Mozzy's take on Cagliari crew lists: who's in, who's out and why

It's the first preliminary regatta of the 38th America’s Cup this weekend, and the recently released crew lists have certainly raised some eyebrows. So, just what are the big reveals and hanging questions as we approach the first racing this cycle?

Let’s go team by team and break it down…

The Defenders are racing this weekend with two yachts. For ETNZ, the eye-catcher is the removal of Blair Tuke, a three-time Cup winner, from the sailing crew, who won’t be facing off against his old team-mate Pete Burling in Sardinia. The team’s press release last week painted a rosy picture of Tuke's move to a coaching role, but from the outside, it is hard to see this as anything other than the completion of the ousting of the dominant Burling/Tuke partnership, replaced by long-term rival Nathan Outteridge alongside Iain Jensen and Andy Maloney on the trim.

The big question for this outfit remains the port helm. Newly crowned 49er World Champion Seb Menzies steps in ahead of the experienced Chris Draper, another new signing for AC38. Menzies is a huge skiff and Moth talent (placing fourth at the 2024 Moth Worlds), while Draper is perhaps more suited to a sailor/coach role at this stage of his career. But if Menzies is truly being promoted to the first team, can he still race the Youth AC in an AC40 at the exact time the senior team will be turning their full focus to the AC75s?

On the ETNZ Youth & Women’s boat, the selection is a bit more straightforward, featuring talents like Olympic Bronze medallist Erica Dawson and Jacob Pye, a 21-year-old with two podium finishes at the Moth Worlds. However, by splitting the boat with youth sailors on one side and women’s sailors on the other, ETNZ has revealed a core philosophy: they value building relationships between helms and their trimmers over the relationship between co-helms.

Next up is the Challenger of Record. After months of speculation over legal wrangling, we’re sure they will simply be happy to be on the water. The headline here is one we had long expected: Ben Ainslie is not racing. Have we seen the last of Britain's most famous yacht racer? Well, he is technically still registered as a sailor for the team, but for now, it certainly seems he’s stepping back.

The knock-on is one of the more surprising moves of the weekend, as former cyclor Ben Cornish steps in behind the wheel to join Dylan Fletcher. On paper, this is one of the most remarkable role changes in recent AC history. Only 11 out of the 32 sailors this weekend have returned from AC75s, so for a cyclor to be one of those, despite these boats being fully battery-powered, is certainly an interesting development.

Cornish is a well-regarded sailor in his own right and competed at the top of the Finn fleet. But in a team supposedly looking to the future, it raises an eyebrow that a driving spot hasn’t been given to prodigious trialling talents like Finley Dickinson (U23 and U21 World Champ) or Ryan Littlechild (a two-time top-ten Moth Worlds finisher). Both possess individual records that arguably outstrip those of Cornish. Have GB1 unearthed a hidden gem in their grinder pit? Or is Cornish just a safe pair of hands to steer through the prelim whilst new talent is upskilled, or while others fulfil existing sailing obligations?

And it's not just the helms. With Andrea Tesei brought in alongside Bleddyn Mon on the trim – an Italian 49er sailor carrying Luna Rossa pedigree from the last two cycles – GB1 have looked outward where some expected them to look in.

Meanwhile, the Athena Pathway team for Women & Youth seems to stand quite separate from the main GB1 squad. This has become more obvious as both Luna Rossa and ETNZ have pushed for greater integration of their pathways with their main Cup programs. What's worth watching is how Ellie Aldridge handles stepping in for Tash Bryant, who just defected to the Australian challenge. Aldridge is an Olympic gold medallist in the Formula Kite, so speed won’t be an issue, but getting used to racing with a four-up crew could be.

What jumps out about the Athena team is that they are splitting the boat fore-and-aft – placing Hannah Mills and Aldridge on the helms, with youth sailors Sam Webb and Matt Beck trimming. Unlike the Kiwis, they are prioritising the co-helm relationship between the two women over the side-to-side helm/trimmer dynamic.

Following on from their hugely successful Women's and Youth campaigns for Barcelona 2024 – where they took both titles – Luna Rossa have doubled down, pushing harder than ever toward full sailing squad integration. They have been upfront that there is no "A" or "B" team, and we can expect crew rotations through both boats throughout the preliminaries.

The big question, however, is what they do with all their talent – a problem exacerbated by the arrival of Pete Burling, who takes the helm alongside 2x Olympic champion Ruggero Tita.

When Burling was initially signed, it wasn’t obvious he would be able to sail for the Italians under the strict nationality rules. Those rules have since been modified, but giving Burling a wheel will be a major disruption to homegrown Italian talents like Marco Gradoni and Gigi Ugolini. Both are Youth AC winners, Gradoni already proved himself against the senior fleet in Jeddah, and Ugolini is a newly crowned Nacra 17 World Champion. They are seemingly being pushed aside by external talent. Will this battle for the wheel help or hinder the Italians? Ultimately, the real test could be: how to manage the egos?

We will likely see Women's AC winning helm Margherita Porro return to action alongside Nacra 17 World Champ Maria Giubilei, and we should also look out for 2024 29er World Champ Giovanni Santi in the mix.

Alinghi has revealed a single boat packed with senior talent, and the headline grabbers are the two helms: Paul Goodison and Phil Robertson, the latter stepping up from a coaching role last cycle. Individually, both men have fascinating AC stories; they have been overlooked at times, sidelined through injury, and I can't think of two helms with more to prove or more unfinished business.

Sitting behind them are two trimmers carried over from the previous Alinghi campaign – Pietro Sibello on port, an Italian sailing under Swiss eligibility who lifted the Louis Vuitton Cup with Luna Rossa back in 2021, and Nicolas Rolaz on starboard, a former Opti World Champion, the youngest member of the squad, and the only AC75 sailor remaining from AC37.

The shadow over this crew is their lack of sailing time together. So much of success in the AC40s and AC75s relies on the relationships between co-helms, and between helms and their trimmers. With a mere 11 days together as a unit in the AC40, will they be left underperforming their individual talents in Sardinia? Furthermore, if this is a project still in the build phase, are these senior sailors the right ones to build around, and where, beyond Rolaz, is the next generation coming from for Alinghi?

What you notice straight away about the French boat is just how stacked with talent it is. Olympic gold medallists and SailGP champions Diego Botín and Florian Trittel have signed up this cycle to sail alongside Quentin Delapierre, who skippered the French boat for AC37. Rounding out the four-up is France SailGP flight controller Jason Saunders on the trim alongside Trittel.

If familiarity between helms and trimmers is the secret to AC40 success, then this team is probably top of the list.

The French surprised in AC37 with a decent prelim showing based on simulator time alone. This cycle, they have had the benefit of actual water time, amassing a good amount of sailing hours. This team is so many pundits' dark horse that they are in danger of just becoming a regular favourite.

The big question for the French, like so many of these squads, is intra-team rivalry. Displaced by the arrival of Botín and waiting in the wings is Enzo Balanger, a Moth World Champion. He didn’t have the best showing in the Youth AC, but that campaign was hindered by boat failures beyond his control. Will Balanger be comfortable with just another Youth AC run? Probably not. Any sign of weakness from the Delapierre/Botín partnership this weekend will have Enzo ready to step in.

This weekend in Sardinia is arguably one of the most significant preliminary regattas we have ever seen. Not because the points count toward the overall competition, but because with restricted time for technological developments, the outcome of this America's Cup may well be decided by the crew – and not the boat.

As the first time we get our first real look at the new sailors and lineups, and with a massive wave of new foiling talent coming through, the internal team rivalries developing over these prelims will be absolutely fascinating to watch.

We’ll keep you posted on all The Foil’s channels over the race weekend. First race of the Sardinia preliminary regatta is scheduled for 15:13 local Friday 22 May. Watch live on the America's Cup YouTube channel.