America's Cup Recon: Maestrale delivers foiling enduro for Luna Rossa
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 11 Aug 02:20 BST
Luna Rossa (ITA) - Day 15 - August 7, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia © Ivo Rovira
Italian Challenger Luna Rossa enjoyed another great sailing day in Sardinia's Maestrale, clocking up their longest foiling time yet on Friday, August 7 - Sailing Day 15 for the Italian team.
The team spent 175 minutes foiling, according to the ACP Reconnaissance unit assigned to follow and track the team as they build towards the 38th America's Cup to be sailed in their home venue of Naples.
Luna Rossa are considered to be the most advanced of the six Challengers, being only two sailing days behind the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand. They have a strong coaching and sailing team - having done a mix of refresh of new self-developed and imported talent, following a slightly disappointing performance in the 2024 America's Cup, where they did not progress to the America's Cup Match in Barcelona.
The team's previous best foiling time was 130 minutes, set in a four-hour session on Day 5 at the end of June. While the breeze was of a similar strength 10-15kts and flat seastate, they were from a southerly direction, rather than Friday's Maestrale, which is a NW breeze blowing through the Bay of Angels.
"We had a beautiful Maestrale day here", said coach Simone Salva at the end of the extended session.
"We did a very long session, and tested a lot of new stuff [but no new foiling components were declared].
"We pushed the boat a little bit harder in, let's say, kind of top-end condition by the end of the day. So we are really happy."
"Obviously, it was an easier day compared to others because of flat water from the Maestrale offshore breeze."
Now on the 15th sailing day of their 69-day sailing Protocol-defined quota for 2026, Luna Rossa is falling into a steady routine - a combination of testing new design components and skills improvement within the sailing teams
Salva says their day splits into sections with the necessary testing of engineering and technical changes. "Then normally we roll into the technique part with maybe, as you have seen, more pre-start manoeuvres and like pre-start technique. We shuffle the program around a bit, but this is more or less our standard."
Although the Recon report doesn't specifically mention it, reading between the lines it seems that the Italians are running an AC40 program alongside the AC75 testing.
"As you can see on the water, with the AC75, we are not testing against another boat. We are just doing prestart manoeuvres, focused really on having it as clean as possible. And as you have seen, on the AC40s with two boats, we are pushing hard between having two boats on in the prestart."
He explains they run a similar program with the AC75 - with system checks in the shed. "It's a very similar program to the one we have on the AC40 at the moment, with system checks in the morning in the shed and then out on the water."
Salva said that for the rest of August, the Italian team will have a small holiday period for Ferragosto, which is a major Italian public holiday celebrated annually on August 15th. It marks the absolute peak of the Italian summer vacation period. "Then we will be scheduling more days of AC75 sailing during the rest of the month."
A feature of the sailing highlights video is the obvious lack of pressure in the AC75's sails - particularly the jib, during downwind gybes - an indicator of their generated apparent windspeed, and how fast the AC75 is sailing relative to the true windspeed.
Luna Rossa – Sailing Day 15, August 7 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia
Crew List:
- Port Helm: Marco Gradoni/Ruggero Tita
- Starboard Helm: Peter Burling (NZL)
- Port Trimmer: Umberto Molinaris(ITA)
- Starboard Trimmer: Gigi Ugolini (ITA)/ Vittorio Bissaro (ITA)
- P5: Maria Giubilei (Port)- P6: Marco Bernini/Rocco Falcone
Wind & Sea Conditions:
- Sunny all day
- Wind: @11:20 8-10kts 335°, @12:05 7-9kts 315° @13:05 10-12kts 320°, @14:15 10kts 315°, @14:50 16kts 320°
- Sea State: Flat
Times and Tacks
- Dock Out: 1030hrs
- Dock In: 1544hrs
- Time sailed: 4hr 55min
- Foiling time: 175mins
- Tacks: No data
Recon Unit Report: Luna Rossa - Sailing Day 15, August 7, 2026 - Cagliari, Sardinia
On this day, the team rolled out their boat at 9:15. The mast was craned up in the gusty Maestrale and stepped shortly after. The boat appeared to have an identical configuration compared to the previous sailing day, with the usual slim camera housings on both wings, two on stbd and one on port. Dock-out was scheduled for 10:30. Just outside the harbour, conditions were rather light to mid-range, with 8–10 kts from 335° and flat water.
The starting crew consisted of Ruggero Tita (helm), Umberto Molineris (trim), and Maria Giubilei (5th) on port, and Peter Burling (helm), Gigi Ugolini (trim), and Marco Benini (engineer/6th) on starboard. Later in the day, Ruggero Tita replaced Marco Gradoni, Bissaro replaced Ugolini, and Rocco Falcone rotated with Marco Benini and another engineer. By 11:00, M2-1 was hoisted, and the J3-1 was hoisted only 25 minutes later.
The first session began with a tow-to-fly by the chase boat. Further offshore, the breeze did not reach 10 kts, while closer to shore the pressure reached 13 kts. Overall, it was a very patchy morning, and the team sailed mostly in the stronger pressure area closer to shore. The yacht started sailing on starboard tack, successfully completing its first tacks, except for one where the board drop did not take place. The first bear-away took the boat downwind, where several gybes were completed successfully. On the next two upwind boards, a high-and-slow mode was sailed for a short period. Several upwind and downwind legs were completed before switching to aggressive bear-aways and round-ups on both tacks. Once these sequences ended, the boat returned to several straight-line boards where bow-up trim was achieved by loading the rudder. By the end of this first session, which lasted almost an hour, the team switched to pre-start routines and manoeuvring.
For the second session, the boat became foilborne by a self take-off and started executing back-to-back manoeuvres. A sequence of upwind tacks with short intervals, by means of approximately 5seconds in between, was executed. The same routine was then repeated on the downwind legs. Gybes and tacks from port to starboard appeared more consistent, with a higher success rate in terms of touch-and-gos, exits, and accelerations. Once these sequences were completed, the boat again sailed aggressive bear-aways and round-ups. After an additional 20 minutes of foilborne training, the boat stopped, and the sailors and coaches debriefed over lunch.
By 13:43, the boat was again foilborne and sailed a long downwind board on port tack. The crew was noted walking on deck, checking the main track and main foot. During this straight-line board, rudder loadings and bow-up trim were observed. Once turned back upwind, the boat sailed several long upwind boards, occasionally switching to high-and-slow mode again, sailing just above minimum foiling speed and building speed slightly when it decelerated excessively. A longer upwind stint was sailed on both boards before a bear-away followed.
The first gybe did not seem quite in control on the exit, and while turning up, the boat developed excessive windward heel with a bow-up pitch, lost control, and splashed hullborne while decelerating. A good recovery followed, and the crew kept sailing. The focus then returned to pre-start routines for the last part of this session. Overall, the team did not appear as consistent as on previous days, with several mistakes observed in terms of jib control, board drops, and similar execution errors.
For the fourth session, sailing resumed by 14:30, and the team proceeded with another intensive pre-start practice for around 20 minutes. Similar routines and sequences were sailed during each pre-start practice. As the Maestrale had ramped up to 16–18 kts, the J3-1 was lowered and the J4-5 was hoisted instead. Following a short break, the fifth session commenced. The yacht self took off on starboard tack and sailed several upwind and downwind legs at a higher pace.
Upwind targets involved end-plating the hull and maintaining leeward heel. The consistency of the manoeuvres appeared to improve during the final stint. At 15:44, the boat decelerated just in front of the LR base inside the harbour, the sails were lowered, and the team docked in after approximately 175 minutes of total foiling time.
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