When Luna Rossa Won Naples, It Suddenly Felt Like 2027 Was Getting Real
Hi everyone,
there was something about Luna Rossa’s victory in Naples that felt different from an ordinary preliminary result.
It was not only the trophy or the fact that the Italian team had beaten Emirates Team New Zealand again. It was the place where it happened.
Naples will host the America’s Cup in 2027, and watching Luna Rossa cross the finish line first in those waters made next summer feel much closer than it had before.
The Italian team had already won in Cagliari in May, defeating Emirates Team New Zealand in the final match race of the first Preliminary Regatta of this America’s Cup cycle.
Technically, then, Sunday’s success was another preliminary victory.
But standing on the waterfront, surrounded by a huge crowd and watching the Italian boat beat New Zealand once again, it was difficult not to think about the bigger picture.
Naples will be the stage for the 2027 Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup Match.
Luna Rossa has just won there.
That does not mean the America’s Cup is already theirs. Far from it.
The real AC75 boats are still being developed, the AC75s will be a completely different challenge from the AC40s used in these preliminary events and the Louis Vuitton Cup will still decide who earns the right to challenge New Zealand.
Still, sport is also about momentum.
And Luna Rossa has momentum.
The team won four of the eight fleet races in Naples and finished the fleet phase with 71 points out of a possible 80. Emirates Team New Zealand was second with 56 points.
Then came the final.
The two boats remained close during the opening part of the race, but Luna Rossa gradually created some distance. Peter Burling and Marco Gradoni were at the helm, while Maria Giubilei and Gianluigi Ugolini worked the sails.
By the finish, Luna Rossa was 17 seconds ahead.
Seventeen seconds may not sound like much in everyday life.
In a high-speed foiling match race, it is a meaningful margin.
What impressed me most, however, was not the size of the gap. It was how Luna Rossa managed the advantage.
There was no desperate final push and no dramatic comeback. Once the Italians had established their lead, they protected it.
That is often the difference between a good race and a mature one.
The crew did not seem to panic. The team kept making sensible decisions, controlled the rhythm and refused to give New Zealand an easy way back into the race.
There is another reason why the result feels particularly interesting.
Peter Burling is on the boat.
That name carries real weight in America’s Cup sailing. Burling knows what it takes to win this competition and was part of New Zealand’s remarkable recent dominance.
But alongside him is Marco Gradoni, only 22 years old.
That combination of experience and youth is fascinating.
It also reminds us that Luna Rossa is still building its final project.
The crew for the 2027 AC75 campaign has not been decided simply because someone wins an AC40 race. These preliminary regattas are testing grounds.
Teams are learning.
Sailors are being tested.
Roles are changing.
Engineers are collecting data.
Some decisions will work, while others will need to be reconsidered. Somewhere inside that process, the Luna Rossa of 2027 is slowly taking shape.
That is why I think it would be a mistake to look at Naples and immediately say that Luna Rossa will win the America’s Cup.
We do not know that.
New Zealand is still the Defender.
The AC75s remain the biggest unknown.
The Louis Vuitton Cup has not even been sailed yet.
But it would be just as wrong to dismiss what Luna Rossa has achieved.
Two Preliminary Regattas.
Two victories.
Two wins over New Zealand in the decisive match race.
That is not a guarantee.
It is evidence that the project is moving in the right direction.
Then there is Naples itself.
The crowd was enormous. The waterfront became part of the event, and the reaction when Luna Rossa crossed the finish line felt closer to the atmosphere of a major football final than to the image many people have of sailing.
Max Sirena joked that the support from the Neapolitan crowd had given the team a few extra knots.
Maybe it did.
At the very least, the crowd created an atmosphere that cannot easily be manufactured.
That could become important next year.
The America’s Cup has never been sailed in Italy before.
In 2027, that will change.
Naples will become the stage for the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup Match.
For Luna Rossa, this creates an unusual situation.
The team is not simply preparing for an international competition.
It is preparing for an America’s Cup at home.
That brings support, but it also brings pressure.
The sailors and the entire organisation will have plenty of time to think about that pressure between now and July.
For now, though, there is one image I want to remember.
An Italian boat flying across the Bay of Naples.
New Zealand chasing behind.
A huge crowd watching from the waterfront.
And Luna Rossa crossing the line first.
Cagliari made people believe.
Naples made the possibility feel much more real.
The difficult part starts now.
Do you think Luna Rossa can turn this momentum into a serious challenge for the 2027 America’s Cup?
What impressed you most about the victory in Naples?
Sources
World Sailing — Luna Rossa sets the early pace in Naples
America’s Cup — Preliminary Regatta Naples
Reuters — Italy dominate to win America’s Cup run-up regatta in Naples
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