Italy in SailGP with Red Bull. Our interviews with Jimmy Spithill, Giulia Fava, Andrea Tesei

It took quite a bit of effort and a super dose of enthusiasm from everyone to define in just over a month the first participation of an Italian team in the SailGP 2024/2025 circuit.

Italy in SailGP

The race series, which is run on F50 catamarans, kicked off today in Dubai and brings together under the tricolor flag a promising team: a certified and dream-capable sailor who built the whole thing and is CEO (Jimmy Spithill), the Olympic gold medalist helmsman in foiling (Ruggero Tita), Luna Rossa’s flight controller (Andrea Tesei), the strategist and veteran of winning the Puig Woman America’s Cup in Barcelona (Giulia Fava), two super-experienced sailors in the role of grinder (Matteo Celon and Enrico Voltolini).

Rounding out the team at sea are Australian Kyle Langford, a three-time SailGP champion who joined the Italian team after leaving Team Australia (where he was replaced by Chris Draper), and Antigua sailor-grinder Alex Sinclair, who previously competed for Spithill’s American SailGP team. Ashore is Philippe Presti, historic America’s Cup and SailGP coach (trainer of the Australian team that won the first edition of the circuit).

The Red Bull Italy SailGP Team, sponsored directly by the Austrian brand, was strongly desired by Spithill, who already said last year that he wanted to form our team, and is the 12th team to enter the competition. It will be based in the Marina of Monfalcone, where Red Bull has for time taken over the Hannibal base. In Italy, we will see them engaged in the circuit leg to be run in Taranto on September 6 and 7, 2025, while the other events next year will be in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and again in the Emirates. (The races of all the stages can be followed on Sky).

Il Giornale della Vela, with Ida Castiglioni, heard from the protagonists of this new Italian adventure: Jimmy Spithill, Giulia Fava, Andrea Tesei

SailGP, Our Interview with Jimmy Spithill

I’d say you’ve made quite a ‘turn’: from helmsman in America’s Cup to team founder in SailGP. So, everything changes?

This is not my first time in SailGP. In 2021, after the America’s Cup races on Luna Rossa in New Zealand, I was involved with Team USA and then, when I left the American team, I started thinking about putting together an Italian team for this project. I think now is the right time, I was living in Sardinia at the time, I was part of the Luna Rossa team, I was fixed in Italy and racing for Italy. However, what has happened in these years is that in both campaigns for the Cup, the one in 2021 and this last one in 2024, I have been able to meet talented men, Italian boys and girls whose results and many successes I have seen at the Olympics, in the World Championships and in America’s Cup races. While I was working with so many great sailors, at the same time came the success of Sail GP: TV, newspapers, social, technical evaluations on teams, incredible results. Even with the fact that the results in the America’s Cup were not so good, it was the most natural time to get into it and be involved with an Italian team. And it was fortunate to be able to make the dream come true. So, after talking to Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts, I took this opportunity. So, sponsor confirmed, here we are!

I’m really excited, we have a great team, we have a lot of racing to do together, we have a lot of work to do, this is the first step. An important fact is this. When I was on the American SailGP team, in August last year when there was the Italian leg, this was one of the biggest events on the circuit in terms of people and spectators on the water. And there was no Italian team there either. By now I have seen that the Italian supporters are the most enthusiastic and loyal. For them sailing is like a religious faith. So I really believe that this SailGP is a huge opportunity for the sport and for Italy: with Ruggero, Giulia, Andrea and all the others on the team it will be a great thing. This circuit is like a regular season of basketball, football or Formula 1. Supporters will be able to follow their team throughout the year and every year, not every 3 or 4 years. That’s why SailGP is something different.

Will you be at the helm on any occasion?

That’s not my plan. I think these young sailors have real talent at the helm. My role is to provide them with the resources they need to race and be competitive. The feature of SailGP, and it’s the best thing (being one-design hulls) is that no competitor has a technical advantage-every boat has the same equipment, the same electronics, equindi really comes out on top. For fans, it’s fun because these are fleet races, like Flormula 1 and MotoGP where, if one competitor falls behind, you always have a chance to follow other boats confront each other in other situations. And also this is a spectator sport: we want spectators to be able to follow their competitor closely; we don’t push them away.

So, is having one-design boats better?

I think if you want to race well, it’s hard to do that if one of the co-competitors has a technical advantage. If somebody has a faster car or a faster boat, you run the risk of not having (especially in match racing) real competition. If there are new foils, new flaps, a new rudder or new software, everyone has to have them at the same time, otherwise it is no longer a sport competition: sport is a competition between athletes and between teams.

For Ruggero, Giulia and Andrea it will be the first time on the F50 cat while you raced there for the USA in SailGP and for the 2017 Cup in Bermuda.

They are the newest team in SailGP and it is clear that they have no experience in the F50s, but Ruggero has two Olympic gold medals in the Nacra 17s, which are small foiling catamarans, but it is clear that to get experience you have to start, somehow you have to start. Tom Slingsby and Peter Burling, who have a lot of experience sailing on F50s, also had to start. One thing that will help this team a lot is that we have Australian Kile Langford on board as a wing trimmer. He has won 3 SailGPs and was with me in Oracle’s 2013 campaign. We got a nice mix of young Italian talent of the next generation and experienced sailors like Kile, Philippe Presti (the coach) and myself. We have created a suitable environment to enable them to achieve maximum results in the shortest possible time. But we have to be realistic; we should not believe that this will happen in a day. If we have this process well in mind, we know it will be a journey. We have to believe that we will succeed, and then we will achieve the results we set out to achieve.

This is the first time you have a woman racing on board

Not for me who have done many offshore races where there were women on board. And then I raced in editions two, three and four of SailGP, always with a girl on board. Speaking of women, Martine Grael will be at the helm of Brazil’s hull in this edition of SailGP. I realize how crazy this is for me-I remember when I was racing with her father Torben on Luna Rossa in Valencia in 2007 and she was little!

We’ll see you live in Taranto, in a gulf perfect for racing

I was really lucky to live in Sardinia and race around Italy and I have seen how much talent is emerging from you. I was also impressed from enthusiasm and by the loyalty of the Italian fans. I am sure that many fans will follow this SailGP in Italy and will cheer loudly for Ruggero and the whole team. I am excited about this team and let’s move forward.

Our interview with Giulia Fava

Giulia Fava, a Yellow Flames athlete, was trimmer on the AC40 Luna Rossa that won in Barcelona this first all-female America’s Cup in the super-girl team led by Giulia Conti and with Margherita Porro and Maria Giubilei. Competing in sailing since childhood, she has a degree in Biological Sciences and for the past 4 years has been racing with Arto Hirsch on the Nacra 17. (Editor’s note: I called Giulia Conti on WhattsApp the day before yesterday. She answered me out of breath because she is in Machu Picchu, engaged in a trek, and was hiking!)

First time on the F50s? Another challenging passage after the AC40s?

My experience on flying catamarans was with the Nacra 17. Of course nothing to do with these F50s. They are incredible machines, boats that fly at very high speeds (over 50 knots), the sensations in the boat are indescribable. From the videos I saw to prepare myself as best I could before coming here to Dubai, it is a very technical boat. In the videos it looked from the outside stable, easy to take, but now I realize that it is the skill of the sailors who are on board that makes it look so easy because going fast on these boats is not easy at all.

You should explain to us what, on these boats, is manual and what is electronic.

These boats have an actual human component compared to the Cup hulls where the so-called cyclors turned pedals to move hydraulic oil, on the F50s the grinders-which there are two in the boat-turn real winches. We’ve gone back a little bit to traditional sailing with the mainsail sheet (it’s a rigid wing) which is regulated by this winch, operated by the two grinders, while all the other functions, the jib and the mainsail, which has a twist system and also a turning system, are all regulated by electronic systems, buttons and levers. But also the flight is all operated by electronic systems but controlled by the flight controller (there is no autopilot as we had on the AC40). The flight controller is what actually makes the boat fly, the one that adjusts the flight height and rudder angle (rake) to make the boat go fast.

What is your role on board?

My role is that of the strategist. To summarize a little bit my job is to make life easier for the helmsman. I make a lot of boat calls, like crosses, so at the start I identify boats that can bother us, if we are engaged, if we can lean behind, if we can roll them. During the race I call the crosses with these boats, whether we can pass in front of them, whether we can pass behind them, what we can do with them, whether it’s best to go, where are the highest pressure areas, how many maneuvers we have to do to get to the next buoy, the time to get to the boundary (virtual limit of the race course), the time to get to the layline. The information to give is really a lot though, the more information I give the easier it is for the helmsman to make decisions.

In addition to this information you give by intercom, do you also have actions to do with the buttons?

Of course I talk to everybody with the microphones that we have built into our helmets. Then I have a control panel with 15 buttons, which I can press: together with the 2nd grinder I can adjust the jib, so I can intervene on all the functions of the jib, the cunningham, the sheet and the carriage, plus as needed I can for example intervene on the differential of the rudders and other things.

I must say you’re busy. Who’s on board?

There are 6 of us in the boat: Ruggero Tita at the helm, Andrea Tesei, as flight controller, Enrico Voltolini and Andrea Celon as grinders, me as strategist-and we are the Italian component of the team, which is absolutely new on these F50s. While also on board is Kyle Langford, a historic Australian wing trimmer, and, in place of one of the two Italian grinders, Alex Sinclair, who was part of the American team. These team members, in addition to Jimmy and Philippe Presti, already had a long experience in the circuit and they are certainly making a great contribution to the team as they already know the environment and the boat well, and this is crucial to be able to improve as quickly as possible.

So there are more of you on board than there are AC40s.

On board there are actually 6 of us although the crew can vary from 4 to 6 people. We sail in 4 when there is really little wind but then we can have a 5-person configuration and a 6-person configuration. So as the wind picks up we jump more people on board. However, the minimum crew is 4 people, one of which is me because there always has to be a woman on board.

Are there any reservations?

As grinders Matteo Celon and Alex Sinclair take turns and swap during races to always have as much power as possible, as was also the case on the AC75. Of course in case of need Jimmy could jump in the boat and be part of the crew as well.

For how many days did you train on the F50?

We arrived on November 5 and already on the 6th we went out to sea. We tried to do as many outings as possible and at the moment we have sailed 10 days. Thursday the launching, Friday the practice race, Saturday and Sunday we are racing. We definitely would have liked to have had the chance to practice more, but there will be a chance during this season to grow and figure out what are the strong points and what we still have a chance to improve on. This is a starting event that allows us to understand the level we are on.

Is the physical commitment a lot?

It is not trivial. This is a boat where you stand very tall especially if we are used to seeing the AC40s and AC75s, where the sailors were seated inside a cockpit and if they were on the starboard side of the boat they stayed on the starboard side. Same thing for those who were on the port side. Here, on the other hand, you have to run from side to side and the G-force in the rotations is really a lot. One fun fact I can relate. As soon as I got in the boat, on the first tack I start running the other way – actually a little late – and I almost fell out and was recovered just in time by Kyle. Definitely it’s super important to hold on and even for grinders it’s definitely not a walk in the park. When there’s four or five of us, I switch to the grinder position and I’ve experienced that feeling too, and you definitely have to be very, very trained, and the physical part is even more important because – again – you’re very tall and you feel all the wind and the force of the rotation.

You’re probably a little light too! Did you see some of the girls you raced against in Barcelona here again?

So many girls who have done the Woman America’s Cup with me are here in the Canadian team, Spanish team, New Zealand team, and many others as well. Definitely, having had that experience or otherwise coming from that world is a big help in the knowledge gained from the racing software. Racing, whether it’s America’s Cup or SailGP, relies so much on technology, so it’s very important to be able to read the information that’s being given, even more so if you’re in the role of strategist, and that’s a great baggage that I carry with me. These two paths teach you so much-we’re talking about professional sailing. I think it’s fitting that so many of the girls who were committed to the AC40s are here to be able to reach their full potential.

Our interview with Andrea Tesei

First time on an F50. Do you have experience on catamarans?

I raced years ago on the XT40s (Extrème 40) and in the Europeans Series of the M32s, but I had no experience on foiling catamarans. These boats are a bit of a hybrid between what we saw in the Cup and a catamaran.

On Luna Rossa you were one of the two flight controllers and you will have the same role on the F50. It would be interesting for readers of the Sailing Journal to understand the difference in commitment to filling this role on one boat rather than the other.

The role is very similar, more or less you are always controlling the longitudinal trim of the boat and the height of the flight – these are the two primary components – but then there are times, also depending on the playbook that each team decides to use, when you need both foils, whereas on the AC75s you always used only one. Certainly on the F50s it is a more athletic role, even for those who do not turn handles. Just the fact that you jump from one side of the boat to the other. And it’s much more dynamic because even in the moment you don’t fly and in the transitions where you decide not to fly, there’s a lot of weight play and as an approach it becomes a little more like a drift.

What is the feeling of speed on these boats compared to America’s Cup foiling monohulls?

Here just by the fact that you are exposed to the wind, even if you go a little slower you realize more about the speed, if you make some mistakes you take more water so this component you feel it a little bit more, even though so far we have never taken strong wind. It’s a nice sporty boat.

What were your impressions of using the rigid wing?

I was amazed at the efficiency that the rigid wing has compared to the soft wing of AC75s. As you know, the biggest advantage of the hard wing is not having a big load on the mainsheet and the friction it brings on the movement of the undercarriage. It is very fast in movement, very efficient especially on the control of the leech twist. So instead of needing a lot of energy and a lot of time and force to change the sail profile, everything here is very dynamic and very fast. Especially low loads so it is much faster and more efficient movement of the sail to correct the heel and lead the boat.

To keep track of the whole situation, which seems complex to me, do you have a cockpit with many button panels?

Pretty much. But coming from the AC75, which is a really complicated, hypertechnological beast, it’s almost simplified, not having the modification and development component, it’s a package that that’s what it is and you have to play with that. Being new, there are a lot of keys, a lot of things you have to learn but it’s more simplified in terms of interfaces.

What differences do you find as a flight controller in running this boat compared to the AC75?

On the AC75 of course we have the flaps that make the hull move faster, and so the control is more immediate. And so on the F50 you have to understand the system, which is a little bit slower and so to adjust the flight the reaction is a little bit different. But above all you have to understand that the righting of the boat is not given by the upwind arm or the downwind cant but by the differential of the upwind and downwind rudders, and so if you pull the rudder out of the water upwind, you’re going to make a big bang. It’s delicate handling, a little bit more like being on the trapeze, where you have no margin for error on heeling and managing this differential of the rake of the rudders.

It will be fleet racing. More challenging?

We are very curious to see in the regatta. It will be difficult because they are almost all broken-in teams although there has been some reshuffling. All experienced teams and two new teams like us and the Brazilians. The starts will be crucial, if you start ahead the regatta is downhill if you can then maneuver well. If you start behind, on the other hand, the regatta becomes very complex because everyone here is very fast, everyone maneuvers well, the level is very high. It’s going to be very competitive and it’s going to be very difficult to find space because there are 12 boats and with this little wind and the very narrow field it’s going to be difficult to find the spaces to dribble the opponents and have clean lines.

One-design boats allow you to compete sportingly. Is that so?

Definitely. Having been fortunate in these years to do the America’s Cup where you focus a lot on the technological part and the development nd the boat, and the racing part comes only in the last months, here it feels again like going back to the Olympic classes, a little bit you meet again the opponents you used to see a few years ago on the 49er, it’s a more normal environment, a little bit like going to Palma at the beginning of the season. It’s a very different environment from the Cup, it’s still sailing but an environment where the priorities are different. Here it’s mostly sailing beme that counts. And that’s it.

Ida Castiglioni