Team Australia have outlined a compressed timetable to prepare their repurposed AC75 for the 38th America’s Cup in Naples, with head of performance and design Glenn Ashby saying the team expect their first sailing day to fall around 1 March 2027.
That target would leave 83 calendar days before Australia’s first race, the third preliminary regatta, which is due to be contested in AC75s. Ashby acknowledged that the programme would bring the team to the venue late, while maintaining that it represented the earliest practical target.
The Australian challenger, representing Sydney’s Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, is converting the boat that won the 2021 America’s Cup. Its operational base is in Sydney, but the work is taking place in Auckland through a partnership with defending champions Emirates Team New Zealand. The boat is scheduled to be shipped directly from New Zealand to Naples.
The timetable makes the early weeks in Italy important not simply for sailing development but for completing work that cannot be finished before the journey. Ashby said the boat would first be put in the water in Naples for a week of dock and systems tests before its intended sailing debut.
Auckland work leaves major Naples commissioning
Ashby said Team Australia would carry out substantial commissioning in New Zealand, including running oil through hydraulic rams and systems, checking them, and completing systems calibration. However, he said there would still be considerable work to do after arrival in Naples.
Most notably, the rig cannot be fitted until the AC75 reaches Italy. Ashby said this would create a substantial list of rig-related tasks and tests at the venue, describing the overall schedule as heavily compressed.
The team’s stated early priorities are reliability and getting the sailing group familiar with the boat’s feel. Ashby said the crew were already working together in camps and that further training camps would focus on the AC75’s operating systems before the team travelled to Naples. Simulator work is also being used before launch to examine sailing routines, hydraulic models and power-management arrangements.
That preparation may reduce some of the learning required on the water, but it does not remove the pressure created by the calendar. Ashby said the task was to commission the boat and bring the sailing team up to speed within a short period, with the team hoping to move into race training quickly after launch. He also said how the team responded in its first two or three weeks afloat could shape its early racing results.
2021 hull becomes a new-generation AC75
The project is more extensive than a routine refit. Ashby said the interior is being stripped back to little more than the structural frame, while the working areas on deck are also being reworked. A new electronic and hydraulic package is being fitted, alongside cockpit changes required by the current rules.
The conversion reduces crew areas from eight to six and replaces manually powered functions with battery-powered electronic, hydraulic and mechatronic systems. Ashby said the boat would operate through trigger devices, hydraulic rams and mechatronics rather than the control lines, sheets, winches and grinding or cycling stations associated with earlier arrangements.
Australia have also fitted a new bow to meet the America’s Cup constructed-in-country rules and removed some structure around the aft corners to save weight. Ashby said electronics and hydraulic dry-fitting had already taken place, with paint work under way, and that several departments were contributing to make the boat class-legal and ready for measurement before shipping.
The partnership with Emirates Team New Zealand is central to that process. Ashby said New Zealand personnel had contributed structural and composite expertise because the Australian boat was in their build facility, while Australian specialists were working on electronics, mechatronics and hydraulics. He said the two groups had collaborated on the design package.
Australia’s late launch therefore represents an engineering and commissioning deadline as much as a sailing one. The team will arrive with a platform rebuilt around current systems, but with limited time in Naples to test the rig, establish reliability and turn pre-launch preparation into competitive AC75 sailing.