Who’s racing for ETNZ in Cagliari – and who’s not

When Emirates Team New Zealand turns up to the preliminary regatta in Cagliari on 21–24 May, they'll be doing so with two AC40s, and if the crew lists announced earlier today are anything to go by, they're treating this as serious developmental business rather than a gentle warm-up.

The event brings together eight AC40s across the five founding teams of AC38, with GB1 and Luna Rossa also doubling up, plus single-boat entries from La Roche-Posay Racing Team and Tudor Team Alinghi.

The lead New Zealand entry has Nathan Outteridge sharing the helm with Seb Menzies, a pairing that blends hard-won Cup experience with raw pace from the next tier. Andy Maloney and Iain Jensen complete the crew as trimmers. It's a line-up that suggests the core afterguard are treating Sardinia as real racing.

Outteridge co-helmed ETNZ to victory in AC37 alongside Pete Burling, and comes to Cagliari mid-season as driver of Artemis Sweden in SailGP. An Olympic gold and silver medallist in the 49er and a former International Moth World Champion, his standing in the sport is about as high as it gets. He’s clear-eyed about what the AC40 demands: the boats "reward consistency and quick decision-making in the heat of the moment," he says, and the goal is to be "at least one of the two boats standing for the match race final on Sunday."

As for Menzies, the 21-year-old steps into a co-helm slot that had been linked to Chris Draper in recon reports – a sign of ETNZ's faith in a sailor who has risen from Optimist national champion to 49er European champion in the space of a few years, and is now eyeing an Olympic gold medal in LA 2028.

On trimming duties, fellow Artemis teammate Maloney is widely regarded as one of the best flight controllers in the SailGP fleet, having honed his skills across multiple seasons with the New Zealand Black Foils before moving to Mubadala Brazil and now to the Swedish team. Jensen, nicknamed 'Goobs', brings SailGP experience from reigning champions Emirates GBR and now Australia's Flying Roos, though his season was interrupted by a serious knee injury in Perth earlier this year.

The second entry sails under the Women & Youth banner, with Olympic bronze medallist Erica Dawson and Jake Pye sharing the helm alongside trimmers Serena Woodall and Paris 2024 Olympian Josh Armit. The crew has logged serious hours in two-boat testing on the Waitematā, but Dawson is clear about the difference between training and real fleet racing. "Nothing replicates the pressure of a live start line in Sardinia," she says. "We aren't just here to fill a spot on the grid."

Pye will be one to watch. He has appeared in AC75 recon reports as part of the Taihoro crew, making Cagliari something of an audition as much as a regatta, with real fleet racing experience that could factor directly into future AC75 selection.

Notably absent from either crew are three sailors who have all been putting miles on AC75 Taihoro during this year's testing programme: double Olympic gold medallist Jo Aleh, British America’s Cup veteran Chris Draper, and three-time Cup winner Blair Tuke.

Tuke's absence means he won't be going head-to-head with long-time partner Pete Burling, who is expected to feature in the Luna Rossa line-up. Of the three absentees, only Tuke's situation has been officially explained – he's moving into a strategic performance role, with the team describing his focus as squarely on the speed development of Taihoro ahead of Naples.

Draper holds a unique place in Cup history: until Barcelona 2024, he was the only British helmsman ever to reach a Louis Vuitton Cup Final, having helmed Luna Rossa's AC72 in San Francisco in 2013, where he was beaten by the very team he now sails for. Before joining ETNZ, he spent two years as Head of Performance for Athena Pathway, preparing the British youth and women's teams for the AC38 regattas in Barcelona, experience that gives him a key insight into the kind of programme ETNZ are now running.

The fact that he races alongside both Outteridge and Maloney in SailGP makes his omission from the AC40 crew all the more intriguing, though clearly the team sees the AC40 and AC75 programmes as distinct beasts, as evidenced by Aleh’s absence.

As the first woman to sail an AC75, she has been part of the team helping develop Taihoro since the boat launched earlier this year, yet heads to Sardinia on the sidelines rather than the start line. It’s not been made clear why, but it quietly signals something about the confidence New Zealand have in the sailors who are racing.

Racing for the AC38 first preliminary regatta gets underway on Friday 23 May, with fleet races from Friday to Sunday before a winner-takes-all match race final. The Foil will be there to bring you all the action from the Gulf of Angels.