The first racing of the 38th America’s Cup this weekend sees women’s and youth crews line up against America’s Cup legends. Could some upsets be on the cards? We report from Cagliari, Sardinia20 May 2026. Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup – Preliminary Regatta Sardinia -Practice Race . ATHENA PATHWAY capsize.If you\u2019re an America\u2019s Cup winner and Olympic medallist, you don\u2019t expect to be beaten by a youth sailor who\u2019s only had a few days in a foiling monohull.
\nIf you\u2019re an America\u2019s Cup team manager, particularly one who has invested unpublishable sums in securing big names for your squad, you probably don\u2019t want to see your headline acts outshone by their junior stable mates.
\nBut if you\u2019re 21 years old and lining up against some of your childhood heroes, the opportunity to try and claim a scalp or two is the motivation of a lifetime.
\nThis weekend eight AC40s will fleet race on a single course \u2013 \u2018senior\u2019 and women\u2019s\/youth boats together. It\u2019s not only the first racing of the 38th America\u2019s Cup cycle, but it\u2019s also the first time female and mixed crews have ever raced the \u2018senior\u2019 challenger teams.
\nFor the women sailors, this is a significant opportunity to demonstrate that they can compete on an equal footing with the men. And for up-and-coming youngsters, it\u2019s a chance to take on some of the biggest names in the sport.
\nGood start for GB1 in practice racing ahead of the Louis Vuitton 38th America\u2019s Cup \u2013 Preliminary Regatta Sardinia
\nShaking things up
\nThree teams have two AC40s racing this weekend: GB1\/Athena Pathway; the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, and Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand.
\nThe British are the only team to have selected two female co-helms, Hannah Mills and Olympic gold medal kitesurfer and former 49erFX sailor Ellie Aldridge. They are joined by trimmers from the Youth America\u2019s Cup team. Meanwhile the GB1 boat is skippered by Dylan Fletcher with Ben Cornish taking the port helm.
\nBut the Brits have some form for using the AC40s to shake the apple cart.
\nThe GB1\/Athena teams have just finished a two-boat training camp in Cagliari which saw Fletcher\/Cornish and Mills\/Aldridge battling it out in the AC40s, and team boss Ian Walker confirmed that Mills & co had taken plenty of races from Fletcher\u2019s boat.
\nThe Brits have been running two-boat training camps for GB1 and Athena Pathway in Cagliari
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been brilliant, the two-boating,\u201d confirms Fletcher in Cagliari ahead of this weekend\u2019s racing. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to focus on fleet racing, so the sort of the training is very similar to on a big boat, doing 30-40 knots for 7 or 8 hours. And we\u2019ve had some very competitive racing \u2013 they\u2019ve taken races off us, we\u2019ve taken races off them, and it\u2019ll be interesting to see how we go.\u201d
\nThe squad ran a similar two-boat training camp in Barcelona, back in 2024. That camp was cut short when one of their AC40s famously caught fire, but not before Fletcher\/Cornish had done exactly what they were tasked to do \u2013 challenging Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott at every turn in the match-racing focussed training days. So impressive was their performance, that it contributed to Fletcher later replacing Scott on the helm of the AC75.
\nBen Cornish takes the helm
\nFor Ben Cornish \u2013 a sailor who has performed more different roles in recent Cup cycles than any, as both a trimmer, grinder, cyclor\/sailor, and now helm \u2013 those days were a big step-up.
\n\u201cLooking back for me, that was some of the most involved and exciting stuff for me. Obviously reaching the cup match was very special, but for me in terms of pushing my development personally and pushing my capabilities \u2013 I felt a little bit thrown into it at the start, but then actually developed through it. And really enjoyed it.\u201d
\n\u201cI can still remember quite vividly the first day. I was studying the playbook so heavily the night before, and the boat was completely new. Not many people had sailed the class at all at that point. That was like a real baptism of fire, but also I could feel the trust being instilled from Ben [Ainslie] from quite an early point for me, which gave me that confidence to keep pursuing it.\u201d
\nBen Cornish is co-helming opposite Dylan Fletcher on the GB1 AC40
\nFor Fletcher, who is now leading the British sailing team, it was a swift decision to invite Cornish back onto the helm. \u201cWhen we decided to look at the sailing team this time around, I was really keen to get Ben back involved from the start. We had a really good time when we were doing that two-boating \u2013 in the B-boat we called it. We had a lot of fun. I think Ben\u2019s just so solid and calm, and I don\u2019t know, he\u2019s just a really brilliant person to have on the opposite side of the boat. And we gel really well together.
\nIs he a good foil to Fletcher\u2019s energy? \u201cYeah, effectively I\u2019m slightly more the lead decision maker, and I think Cornish as well is sort of how I was for Ben [Ainslie]. In the offside helm as we call it, you make decisions whenever you need to make decisions, but there\u2019s a slight hierarchy, and sometimes with that there is sometimes a bit of a difference in tempo. Which is what I think is quite interesting because I felt like when I was sailing with Ainslie, I had to be the rock, never change, regardless of how he was. And that\u2019s what I think Cornish is doing nicely.\u201d
\n20 May 2026. Louis Vuitton 38th America\u2019s Cup \u2013 Preliminary Regatta Sardinia. Practice Race. ATHENA PATHWAY capsize.
\nYouth versus experience
\nThings got off to a tricky start for the Athena crew in the warm-up races on Wednesday, when a collision with an underwater object sent the AC40 into a sudden crash gybe before a slow capsize. But yesterday\u2019s (Thursday May 21) practice racing was a different story, with Mills and Fletcher crossing tacks in Race 2, before GB1 took the last race of the day.
\nAbove all, yesterday showed just how much of a threat the youth boats can be, with Italian wunderkind Marco Gradoni winning the first two races after duking it out with Pete Burling at the front of the fleet. It\u2019s no surprise that the Luna Rossa squad came out of the blocks competitively \u2013 they are they team that carried the most momentum from Barcelona, barely missing a beat before they set up camp in Cagliari and clocking over 100 days on the water already.
\nThe Italian Women\u2019s & Youth team leading in practice racing ahead of the Louis Vuitton 38th America\u2019s Cup \u2013 Preliminary Regatta in Sardinia.
\nBut for Gradoni, aged just 22, finishing ahead of the most successful America\u2019s Cup helm in modern history, and Luna Rossa\u2019s most high profile singing, Pete Burling, will have carried an extra edge.
\nThe Italian team has so many potential helms on their roster, that it\u2019s likely to create what Fletcher sagely described to me as \u2018its own set of interesting inter-team battles over there that are going to be ongoing\u2019.
\nThis event isn\u2019t a straightforward selector weekend, and a form upset won\u2019t necessarily result in a squad change. But this event is less about winning, and more about how teams handle not winning. If key players or pairings can\u2019t perform under pressure this weekend, then questions will inevitably be asked. And with just over a year until the main event, some quick \u2013 and potentially brutal \u2013 decisions might have to be made.
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The first racing of the 38th America’s Cup this weekend sees women’s and youth crews line up against America’s Cup legends. Could some upsets be on the cards? We report from Cagliari, Sardinia20 May 2026. Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup … <\/p>\n