The GB1 and Athena Teams announced their race crew for the up-coming Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Sardinia.
The Sardinia event will mark the first time in official America’s Cup racing that Women’s and Youth crews compete directly against senior squad sailors on equal terms in identical foiling yachts, with teams allowed to enter a second AC40 crewed by sailors from their Women’s and Youth teams.
Two AC40 yachts will represent Britain in the Preliminary Regatta: one raced by the GB1 crew, Challenger of Record for AC38, and the other by Hannah Mills’ Athena Pathway crew – a professional development programme for British female and youth athletes.
This means GB1 skipper, Dylan Fletcher MBE, and Athena Pathway skipper, Hannah Mills OBE, will be racing against each other for the very first time.
The GB1 crew is led by Dylan Fletcher who returns as co-helmsman and now skipper for GB1.
He will be joined on the opposite helm by Ben Cornish, and trimmers Bleddyn Mon, alongside Andrea Tesei, who joins from Italy’s America’s Cup Team, Luna Rossa.
Athena Pathway, the team representing Great Britain in the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup events, is led by Hannah Mills with Ellie Aldridge as co-helm.
20-year-old Sam Webb from Lymington, joins the crew through the Youth Trialist Programme and Matt Beck returns as trimmer.
GB1 Team Principal and Athena Pathway co-founder Sir Ben Ainslie commented:
“The racing is going to be great to watch with eight AC40s all fighting it out on the start line in Cagliari, the action will be spectacular. GB1 has been training hard alongside our Athena Pathway team, and we’re looking forward to getting out there and seeing where we stand against the other teams.”
“It’s certainly a new experience to have two British teams competing in a regatta, and I’ve seen from our AC40 training camps that there’s been some incredibly close racing between GB1 and Athena Pathway already, so it’s set to be an incredible spectacle to see Women’s and Youth teams and Senior America’s Cup squads going head-to-head.”
The Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Sardinia, set to take place in Cagliari, Italy, from 21–24 May 2026.
