ARC Crew USA names thirty eighth America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta crusing line-up
by ARC Crew USA 22 Sep 17:01 UTC
24-27 September 2026
ARC Crew USA has confirmed the 4 sailors who will race aboard its AC40 on the thirty eighth America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Naples © ARC Crew USA
America is again on the racecourse. ARC Crew USA has confirmed the 4 sailors who will race aboard its AC40 on the thirty eighth America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Naples September Twenty fourth-Twenty seventh, as the brand new American challenger prepares to line up towards its America’s Cup rivals for the primary time.
Lucas Calabrese and Harry Melges IV will take the helm, with Hans Henken and Michael Menninger finishing the four-person crew. Riley Gibbs will function workforce reserve.
The announcement follows an intensive remaining coaching camp in Naples and represents a major milestone for a workforce that has been constructed at exceptional pace. In a matter of months, ARC Crew USA has introduced collectively its crusing, design, technical and operational teams, returned its boats to the water and established the foundations of a brand new America’s Cup marketing campaign.
The Preliminary Regatta would be the first alternative to see how that work interprets into competitors.
“Attending to the regatta begin line is an enormous second for us. What this whole workforce has achieved in such a brief area of time has been fairly extraordinary, and we have simply come off a extremely sturdy coaching camp the place the progress has been clear daily.
Each sailor on this group has pushed exhausting and earned the chance to signify ARC Crew USA. Lucas, Harry, Hans and Michael have earned their locations on the boat for Naples, and Riley has been each bit as necessary to the progress we have made as a gaggle.
We additionally need to be life like about the place we’re. A number of the groups we’re racing have been collectively for years; we have been collectively for months. We’re not going to Naples anticipating to have all of the solutions. We’re going there to race exhausting, be taught rapidly, perceive the place we stand towards the fleet and are available away higher than we arrived. That is the primary actual benchmark for us – and we won’t wait to get began.” – Ken Learn, ARC Crew USA CEO.
The ultimate coaching camp has given the crusing workforce an intensive interval on the water collectively, permitting the group to develop its communication, boat dealing with and race processes earlier than going through the fleet.
“It has been a really productive camp. We have requested an enormous quantity of this group in a brief time period they usually’ve responded brilliantly. The usual and depth have continued to rise, and the competitors for these locations has been precisely what we wished.
Choosing 4 sailors was by no means going to be straightforward. Each considered one of them has earned the appropriate to be right here and contributed to getting us up to now. For Naples, we imagine Lucas, Harry, Hans and Michael give us the appropriate mixture, however that is very a lot a workforce effort and Riley is a vital a part of the general racing group.
Now we get to place ourselves beneath correct race stress. That is the place we’ll be taught essentially the most.” – Giles Scott, ARC Crew USA Crusing Director.
ARC Crew USA heads into its first racing look with rising momentum across the marketing campaign. In current weeks, the workforce has introduced a strategic partnership with US Crusing centered on serving to develop the viewers for crusing and the America’s Cup in america, alongside CODE-ZERO changing into the workforce’s Official Technical Attire and Teamwear Provider.
These developments type a part of the broader build-up of a brand new American challenger with a long-term ambition: to construct a workforce able to returning the America’s Cup to america.
For now, nonetheless, the main focus is far nearer.
4 sailors. One AC40. And ARC Crew USA’s first beginning line.
America’s again.
