Podcast: America's Cup is back! The full Cagliari debrief

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The America's Cup is finally back, and after eighteen months of SailGP we'd almost forgotten how different it feels. So Neil Cole sits down with Freddie Carr and Lewis Smith – The Foil's new reporter and multimedia editor, just back from Cagliari – to dive into our very first taste of AC38 fleet racing.

Lewis was on the ground for (nearly) the whole weekend, and shares his hot take: he prefers the AC40s to the AC75s, seeing the smaller boats as more playful and fun to chuck about. He and Freddie dig into how all the racing unfolded, from the chop of day one to the great leveller of flat water on day three, and the autopilot "superpower" that had the Luna Rossa Women & Youth crew outclassing everyone – right up until it all unravelled.

The guys discuss what it's like to come back to the Cup after living in SailGP – the longer races, the space on the course, the upwind starts, the joy of actually being able to hear the calls on board – and then run a quickfire vibe check on all eight teams.

We've also got the news of a second prelim in Naples at the end of September, Freddie on the legal cloud hanging over Athena Racing, then it’s a switch to SailGP and what's brewing in New York this weekend, where the question remains: who, if anyone, can stop the Aussies?

00:00:00 Start
00:02:23 Comparing the America's Cup to SailGP
00:11:01 Luna Rossa Women & Youth dominate
00:17:03 Day two tactics and upwind starts
00:24:20 Day three and the dramatic OCS penalty
00:33:10 Match race final: Burling vs Outteridge
00:45:06 AC38 prelim team-by-team vibe check
00:51:42 SailGP calendar and New York preview

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