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Australia will be at the start of the 38th America's Cup. This announcement has been awaited for several months in the small world of AC75s, and was made official just a few days before the first pre-regatta. Team Australia becomes the sixth challenger to Emirates Team New Zealand, alongside the British, Italian, Swiss, French and American teams. Above all, this return marks the end of a twenty-six-year absence from the oldest international sporting competition still contested.
A comeback supported by the great figures of foiling
The first challenge naturally concerns the sports team. After all, Australia is not returning with a discovery project. It is immediately fielding profiles already familiar with AC75s, SailGP and high-speed flight systems.
Tom Slingsby takes over as head of the sailing team. Olympic Laser champion in Weymouth in 2012, winner of the America's Cup with Oracle in 2013, he has also dominated SailGP for several seasons with the Flying Roos. His experience of foiling in extreme configurations is an obvious asset in a Cup where the difference is often decided by a few seconds of stability in flight.
At his side, Glenn Ashby oversees performance and design. The Australian sailor knows complex hydrofoil architectures inside out. Long associated with Team New Zealand, he took part in the development of modern generations of catamarans, then the AC75. His arrival confirms a very clear technical orientation: Team Australia wants to capitalize on skills that are immediately operational, with no learning phase.
The legacy of 1983 remains a strong marker for Australian sailing
It's impossible to talk about this comeback without going back to 1983. That year, Australia II ended 132 years of American domination by beating Dennis Conner's Liberty. It remains one of the most important sporting and technological turning points in the history of the Cup.
In particular, the Australian boat made its mark with its fin keel, long concealed before the competition. But beyond the technical innovation, this victory transformed Australia's place in international sailing.
Grant Simmer, now CEO of Team Australia, was already a member of the Australia II crew. Since then, he has sailed in thirteen editions of the America's Cup, including the Swiss successes of 2003 and 2007 with Alinghi. His return to an Australian campaign gives historical continuity to the project.
And this memory still counts. In the America's Cup, national campaigns are often based on a collective narrative as much as on technique. The New Zealanders cultivate their design culture. The Italians play the continuity card with Luna Rossa. The British are banking on their historical heritage. Australia returns with the memory of the modern Cup's greatest upset.
Limits on new construction reshuffle the deck
The rules for this 38th edition impose a particular framework: no new construction of AC75 is allowed. Teams must transform or reuse existing platforms.
According to several specialist media reports, Team Australia has picked up Te Rehutai, the New Zealand boat that won in 2021, then used as a test platform in Barcelona in 2024. But starting with an old, high-performance boat does not automatically guarantee competitiveness.
The key question will then be Australia's ability to adapt this technical base to the new measurement conditions and sailing profiles expected for the next Cup.
A nationwide campaign
Another important issue is that Team Australia doesn't just want to take part in one edition. The support of John Winning Jr, who is already involved in the Australian Youth and Women's America's Cup campaigns in 2024, is a step in this direction. The stated aim is to recreate a national network of sailors, engineers, designers and composite specialists.
For the past two decades, many Australian talents have been scattered across various foreign teams. Glenn Ashby with Team New Zealand, Jimmy Spithill for a long time with Oracle and then Luna Rossa, and a number of architects in European design offices.
The Cup enters a new phase
The arrival of Team Australia also alters the political balance of the America's Cup. With six official challengers, the competition has regained a density rarely seen for several cycles. And this Australian comeback comes at a particularly opportune time. Teams are now looking for more stable economic models. The costs of AC75 campaigns remain extremely high, despite the technical limitations imposed by the rules.
The new ACP partnership, in which Team Australia will have a seat, illustrates this desire to better structure the governance of the competition. Emirates Team New Zealand retains a central position, but the challengers are gradually seeking a greater say in sporting and commercial decisions.
In this landscape, Australia brings an interesting profile. The country has a strong maritime culture, a pool of top-level sailors and a high profile thanks to SailGP. It now remains to be seen whether this new campaign can match the sporting impact of the challenge launched by Australia II over forty years ago.
