America’s Cup says goodbye to Italy and a strange wind blows over Cagliari

A strange wind has been blowing over Cagliari in recent weeks, not the usual Mistral that sailors like and even America’s Cup sailors like, but an uncertain air that brings the smell of bureaucracy and politics. The one that made people say goodbye to the Italian leg of the World Series, the preliminary America’s Cup races that were to be held in Cagliari for October 2023. Instead, they will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for the America’s Cup landing on the Red Sea.

America’s Cup in Italy – The Region’s gamble

“We don’t want to be second after Vilanova, rather we don’t want the regatta,” the Sardinia Region had more or less thundered in this way against the Cup organizers, guilty of putting the Catalan city first on the 2023 calendar.

Perhaps they do not remember at the Region that Trapani in 2004, Naples in 2012, Venice in 2013, protagonists of other preliminary America’s Cup regattas, were not the first ones on the calendar and yet they were enormously successful events, with public baths ashore, and enormous media visibility.

The region also complained of an incompatibility between the payment requests desired by the organization and the timing with which Italian law could have released the more than 6 million in funding approved by the Regional Council. The fact remains that in the end it is the result that counts: the event will not take place in Italy, much to the chagrin of our fans, among the most numerous of America’s Cup followers. The big boss of the New Zealanders, Grant Dalton, who is in charge of organizing the preliminary events, finally chose the shortest route: find another destination elsewhere and get around the “problem” of Italian slowness.

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Luna Rossa’s silence

What does Luna Rossa do? The Italian team seems to have been the stone guest in the contention between the region and the World Series organizers. No official stance. No statement in defense of Italian fans who, after the cancellation of the stage during Covid in 2020, once again lose the big event. It was a strange time for the Italian challenger, who also ended up at the bottom of the AC 40 delivery list, suffering the action of the other challengers who exploited a loophole in the Protocol to exchange production slots made available by Mc Conagy. It is indeed true, a strange wind has been blowing over Cagliari.

Mauro Giuffrè