The British America’s Cup team performance at the first AC38 Preliminary Regatta – sailed in one-design AC40 – had its highs and lows.
Both teams, the main GB1 team and the Athena Pathway Women & Youth team, had their moments, but the end result was finishing 7 and 8 in an eight boat entry.
Dylan Fletcher and the senior team on GB1 were hit by a gear failure on the first day. A one-design supplied part (traveller sheeve) failed during the warm-up laps and they were not able to rejoin the racing until race 3.
Fletcher explained, “We didn’t manage to fix it in time for the first race, then we thought we had fixed it for the second but that didn’t work. We finally managed to get a solution sorted for the third race.”
Fletcher and the GB1 team went all out to finish a gutsy second behind the Luna Rossa Women & Youth team who took the lead with a 1, 2, 1.
Day 2 proved no better, on the warm-up laps the team lost control of the flap on the port-side foil. It was quickly identified that the AC40 race boat was not sailable and they retired to allow the shore team time to solve the hydraulic system problem.
Interestingly CEO Ian Walker described the problem as a known issue with the pump on the AC40 which they had experienced many times before, and we’re always managing the problem . . .
Obviously coming into the first AC38 Preliminary Regatta, after several intensive training camps, with an unsolved, ‘known issue’ is not ideal and proved to be their Achilles’ heel.
That left day 3 with GB1 out of contention for the Grand Final match race, but they did manage to show their potential, taking victory in the race 7 before adding a third-place finish in the final fleet race of the day.
The Athena Pathway Women & Youth team, went from a capsize in race 2 on the opening day to a race win in race 5 of day 2, finishing with run of 6, 6 and 8th places for seventh overall.
Hannah Mills, Athena Pathway helm and Team Principal, reflected on the event:
“Overall, the regatta was a massive learning curve for Athena Pathway, with so much to take away from it. We will continue developing the wider squad and building experience across the team through our training camps in Cagliari. We’ll really increase the intensity of our training before turning our focus to the next Preliminary Regatta in Naples.”
Next up is the second Preliminary Regatta of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup which will take place in Naples from 24 to 27 September 2026.
In the meantime, GB1 continue with their AC75 development programme of the disputed Ineos AC75, which team principal Ben Ainslie claims they have possession of . . . although the location of that boat has not been revealed.
In a recent interview with sailing journalist Justin Chisholm, Ainslie said the team was “cracking on making the modifications and getting ready to launch” it and would be ready in the not too distant future to do just that.
