Crispy, capsized and a case of the wrong jib: Day 1 in Naples

Luna Rossa made it look easy on the opening day of the Preliminary Regatta. Everyone else had a slightly more eventful time.

The Bay of Naples finally got its racing underway today, and the home favourites wasted no time in reminding everyone whose postcode this is. Luna Rossa's senior team leads comfortably after day one, which is the sort of news that will have Naples humming happily over dinner tonight.

Behind them, the fleet had a busy day. Aside from a solid day for the Italians, it was a very good first race for the Americans, with ARC Team USA comfortably leading all the way around the two-lap race track to take the win ahead of Pete Burling and his Italians.

By contrast, it was an undesirably dramatic day for La Roche-Posay. The French team were a smidge over the line at the start of race two and were called OCS. In theory, that's a simple loop back to restart. In practice, as port-side trimmer Flo Trittel explained afterwards, the processes weren't quite there. There was a moment of panic, a hasty bear-away, a nosedive, and then a full capsize, with Flo ending up on the damp side of the whole affair.

It was a miserable day for GB1, and for a while nobody onshore could work out why. Then Dylan Fletcher shared a photo of what had been happening underwater, and it all made sense. It wasn't pretty. A so-called ‘cover plate’ had ripped off the foil, making for all kinds of bubbling and horrible hydro-lack-of-dynamics. That was never going to be fast.

The team's AC40 has form. Word on the dock is that the boat is known as 'Crispy,' because at one point in its chequered history the boat caught fire, an accidental electrical fire, and the nickname stuck. It seems to have been letting the British down ever since. By the time GB1 finally retires it, the boat might not even qualify for the honour of a Viking burial. You have to wonder whether Dylan has fallen well and truly out of love with the AC40. We wouldn't blame him.

GB1's trouble was below the waterline. Alinghi's was above it. Italian trimmer for the Swiss team, Pietro Sibello, admitted the team chose the wrong jib for the first race, going with the J1, which left them overpowered. They changed to the J3 for the later race and looked much more comfortable.

GB2 had the opposite of GB1's day, and Hannah Mills was quick to steer the credit towards the helm on the other side of the boat. Ellie Aldridge isn't the first name you'd think of as an America's Cup driver, but she's an Olympic champion in kitefoiling, and today she drove brilliantly from the port side. If you know what she can do on a kite, perhaps it isn't such a surprise. As Hannah told The Foil, Ellie has a rock-solid approach to life. She’s unflappable.

Just behind Ellie in that boat is trimmer Sam Webb, who is all of 20. He's still racing the junior 49er events, not even the senior circuit yet, and here he is racing in the America's Cup. We're not jealous at all. Not even slightly.

From one of the youngest in the fleet to one of the more seasoned. Nathan Outteridge is 40, and we hope he doesn't mind us saying so. He was pleased with the flexibility in today's broadcast window. It’s a welcome change from SailGP which sticks so rigidly to the 90-minute window, with the welcome exception of last weekend on Lake Geneva.

As Nathan pointed out, the breeze filled in later in the afternoon, and there's no point racing in marginal conditions when you don't have to. Nathan's day was on the average side. If he can get out of the starting blocks more cleanly, he could be the one to put Luna Rossa under some pressure.