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Luna Rossa in Naples, champions and a new generation on the same course

From Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita to Marco Gradoni, Margherita Porro and Alice Linussi, Luna Rossa is building its future in Naples towards the 2027 America’s Cup

Luna Rossa prepares for the Naples Preliminary Regatta with two AC40s and a sailing team bringing together established champions, young talent and leading female sailors

In Naples, Luna Rossa is not simply preparing for another regatta. The Italian team is bringing together different experiences, generations and sporting backgrounds ahead of an event that represents another step towards the 38th America’s Cup in 2027.

For the Preliminary Regatta Naples, starting on 24 September, the team will race two AC40s. The first brings together some of the best-known names in international sailing; the second gives space to young sailors and female athletes who have already demonstrated that generational change is no longer something belonging only to the future.

The final line-ups will be decided on a daily basis, allowing athletes to rotate and continuing the integration between the Senior Team and Youth & Women sailors that Luna Rossa has been developing for months.

Two AC40s, one project

On the first boat, Luna Rossa 1 – Team Senior, Peter Burling, Marco Gradoni and Ruggero Tita are available as helmsmen. Maria Giubilei, Gianluigi Ugolini and Umberto Molineris have been selected as trimmers.

On the second AC40, Luna Rossa 2 – Team Y&W, Margherita Porro, Massimiliano Antoniazzi and Lorenzo Sirena are the helmsmen. Maria Vittoria Marchesini can take the dual role of helm and trimmer, while Giovanni Santi and Alice Linussi complete the group of trimmers.

Rather than two completely separate squads, the line-ups reflect a common programme. The rotation is intended to give every sailor an opportunity to compete and, above all, allow the younger athletes to sail alongside competitors with Olympic and America’s Cup experience.

Experience at the highest level

The Senior Team brings together very different sporting careers.

Peter Burling arrives with an Olympic gold and silver medal and three consecutive America’s Cup victories, achieved in 2017, 2021 and 2024 with Emirates Team New Zealand. He joined Luna Rossa in 2025 and was already part of the Senior Team that won the Preliminary Regatta Sardinia in 2026.

Alongside him is Ruggero Tita, a two-time Olympic champion in the Nacra 17 at Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024, who was also involved in Luna Rossa’s previous America’s Cup campaigns.

Marco Gradoni provides an almost natural connection between the generations. After winning three consecutive Optimist World Championships and becoming the youngest World Sailor of the Year, he continued his progression to victory in the 2024 Youth America’s Cup and the Youth & Women title at the 2026 Preliminary Regatta Sardinia.

The new generation is no longer waiting

It is perhaps the second crew that most clearly illustrates how Luna Rossa is evolving.

Margherita Porro and Alice Linussi were already members of the team that won the 2024 Puig Women’s America’s Cup. Maria Vittoria Marchesini shares that achievement and, like several of the young athletes within the programme, has followed a path from youth classes towards foiling.

Massimiliano Antoniazzi progressed from Optimist and ILCA sailing towards foiling, while Giovanni Santi arrives with the 2024 29er World Championship and an U23 European bronze medal in the 49er.

Lorenzo Sirena, a two-time Youth Nacra 15 World Champion, joined Luna Rossa’s youth programme in 2026 ahead of the 2027 Youth America’s Cup.

Simply calling them "young sailors" therefore risks understating their experience. Many arrive in Naples having already won world, European and international titles.

Naples becomes a laboratory for 2027

During the summer, Luna Rossa worked on two programmes in parallel. The AC40s sailed in Naples with the Youth & Women team, joined at different stages by Senior Team sailors, while the AC75 continued its programme in Cagliari.

Training in the Gulf of Naples during the same period of the year in which the 2027 America’s Cup will take place has allowed the team to begin learning about the future racecourse in the most relevant seasonal conditions.

It cannot, of course, predict what will happen a year from now, but it allows the team to collect data, observations and direct experience in an area that is set to become the centre of the sailing world.

This is why the weeks spent in Naples carry a significance that goes beyond the preliminary regatta itself.

From Palumbo Superyachts to Nisida

Since 3 July, Luna Rossa’s temporary base has been hosted at Palumbo Superyachts Refit. With that phase now completed, the team is moving to Nisida, where training will continue until racing begins.

It is a logistical change, but also a symbolic one: the programme is entering the phase closest to competition.

Max Sirena highlighted the value of the work carried out simultaneously in Naples and Cagliari and the importance of the information gathered during the summer. Those weeks of sailing must now be converted into performance on the racecourse.

A team building its own future

The simultaneous presence of Olympic champions, America’s Cup winners, Women’s America’s Cup sailors and young athletes emerging from Olympic classes and foiling perhaps provides the most interesting interpretation of Luna Rossa’s selection for Naples.

The team does not appear interested in drawing a clear dividing line between those representing the present and those expected to shape the future.

It puts them on the water together.

On boats such as the AC40, where speed, coordination, communication and the ability to interpret rapidly changing conditions are closely connected, transferring experience means above all sharing it directly while sailing.

Naples, the first horizon

The Preliminary Regatta beginning on 24 September 2026 will provide the first competitive test of this work.

The result will naturally matter, but Naples represents something broader for Luna Rossa: another opportunity to build a group capable of approaching the 2027 challenge with more options, more shared experience and an emerging generation already accustomed to competing at the highest level.

With the 38th America’s Cup itself heading to Naples, every day spent sailing in the Gulf inevitably takes on additional meaning.

This time, Luna Rossa’s future is not being prepared far away from the racecourse.

It is already sailing on its waters.

15 September 2026
© MED Yachting Editorial Team
Luna Rossa in Naples, champions and a new generation on the same course
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