The Foil's guide to Cagliari Prelim: what to know before the first race of AC38

After 18 months away, the America's Cup fleet is finally back in race mode. Eight AC40s line up off Cagliari this Friday for the opening prelim of the 38th cycle, with no Cup points on the line but pretty much everything else: pride, pecking order, and for plenty of sailors in the fleet, a very public audition.

Here's your quick guide to get up to speed…

Three days of fleet racing on the Bay of Angels – three races Friday, three Saturday, two Sunday – and then a winner-takes-all match race between the top two on Sunday afternoon.

Eight identical AC40s, each with a crew of four, fully equalised so it's all about the sailors. With the predicted champagne conditions this weekend, the boats should be capable of 45 knots (or about 85 km/h), and the courses will be calibrated to land at roughly 22 minutes per race.

Scoring runs to 10 points for a win down to 3 for last, which puts a premium on consistency. One bad race and you’ll be chasing.

The action starts at 15:00 local on Friday 22 May (CEST) and is set to finish by 17:00. That same race window applies for Saturday and Sunday.

Races will be livestreamed on the America's Cup YouTube, and we'll be covering it all on The Foil's channels throughout the weekend.

It doesn't, technically. There are no Naples points on offer. But this is the first proper read on the pecking order this cycle – who's been training well versus who's still piecing things together. The top spot will deliver confidence heading into the cycle, while a fumbled weekend plants seeds of doubt that could linger all the way to Naples.

Five of the seven entered teams are here with equal equipment, three of them fielding both a Senior and a Women & Youth boat – meaning, for the first time in the modern Cup era, pathway sailors get to take a swing at the established names on the same racecourse. For any women or youth sailors who can stick it to the “A team”, that’ll be their name on the radar for when AC75 sailing starts.

READ MORE: This week Mozzy crunched the crew lists, while Freddie Carr wrote about why this regatta could rewrite careers.

WATCH: [Podcast Extra] Mozzy and Freddie preview the AC38 Cagliari prelim

Here are the eight boats lining up this weekend…

The Defenders, and the benchmark. Nathan Outteridge skippers with 49er world champ Seb Menzies on the other wheel, and Andy Maloney and Iain Jensen on the trim.

At the event press conference, Outteridge talked about the strange business of suddenly being lined up against Pete Burling after fifteen years on the same side of the table. "It's been interesting," he said. "You spent a few years sitting side by side like this in a lot of meetings. Now you're against each other. Pete and I have had a great relationship over the last 15 years, whether we were training together, competing against each other, working together – and now we're racing against each other again. It's really cool."

Olympic bronze medallist Erica Dawson and Moth ace Jake Pye on the helms, with match-racing specialist Serena Woodall and iQFOiL Olympian Josh Armit on trim.

On stage, Dawson balanced humility with a quiet confidence. "Our learning curve is just so steep at the moment, and every hour on the water we're learning so much," she said. "If we could take a couple of races off these teams we'd be stoked." The A-crews will be paying attention.

Dylan Fletcher skippers the senior British boat, with former cyclor Ben Cornish alongside him, Bleddyn Mon back on the trim and Italian recruit Andrea Tesei completing the four.

Word from the dock is they were quick in Wednesday's practice. Fletcher's response was pure understatement. "It would be good if we were," he said. "It felt like there was a very competitive fleet, the Kiwis obviously going very well, and Luna Rossa. I think the French are fast. We'll see how we stack up at the end of the weekend."

Hannah Mills skippers with Formula Kite gold medallist Ellie Aldridge alongside, and youth sailors Sam Web and Matt Beck trimming. They've spent more time in the AC40 than most teams in the fleet.

They also had a moment in Wednesday's practice. "We were just going downwind on port and I think we hit something with the rudder and lost steering, and veered into a bit of an aggressive gybe," Mills explained. "Luckily we're all okay and I think the boat's going to be good to get back out racing today."

The home favourite, and the team that probably feels the heaviest pressure of any boat in the fleet. Pete Burling helms next to double Olympic champion Ruggero Tita, and the part that still doesn't quite compute is seeing a Kiwi sailing icon in Italian colours.

"When I left Team New Zealand, I honestly didn't think I'd be sitting here," Burling told the room on Thursday. "I didn't think I'd be taking part in this next America's Cup. The opportunity came and it's been absolutely amazing."

The reigning Youth and Women's Cup holders from Barcelona. Marco Gradoni skippers, with Margherita Porro likely on the other wheel, though the sailing team has been on rotation.

Gradoni was clear about the home expectations. "Of course there is a lot of pressure for us, for the Luna Rossa teams," he said, "but I think many guys that are sitting here have more pressure than us. We do a lot of training together, we push each other, and I think the other teams will see that at the end of these days." Fighting talk, then.

A freshly assembled four of Paul Goodison and Phil Robertson on the helms, with Pietro Sibello and Nicolas Rolaz on trim.

They've had less time on the water than they'd have liked – only eleven days together – but Goodison sounds chipper. "We probably haven't done as much time on the water as we would have liked to have done, but we've grown very quickly as a team," he said. "Everybody's getting on great. It's the first time we're really getting put under pressure this week. We're excited to go racing, we're excited to learn, and we're ready." Worth watching how quickly the chemistry comes together on the Swiss boat.

The French side most pundits keep tipping as an outside bet. Quentin Delapierre skippers with Olympic gold medallist Diego Botín alongside him, and their SailGP counterparts Jason Saunders and Florian Trittel on the trim.

At the press conference, Delapierre offered steady encouragement rather than big promises. "For me, it's a huge step forward," he said of the new lineup. "It doesn't mean that we are the top team, but it's growing quite quickly."

So that's the lay of the land. Eight boats, three days of fleet racing, one match-race final to decide it all. And some telling clues about the shape of the AC75 lineups to come...

First gun is at 15:13 CEST on Friday 22 May. Keep an eye on The Foil’s channels for all the latest this weekend.