwind, and the boat looked more locked in for ride-height stability upwind. As the boat sailed closer to shore, some more complex manoeuvres were practiced, perhaps in a virtual starting box. Besides some minor mistakes during the aggressive bear-aways and round-ups, the boat seemed quite stable.
For the third session, the crew rotated: on port, Marco Gradoni (helm), Umberto Molineris (trim), and Marco Capitani (5th); and on starboard, Peter Burling (helm), Gigi Ugolini (trim), and Maria Giubilei (6th, sail designer). Foilborne by 14:40, this session unfolded similarly to the previous one, with a large series of manoeuvres at the beginning before switching to several pre-start routines. As this session ended, batteries were swapped.
For the fourth session, sailing resumed by 15:35hrs, and the breeze had ramped up to 15 kts with some minor chop. The boat sailed some diamonds with intensive upwind manoeuvres; the rudder was stalled in a couple of tacks. On the other hand, downwind, the boat sailed longer boards, and two-board immersion was observed in faster upwind and downwind modes. J3 was lowered at 16:16, the mainsail at 16:26, and the team was towed back to the harbour.
The team docked in at 16:45hrs, concluding the day with approximately 130 minutes of foiling time, 52 tacks, and 64 gybes.
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