Two boats, one match, and a competition that has never had a fixed calendar
The America’s Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. It is a match race between two yachts: one representing the yacht club that currently holds the trophy, known as the defender, and one representing the challenging club. The winner takes the trophy, informally known as the Auld Mug, and with it the right to defend it.
The first thing to understand is that there is no schedule. Matches are held several years apart, on dates agreed between the defender and the challenger, and historically that has meant every three or four years — but the interval has never been fixed. Any yacht club meeting the requirements of the Deed of Gift may issue a challenge, and the terms of each cycle are negotiated rather than inherited.
From the first defence in 1870 until the twentieth in 1967 there was only ever one challenger. In 1970 several applied at once, so a Challenger Selection Series was introduced to decide which would face the defender, and that structure has been used for every cycle since. The Challenger of Record — the club whose valid challenge is accepted first — organises the series alongside the defender.
Thirty-seven matches had been held as of October 2024, and thirty-three of them took place in the defender’s home waters. The New York Yacht Club has won the most, with twenty-five titles. The Deed of Gift requires the match to be sailed in the summer or shoulder months — in the northern hemisphere, between 1 May and 31 October — which is the one genuinely predictable element of the whole arrangement.
The next edition is the thirty-eighth. The defender is Emirates Team New Zealand, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which won the thirty-seventh match in October 2024 — the club’s eighth America’s Cup. The Royal Yacht Squadron is the Challenger of Record for a second consecutive cycle. In May the defender and the Government of Italy announced that the 2027 matches would take place in Naples.
The boats remain the AC75 foiling monohull class, with substantial rule changes. Under the draft protocol the yachts’ onboard systems are powered entirely by batteries and manual power by grinders or cyclors is prohibited; crew size rises to six, of which four positions are open, one is reserved for a sailor aged under twenty-five, and one for a female sailor with no age restriction. Nobody was permitted to sail an AC75 before 15 January 2026. The Women’s and Youth America’s Cups are set to return alongside the main event.
Tell us you want to be in Naples for the match and we will arrange the water and the city around it
Because the cycle is irregular, we treat this as a watching brief rather than an annual booking: when a venue and dates are confirmed, we contact the clients who have asked to be told. In the meantime the sailing calendar has fixed points we arrange every year — Cowes Week in August, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez at the turn of October, and the Sydney Hobart on Boxing Day. Corporate hosting runs through our Business Concierge team.
The uncertainty is structural. Because the defender and the Challenger of Record negotiate the protocol for each cycle — boat, format, venue, and timing — nothing carries over automatically from one match to the next.
The practical consequence is that planning happens in two stages. First a long wait during which nothing can be booked with confidence, then a short, intense period once the venue and dates are public, when accommodation and boats in the host city go very quickly.
The preliminary regattas are the answer to that problem. Up to three were intended during 2026, sailed in the smaller AC40 class, with a further regatta at the match venue itself. They carry the same teams in a far more accessible format.
The thirty-eighth match is set for 2027 in Naples, Italy. There is no annual edition
There is no fixed schedule. Historically it has been every three to four years, agreed between the defender and the challenger
Emirates Team New Zealand, for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which won the thirty-seventh match in October 2024
The AC75 foiling monohull, with the next cycle’s yachts fully battery-powered and crewed by six
Poorly. A match race is best followed from a boat on the course, which is how we arrange it
As soon as the venue is confirmed. Everything in a host city is taken within weeks of the announcement
Racing is scheduled across several weeks in 2027, with the challenger series preceding the match itself.
The Americas Cup Naples base will mark the first time the event has been held in the Gulf of Naples.
Precise Americas Cup dates are expected to be confirmed around a year out from the event, once the venue logistics are finalised.
Teams race foiling monohulls in the AC75 class, reaching speeds beyond 50 knots on foils.
The Americas Cup Challenger Series, known as the Louis Vuitton Cup, decides which team faces the defender in the final match.
A trophy older than every other in international sport, and a competition that still sets its own calendar
