La Roche-Posay Racing Team the first to launch their AC75 in Naples

Written in collaboration with Roberta del Vaglio, The Foil’s on-the-ground reporter in Naples.

Last to launch in Barcelona, the French challengers are the first team to sail an AC75 on the Bay of Naples, with a full Mediterranean winter of training ahead before the Louis Vuitton Cup starts on 22 May 2027.

For once, La Roche-Posay Racing Team have time on their side. Last to launch in Barcelona, the French challengers became the first to sail an AC75 on the Bay of Naples on Monday, beating even local favourites Luna Rossa to it, and giving themselves a Mediterranean winter to get to grips with the waters where they will race for the America’s Cup.

That reversal was not lost on team coach Philippe Presti as the boat was launched from their Bagnoli base under a bright Mediterranean sun, 215 days before the Louis Vuitton Cup begins.

“We were the last one coming to Barcelona. We’re the first one to be here in Naples, and we want to use every hour to make a difference in the end,” he said in his address at the launch.

K-Challenge CEO Stéphan Kandler, who opened the ceremony, put the early arrival down to necessity. The team had already sailed the boat in Lorient, but Brittany cannot replicate the conditions awaiting them in the Gulf of Naples. “It is here in Naples that the competition will take place, so training here is extremely important for us,” he told The Foil.

Kandler also looked beyond the sport, describing the Cup as a friendly challenge between yacht clubs representing their nations. “In troubled times like these, the event reminds us that sporting competition is a contest whose sole purpose is the noble pursuit of victory in the world’s oldest sporting trophy,” he added.

Roberta del Vaglio, reporting for The Foil from Bagnoli, was there as the team headed out after the ceremony, but the light breeze fell short of what they had hoped for. In four to six knots, the AC75 reached around 25 knots, with only brief, tentative moments on its foils – a first taste of the new venue rather than a proper outing.

After refitting it from last cycle, the French first relaunched their AC75 in Lorient on 29 June, the third AC38 team to do so, before a capsize and subsequent battery fire on 7 July interrupted their summer programme. Sailing resumed on 4 August.

The French have retained their 2024 hull, a sister-ship to Emirates Team New Zealand’s Cup-winning Taihoro, but keeping the hull does not mean keeping everything inside it. With batteries replacing cyclors and the crew reduced to five, the deck, cockpits and systems have been reworked around a different way of sailing the boat. At least one of those five sailors must be a woman.

For Amélie Grassi, that requirement matters more for what it represents than for how the boat is sailed. “Having a woman on board changes little from a practical point of view, but a great deal symbolically, because this is the first time women will be sailing aboard AC75s,” she said. “I hope it will inspire future generations.”

Getting the AC75 to Italy was a project in itself. Aircraft and helicopter transfers were considered before the team settled on a road convoy to Sète and a barge across the Mediterranean. Since arriving in Bagnoli on 24 September, the boat has been fitted out for its next chapter on the water.

Now the emphasis shifts from getting the boat on the water in Naples to finding speed there. Beneath the paintwork, Presti saw “the thousands of hours of hard work to make it happen”, but there is plenty more ahead.

“We know it’s going to be a long way to the America’s Cup,” he said. “We are eight months full on to make this boat sail as fast as possible.”

Grassi is confident about what they have to work with. “We have a strong boat, and I’m sure it will be very fast,” she said.

The sailors at the launch included skipper Quentin Delapierre, co-helm Diego Botín and trimmers Jason Saunders, Leigh McMillan, Florian Trittel and Maëlenn Lemaitre, as well as Grassi, Enzo Balanger and Timothé Lapauw. The team has not yet named its racing five. Selection of its youth and women’s crews is also still under way, with the aim of finalising them by the end of 2026 or early 2027. In the meantime, sailors and their families have begun making Naples their temporary home.

The French have the head start in Naples, but not in AC75 development. Emirates Team New Zealand began sailing the refitted Taihoro in Auckland in March, while Luna Rossa's first AC75 commissioning sail in Cagliari was on 10 June.

The next AC75 expected back on the water is GB1's in November, with their design and sailing operations now together in Bagnoli after working separately in Portsmouth and Cagliari. The British have shifted resources away from their AC40 programme to get the bigger boat ready.

Tudor Team Alinghi are aiming to sail before the year-end break. BoatOne is still undergoing rule-compliance modifications in Genoa, with arrival in Bagnoli expected within weeks and a commissioning period to follow.

For the French, that leaves a window to make good on Presti's promise to use every hour before the Louis Vuitton Cup starts on 22 May 2027.