Italy wrapped up the three-day preliminary America’s Cup regatta in Naples with a convincing head-to-head match-race final win over holders Team New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Although the outcome does not affect the standings for the America’s Cup itself in Naples next year, it gives a glimpse of how the teams are progressing in their race preparations.<\/p>\n
Steered by former Team NZ skipper Peter Burling, Italy led off the start in the two-boat final, with the two crews opting for opposite sides of the Bay of Naples course.<\/p>\n
As New Zealand battled to get back in the race after a slower start, the Italian AC40 foiling yacht countered to stay ahead, covering their every move.<\/p>\n
The four-member Italian crew and their support team celebrated, surrounded by a flotilla of spectator boats, as the sun sparkled on the waters off Naples.<\/p>\n
The final pitted the two crews with the highest score after eight fleet races featuring crews from Italy and New Zealand alongside Britain, France, Switzerland and the United States.<\/p>\n
Next year’s competition to lift the America’s Cup, which dates back to 1851 and is known as the “Auld Mug”, will see the national teams compete in bigger AC75 yachts.<\/p>\n
The one-design AC40s will be used in both the women’s and youth events next summer.<\/p>\n
Australia, who made a late America’s Cup entry in May, did not field a crew in Naples, where teams have already begun setting up their bases on the coast in nearby Bagnoli, which local authorities are regenerating to host the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy wrapped up the three-day preliminary America’s Cup regatta in Naples with a convincing head-to-head match-race final win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-613656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}