Team Australia's Glenn Ashby inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame

by Jacqueline O'Neill 19 Oct 10:13 BST

Team Australia's Head of Performance & Design, Glenn Ashby, has been inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame, joining the Class of 2026 alongside the Beken Dynasty, Peter Isler and Lowell North.

The induction took place on Friday 16 October (US time) in the Model Room of the New York Yacht Club, at a ceremony hosted by the Herreshoff Marine Museum and the America's Cup Hall of Fame.

Across five America's Cup campaigns with three teams, Ashby has won the Cup three times: as multihull coach with BMW Oracle Racing in 2010, as skipper and wing trimmer of Emirates Team New Zealand's winning catamaran in Bermuda in 2017, and as mainsail trimmer on Te Rehutai for New Zealand's successful defence in Auckland in 2021.

His Hall of Fame citation recognises him as the bridge between sailors and designers through one of the most technologically transformative periods in the Cup's history, from wingsailed multihulls and foiling catamarans to today's AC75 foiling monohulls. Selection Committee chair Steven Tsuchiya described him as "a superb skipper with a deep understanding of the sport's technical side", while Australia's representative on the committee, Blue Robinson, said Ashby "has been a significant contributor to the evolution of how the America's Cup is both raced and perceived".

Ashby said: "It's an absolute honour to be recognised alongside so many people I've looked up to, and to join a group that includes some of the greatest names in our sport. The America's Cup has always been a team effort, and this belongs as much to the sailors, designers, engineers and boatbuilders I've been lucky enough to work with over the years as it does to me. I'm proud to have started out as a kid sailing catamarans on the lake in Bendigo, and to be inducted as we're building an Australian challenge - my first for my home country - feels like the perfect full circle moment ahead of Naples next year."

Raised in Bendigo, Victoria, Ashby left school at 16 to start a sailmaking apprenticeship, a grounding that shaped his later work on sail design and aerodynamics. He has since won 17 world championships across the A-Class catamaran, Tornado and Formula 18 classes, took Olympic silver in the Tornado with Darren Bundock at Beijing 2008, and in 2022 piloted Horonuku to a wind-powered land-speed world record of 222.4 km/h on Lake Gairdner in South Australia.

Ashby now leads Performance & Design for Team Australia, representing the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club in the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup in Naples in 2027.

Team Australia CEO, Grant Simmer, said: "On behalf of everyone at Team Australia, congratulations to Glenn on this thoroughly deserved honour. Glenn has been at the heart of some of the most significant technical leaps in America's Cup history, and he has a rare ability to connect what sailors feel on the water with what designers need to know. To have him leading Performance & Design for our challenge is a huge asset that we're very grateful for, and we're proud to see him take his place in the Hall of Fame."