Fletcher and Mills preparing to compete against each other at first event of 38th America’s Cup

The first event of the 38th America’s Cup gets underway on Friday, with two British teams preparing to race against each other for the very first time. GB1, skippered by Dylan Fletcher MBE, will represent Britain’s senior team while Athena Pathway, skippered by Hannah Mills OBE, will represent the British women and youth team at the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Sardinia.

The event marks the first time in official America’s Cup racing where women & youth teams will compete on an equal footing against the senior squad sailors. Each competing nation was able to enter up to two AC40 race boats for the regatta, one representing their senior team and another representing their women & youth teams. Britain, New Zealand and Italy have all entered two teams while Switzerland and France have both entered one team representing their senior squads. All teams will be racing in the AC40, a one-design, foiling monohull that was raced in the women’s and youth events at the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024.

Athena Pathway CEO, skipper and helm Hannah Mills OBE said: “It’s incredible to be here with Athena Pathway and the women and youth team getting this phenomenal opportunity to race against the full America’s Cup teams. I can’t really describe it, growing up I never imagines this would be a reality, so it’s really, really special.”

Having two British teams competing means Mills and GB1 skipper and helm Dylan Fletcher MBE – who are used to being teammates in SailGP – will become competitors for the first time. While the Preliminary Regatta Sardinia has no bearing on the overall standings for the main America’s Cup event in Naples in 2027, all teams are hoping for a solid start to their campaign.

Fletcher said: “I’m very excited to get out in the AC40s for some fleet racing. It will be the first time we’ve had eight AC40s all out racing against each other and they’re all strict one-design boats, so it will be pretty interesting to see how all the teams get on. We’ve been training with the Athena Pathway team and pushing each other hard, it’s going to be super competitive this weekend but I know that both teams want the best for each other, and we’re hoping Britain will come out on top this weekend.”

Mills added: “Dylan and I have been racing together in SailGP for a while now and this will be the first time we will race against each other. Ultimately, I think we all want to go out and try and deliver our best performance, take it to the other teams and put Britain on top.”

Both GB1 and Athena Pathway have been training together in Cagliari, Sardinia, where the official racing will take place this weekend. During a training session on Wednesday, Athena Pathway suffered its first capsize of the campaign. All four crew members on-board were unscathed, and skipper Mills said she their AC40 hit something in the water which caused the issue.

“It was our first day of proper practice racing and we were going downwind and heard a massive bang,” Mills said.

“We hit something with the rudder and the steering went which caused us to do a bit of a dive and capsize unfortunately. We dropped the sails and decided to come back ashore just to get the boat checked over and get ready to go back out on Thursday.”

Both GB1 and Athena Pathway announced their race crews for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta last week, with 20-year-old Sam Webb from Lymington, Hampshire, being called up the Athena Pathway squad for his America’s Cup debut just a few months after applying to the team’s open call for youth sailors.

The format for the event consists of practice racing on Thursday, up to three fleet races on both Friday and Saturday and then up to two fleet races on Sunday before the match race final between the top two boats. UK viewers can watch the action live from 14:00 BST on the America’s Cup YouTube and website.