America's Cup: French are first AC75 to arrive in Naples, Brits next
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 25 Sep 00:17 BST
La Roche-Posay Racing Team's AC75 arrives on a barge in Naples - September 24, 2026 © America's Cup Media
Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez's AC75 is the first Challenger to arrive in Naples, the venue for the 38th America's Cup.
Their team, La Roche-Posay Racing Team, has been sailing in the Atlantic Ocean from its base in Lorient, France, since the end of June.
Unfortunately, they capsized in light air a week into their commissioning exercise and lost a month - before resuming their buildup, which progressed well - completing six days of training. They are now on Sailing Day 10 of their 55-day sailing quota until January 15, 2027.
The team will continue their work-up in Naples after the second Preliminary Regatta concludes at the end of this weekend, once their base and team shore facilities are complete.
The team has a design partnership with America's Cup Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand, as well as their own in-house design team. The relationship began during the 2024 America's Cup cycle, when the French team built a boat that was a sister ship to Emirates Team NZ's America's Cup winner. Team Australia has a closer relationship with the New Zealand team over the repurposing of the 2021 America's Cup-winning AC75, which the Australian team has purchased.
Since the conclusion of the 2024 America's Cup, the French AC75 has been repurposed to compete in the 2027 America's Cup, lowering overall weight by 500 kg, removing all forms of manual power, and replacing them with battery power to pressurise all hydraulic systems. As they "launched" only one racing spar in the 2024 America's Cup cycle, the French are the only 2024 team permitted to build a new racing spar, while other teams (except new team Australia) have already used their mast quota and will race and train with legacy spars.
The other six teams in the 38th America's Cup have not formally announced their arrival and sailing programs in Naples, except that Team Australia told Sail-World last week that they would be shipping their AC75, being repurposed in New Zealand, directly to Naples, arriving at the end of February and commencing sailing on March 1. Emirates Team NZ are expected to be the last into Naples around a similar time frame.
Naples newspaper Il Mattino reports that the British team will be the next to arrive.
"The next to arrive will be the English team, whose boat is currently being refitted at a shipyard in Genoa and will be ready within a month. Then the boat will be transferred to Naples."
Legal action is ongoing between the British team Athena Racing and their former backer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, over ownership of the AC75 that won two races in the 37th America's Cup Match, sailing as INEOS Britannia.
After the French AC75 arrived mid-morning, practice racing got underway on the Bay of Naples, with nine teams competing in AC40 One Designs. They raced without incident in three races, with Luna Rossa, the host team, skippered by three-time America's Cup winner Peter Burling (NZL), winning all three.
Luna Rossa won the first Preliminary Regatta, sailed in Cagliari, Sardinia, on May 21–24 2026, beating America's Cup Champions Emirates Team New Zealand.
Racing proper in the second Preliminary Regatta begins Friday afternoon and continues until Sunday.
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