‘GB1 delivered its strongest racing of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Naples, battling at the front of the fleet to secure two fourth-place finishes on the final day’
That seems a strange tag-line to issue after you scrape a second-to-last finish, but Team GB1 has become used to making the best of what turned into a nightmare event for them.
Starting with a collision in practice with a Swiss team Alinghi chase boat while training on the Bay of Naples that required overnight repair work to the foil to get them back on the water.
They then suffered more foil problems on the first day of racing that resulted in two eighth place finishes – in a nine boat fleet – when the starboard foil cover plate ripped off, requiring more urgent shore-time repair work.
Apparently with a fully working AC40, Dylan Fletcher came out for day 2 with a storming performance, even briefly snatching the lead from Luna Rossa, to eventually finish third behind the Swiss in race 3. But it was short lived, another last place finish broke the potential comeback flow and they finished bottom again.
Day 3 was an attempt to salvage some credibility, described by Fletcher as . . . “finishing on a high, and it feels like we had a good day and came very close to having a great day. We were fighting at the front, making gains around the course, and that’s a positive way to finish the regatta.”
What it did show was that the British team is way off the pace, and while Luna Rossa and Emirates Team NZ are head and shoulders above the field – apparently time on the water really does count – even the French, with two capsizes, could find the time to win two races and take third overall !
Fletcher added, “Our strategy has always been focused on the bigger picture. Everything we’ve done in the AC40 has been about learning and improving our AC75 performance.”
The malaise seems to have carried over from the recent poor SailGP team performance, and with the reworked AC75 still in the shed in an unknown state, time on the water is not likely to improve any time soon.
Recent British America’s Cup challenges have been fraught with last minute crisis meetings and dramatic upgrades, it seems that this challenge is no different.
GB1, helmed by Dylan Fletcher and Ben Cornish, with Bleddyn Mon and Andrea Tesei trimming.
GB1 is Britain’s America’s Cup Challenger and the representative of the Challenger of Record, the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup.
The next AC38 event will be the opening series of six AC75 fleet races for the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series in Naples, on 22 and 23 May 2027.
The planned six opening races will be the first time that AC75 yachts have raced together on the same racecourse in a fleet race format.
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