Seven months after winning the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Emirates Team New Zealand announced on Thursday that the next edition will be held in Naples in spring/summer 2027. Pending publication of the Protocol, this announcement gives potential challengers a clearer picture.
In the end, it was Naples that came out of the hat! Since the 37th America’s Cup came to an end in October 2024, rumors have been numerous about the future host of the next edition. In Spain, despite an economic impact of just over a billion euros for Barcelona, the local authorities ultimately declined to take up a new position, while Valencia, which was interested, had to stop considering the project following the dramatic floods that hit the region at the end of October.
At the beginning of March, New Zealand fans thought they were seeing the Cup back home as Auckland City Council confirmed discussions with the defender, but their hopes were dashed a month later when the latter announced that the local authorities and the New Zealand government had “decided not to support the 38th America’s Cup in Auckland in 2027”. Who was left in the race? Three candidates: Naples – Trieste was also mooted for Italy for a time -, Athens and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), with whom Team New Zealand had already held discussions for the 37th edition and which, at the end of 2023, had hosted a preliminary regatta.
In the end, the Neapolitan bid was chosen, “one of the most ancient cities in Europe becomes the host city for the world’s oldest international sports trophy”, says the press release making the news official, specifying that the bases will be hosted on the former industrial site of Bagnoli, to the west of the city. What made the difference for Naples? Tip & Shaft tried in vain to reach the defender, but for many observers, the “final” was played out with Athens more than with Jeddah, which certainly had superior financial resources, but was opposed, for geopolitical reasons, by certain potential challengers. In 2022, Ben Ainsie, then head of the Ineos Britannia challenge, made no secret of the fact that he “didn’t feel comfortable” with the Saudi bid, this was also the case with the Americans.
The fervor of the tifosi
In any case, the announcement was enthusiastically welcomed by Italy’s Minister for Sport and Youth Andrea Abodi: “The choice of Italy, and Naples in particular, as venue of the 38th edition of the America’s Cup represents a tremendous opportunity for the entire country to enhance the value of its territory, to boost tourism, and to promote sports. (…) Once again, thanks to sport, Italy is the center of the world.” Naples Mayor Gaeto Manfredi added: “This achievement will generate a substantial economic impact on our territory, as experienced by previous host cities such as Barcelona and Valencia. The event is set to be the most significant sporting occasion ever hosted by Naples“.
This won’t be the first time the Cup has set foot in Campania, as Naples previously hosted two America’s Cup World Series in 2012 and 2013, ahead of the 34th Cup, which, according to the local authorities quoted in Thursday’s press release, “attracted over a million people to the waterfront for a week”. Contacted by Tip & Shaft, Philippe Presti, coach during the last two campaigns for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, confirms that the atmosphere will be just right: “We’ve already done the World Series there – I was with Oracle at the time – and the public enthusiasm was great, with curious and enthusiastic people, there’s a real Cup culture in Italy. Having a team with the city’s nationality [Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli] will also add a bit of spice, that fan dimension that was missing in Barcelona because there was no Spanish challenge. In Italy, the fervor of the tifosi is often incredible.”
This is confirmed by Grant Dalton, Emirates Team New Zealand boss: “Italians are the most passionate and engaged America’s Cup audience and obviously it is the home of Luna Rossa who are such an amazing team and strong competitor. So, from the Defender’s position it certainly feels like we are entering the lion’s den competitively.” What do the Italians think? Contacted by Tip & Shaft, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli passed on the official statement of Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena: “II’s exciting, because we’ll have the support of an entire country, and especially of the city of Naples, who I’m sure will be cheering for Luna Rossa”.
New AC75s?
A sober reaction for the latter, who believes above all that “for us as a team, this is an important moment, because we can finally focus — from both a design and training perspective — on the conditions we’ll face in the Gulf of Naples.” Indeed, this announcement was particularly eagerly awaited by future challengers who, given the short time between the 37th and 38th editions – Team New Zealand had already communicated on the year 2027 – were putting pressure on the defender to chose. As promised, the Kiwis must now unveil the Protocol – the rules of the Cup – before June 20, which is the subject of negotiations with the British challenger of record, Athena Racing – Ben Ainslie’s team “divorced” from its former partner Ineos, the latter having subsequently renounced its intention to line up for the 38th edition.
For Stephan Kandler, co-founder of the Orient Express Racing Team, who took part in the 37th Cup and is determined to follow up in two years’ time, “the city and the date conditioned a lot of things, and the Protocol will enable us to really move into the operational phase and make some announcements”. In any case, he is delighted with the choice of Naples, but also with the date, spring/summer 2027: “We’re very happy that the Cup is staying in Europe, in a city of the same stature as Barcelona. Above all, this very short cycle on the same boats (AC75) is the perfect scenario for us. Firstly, because it will cost less, and secondly, because we know we have a competitive boat [the design package had been bought from the New Zealanders] which we will optimize, and that no team will have the time to make extremely complex developments between now and 2027, so we’ll have to give priority to testing and sailing.”
Will it be possible to launch a new boat in this “short cycle”? Dimitri Despierres, an engineer at American Magic, believes that “it’s entirely feasible to build in nine months; right now, I get the impression that discussions revolve around keeping the old hulls and allowing a certain percentage of deck modifications. And of course, we’ll be able to build new foils.” For Philippe Presti, “there will be new boats; it wouldn’t make sense for the challenger of record to do the Cup again with the boat on which he lost against the Kiwis, so in my opinion, the measurement will remain the same, but the boats will be different.”
Asked about this, Stephan Kandler replies: “We’re waiting for the answer, but on the face of it, we might not have to rebuild a hull. As far as we’re concerned, our major objective for the next edition is rather to concentrate on the appendages, mast and sails.” And he concludes: “Since the last Cup, we’ve never stopped, we’ve recruited new people, worked on R&D, kept most of our partners who followed us in SailGP, a circuit on which we have a crew that remains at the highest level, this time, we’re in the same timing as the others.”
Photo : Carmen Hidalgo
