Exclusive interview: Tom Slingsby on Australia's America's Cup return

In this wide-ranging interview Tom Slingsby sits down with The Foil’s Andy Rice to give an inside look at the current state of the Australian America’s Cup campaign.

The man widely regarded as the best sailor on the planet right now is busier than ever, and in this conversation he lays out exactly what Team Australia Challenge is up against as it returns to the America's Cup for the first time in a generation.

Slingsby talks through the childhood memories that planted the dream, the curious overlap of SailGP and the Cup – one a monthly sprint, the other long stretches of training and almost no racing – and why he refuses to give up the racing edge that he believes cost his old Oracle camp dearly.

He walks through the crew taking shape, the engineering trade-offs of reworking Team New Zealand’s 2021 boat, and the clock that's ticking very loudly, with the launch of their AC75 pushed all the way to Naples in spring 2027.

Along the way the conversation also touches on the Coutts-Dalton cold war, the Disney+ deal that could transform the sport, Hugh Jackman in the debrief room, and the hard truth about being first-time challengers.

Whether all of it adds up to a shot at the Cup is the question Tom keeps coming back to – and the one we’ll all be watching for.