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CHALLENGERLuna Rossa 2:
Principal Team
Luna Rossa, the Italian Challenger for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, is one of the competition’s most established and formidable teams. Since their debut in 2000, they have combined technical excellence with passion and persistence, consistently competing at the highest level. Following their appearance in the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona in 2024, the team emerged as one of the most refined and competitive Challengers in the fleet. Operating from their high-tech base in Cagliari, Luna Rossa has maintained an uninterrupted development programme, advancing both on-shore design work and on-water performance while integrating emerging talent from their highly successful Youth and Women’s campaigns—both of which secured dominant victories in 2024.
CHALLENGERLuna Rossa 2:
Principal TeamLuna Rossa, the Italian Challenger for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, is one of the competition’s most established and formidable teams. Since their debut in 2000, they have combined technical excellence with passion and persistence, consistently competing at the highest level. Following their appearance in the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona in 2024, the team emerged as one of the most refined and competitive Challengers in the fleet. Operating from their high-tech base in Cagliari, Luna Rossa has maintained an uninterrupted development programme, advancing both on-shore design work and on-water performance while integrating emerging talent from their highly successful Youth and Women’s campaigns—both of which secured dominant victories in 2024.
CHALLENGER
ITALY
Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia
NO. OF CAMPAIGNS: 7
Luna Rossa, the Italian Challenger for the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, is one of the competition’s most established and formidable teams. Since their debut in 2000, they have combined technical excellence with passion and persistence, consistently competing at the highest level. Following their appearance in the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona in 2024, the team emerged as one of the most refined and competitive Challengers in the fleet. Operating from their high-tech base in Cagliari, Luna Rossa has maintained an uninterrupted development programme, advancing both on-shore design work and on-water performance while integrating emerging talent from their highly successful Youth and Women’s campaigns—both of which secured dominant victories in 2024.
As the America’s Cup heads to Italian waters for the first time in Match history, Luna Rossa enters a defining new chapter. Backed by a passionate national following and strengthened by world-class leadership including Max Sirena and Francesco Bruni, the team has further bolstered its roster with the addition of top international talent such as Peter Burling and Josh Junior. Alongside experienced campaigners stands a powerful new generation of Italian stars, including double Olympic gold medallist Ruggero Tita and Youth America’s Cup winner Marco Gradoni, complemented by a formidable Women’s team aiming to defend its title. Supported by an elite design group and an intensive testing programme, Luna Rossa is widely regarded as one of the strongest contenders to challenge Emirates Team New Zealand; and, with Naples hosting in 2027, they will pursue sailing’s greatest prize with the momentum and expectation of a nation behind them.
America’s Cup Participations
2027 AC38 Naples . Challenger
2024 AC37 Barcelona . Louis Vuitton Cup Finalist
2021 AC36 Auckland . Prada Cup Winner and America’s Cup Finalist
2013 AC34 San Francisco . Louis Vuitton Cup Finalist
2007 AC32 Valencia . Louis Vuitton Cup Finalist
2003 AC31 Auckland . Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finalist
2000 AC30 Auckland . America’s Cup Finalist
CREW
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Peter BurlingSkipper & Starboard HelmThree-time winner of the America’s Cup with Emirates Team New Zealand, Peter is an Olympic gold and silver medallist in the 49er class and joined Luna Rossa in June 2025 with an eye on securing a fourth straight America’s Cup win – unprecedented in the 175-year history of the event. Peter is a six-time 49er World Champion as well as an International Moth and 420 World Champion. Peter began his America’s Cup journey by winning the Youth America’s Cup in 2013. In 2017 at the age of 26 he got another record by being the youngest ever helmsman to win the America’s Cup. In 2017, soon after bringing back the Cup to New Zealand he jumped onboard Team Brunel for the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race finishing in 3rd position. Leading the home favourites, Luna Rossa, in Sardinia is a high-pressure role for one of the world’s most accomplished racing sailors.
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Ruggero TitaHelmOlympic gold medallist in the Nacra 17 class in Paris 2024 and Tokyo 2021, has already earned the highly prestigious 'Collare d'Oro al Merito Sportivo' award (2018 - 2021 - 2022) and Rolex World Sailor of the Year 2022. Ruggero has a degree in Information Engineering and Business Management. At the age of 13 he won the Italian, Swiss and European champion titles in the Optimist class. He then raced in the 29er class before moving up to 49ers in which he has been multiple Italian Champion. After participating - with bowman Pietro Zucchetti - in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, he turned to the Nacra 17 where, with bowwoman Caterina Banti, with whom he has won the gold medal in Paris and Tokyo, 4 world championships and 4 European championships. Ruggero worked with Team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the preparation for the 36th America's Cup challenge but was unable to compete due to the Olympics being moved to the summer of 2021. He is passionate about skiing, snowboarding and paragliding. If he were not a professional sailor, he would be a skier. The 2024 event with Luna Rossa was his first America's Cup.
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Umberto MolinerisTrimmerUmberto started sailing at the age of 10 in the Adriatic, progressing through the youth classes (some single-handed boats, then mainly the 420 class), before moving into Olympic sailing disciplines, first the 470 and then the 49er class. In the 49er he became Italian Champion and also achieved several top-10 finishes at world level.
Later, he decided to challenge himself in other types of boats and competed in multiple professional racing circuits. In 2021, he joined the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team through the New Generation program and has taken part in two America’s Cup campaigns (Auckland 2021 and Barcelona 2024). He loves music and plays the piano (he attended conservatory), and he is passionate about all water sports and skiing. If he were not a professional sailor, he would still choose a job outdoors. Even though he studied economics, the idea of working in an office does not appeal to him at all.
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Vittorio BissaroTrimmerA graduate in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Vittorio Bissaro has been awarded the CONI “Collare d’Oro al Merito Sportivo” (Golden Collar for Sporting Merit), Italy’s highest sporting honour. He began sailing in the Optimist class at the age of 10, but his first regattas were in multihulls, where he achieved immediate success, winning four Italian Formula 18 titles together with Lamberto Cesari. The transition to the Olympic Nacra 17 class came naturally. Sailing with Silvia Sicouri, he achieved three podium finishes between World and European Championships, as well as three World Cup victories. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, they finished fifth after narrowly missing out on a medal. Since 2017, he has sailed with Maelle Frascari, with whom he won the 2019 World Championship. Vittorio is also a highly experienced offshore sailor and has taken part in major international races aboard the Maserati Multi 70 as tactician for Giovanni Soldini. With Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, he competed in his first America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024. He loves the mountains, vast horizons, and harsh environments. If he were not a professional sailor, he would certainly be a mountaineer.
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Gianluigi UgoliniHelmThe newly-crowned Nacra 17 World Champion, Gianluigi, or ‘Gigi’ as he’s known, was co-helm with Marco Gradoni when Luna Rossa won the Youth America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024. A graduate in Design, “Gigi” began sailing at the age of 5 in the Optimist class. In 2017, after completing scientific high school, he embarked on the Olympic pathway in the Nacra 17 class, where he achieved several major successes sailing with Maria Giubilei including: two-time World Championship runner-up (2021 and 2022), three-time Under-24 World Champion (2018, 2019, and 2021), one silver and two bronze medals at the European Championships (2022 and 2023), gold medal at the Paris 2024 Test Event. Gigi is deeply passionate about sport and everything related to design, but at the moment there is nothing else he would rather do besides being a sailor.