America's Cup & SailGP: What's about to break between the Big Two.

American Magic - Race Day 9 - Louis Vuitton Cup - September 9, 2024 - Barcelona © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup

Today's announcement of of a partnership between 2024 America's Cup team, American Magic is the first of public airing of several developments that have been ongoing within America's Cup and SailGP circles for several months.

They involve the America's Cup/SailGP team Athena Racing, which previously announced the securing of a new majority investor. While 2024 America's Cup team American Magic has announced a new relationship with SailGP League covering facilities use, they are believed to be in negotiation to take over an existing SailGP team, currently representing another nation.

A new SailGP team is said to be about to be announced, bringing the team numbers up to a total of 14 teams. That will meet the objective stated last April on the League's website, when the League's fleet stood at 12 teams. One of those new teams was subsequently confirmed as Swedish team Artemis Racing, who will be on the startline for Season 6 in Fremantle, Western Australia.

A new 14th team is believed to be a joint exercise between Athena Racing and United Arab Emirates interests. It will be led by double Olympic Gold medalist, Hannah Mills (GBR), currently strategist on the SailGP team Emirates GBR, owned by interests associated with Athena Racing. Emirates GBR were the Season 5 Grand Final winners.

It is not expected to sail until Season 7, in 2027.

Denmark SailGP team sold?

Rumours have been rife in sailing circles over an investment/purchase in the Denmark SailGP team, Rockwool Denmark, by interests associated with American Magic. The US AC team announced in late October 2025 that it would not be participating in the 2027 America's Cup in Naples.

The American Magic SailGP team is expected to be based at Pensacola, which today was announced would become part of an expanded SailGP operational facility including a new simulator available for use by all teams.

No announcement has been made about the fate of the American Magic's AC75 from the 2024 America's Cup, or its development boat from the 2021 America's cup in Auckland.

Despite saying they would sit out the current America's Cup cycle, it is believed that American Magic will enter the Youth and Womens America's Cup events, to be sailed in Naples in 2027 - for which dates are expected to be announced later this month, along with a raft of other detail concerning the 2027 event. As part of its 2024 America's Cup operations the team still owns two AC40s, and it is believed that the US team will enter the 2027 Womens and Youth America's Cup on the invited teams side of the draw.

The team has previously maintained that its strategy is to sit out the current America's Cup cycle. Until entries finally close on January 31, 2026 it will not be known if the New York Yacht Club's team will stick to this stance. The Swiss team Alinghi, also making similar comments but tuned up as one of the five teams announced by organisers, just before Christmas 2025. American Magic, Athena Aacing and Alinghi, all previously criticised the Defender RNZYS/Emirates Team New Zealand over a lack of transparency about arrangements for the 38th America's Cup. Two of the three are now back in the Cup fold.

Athena Racing ownership

Also on December 23, 2025, Athena Racing, the team of the Challenger of Record for the 38th America's Cup, Athena Racing, formerly owned by former America's Cup winner, Ben Ainslie, announced that it had secured a majority ownership investment from Oakley Capital - who also own dominant Cup team suppliers, Southern Spars and North sails.

Last week, new Articles of Association were posted with the UK Companies office for the Athena Racing Team.

Through associated companies Athena also holds the licence to compete as the British national team in the SailGP League.

The Articles of Association run to over 60 pages and appear to be a legal document covering future investment in the team by other parties.

Goodbye Mercedes F1

Former CEO of Athena Racing Ben Ainslie has repeatedly said that the team owns the AC75 used in Barcelona and other assets. Subsequent to the release of the draft protocol for the 38th America's Cup and the final document released later in 2025, the rules changed requiring existing teams to use their 2024 AC75s and some legacy gear. The rule change enabled Athena Racing to cut its various umbilical cords to INEOS Groups, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Mercedes F1 team, while continuing its own design and engineering group.

In a report published in Motorsport.com Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has confirmed that Mercedes is shutting down its plans in America's Cup sailing and technology consulting as the team prioritises the Formula 1 season this year.

Speaking to Forbes about the news, the Mercedes CEO and team chief was open about why the Brackley outfit has chosen to abandon these programmes.

“We don’t want to do this anymore. We’re a Formula 1 racing team. We don’t want to go sailing. We don’t want to do any other sports. Complete focus [must be] on only Formula 1," he confirmed.

Motorsport.com says Mercedes was going to leverage its Applied Science division, launched in 2019 as a separate business under the team's umbrella, to deliver in competitive sailing. It was to use the team's engineering and aerodynamics performance, as well as its strong simulation and manufacturing infrastructure, to deliver on its partnership with INEOS.

After the initial bust-up with Athena Racing, INEOS principal claimed his team, INEOS Britannia had over 100 designers working on the America's Cup. However while rumours continue to circulate with Ratcliffe being involved in another AC team, it would seem that the door to the design facilities at Mercedes is firmly closed for America's Cup teams.

The other F1 team involved in the 2024 America's Cup, Red Bull Racing, also has parted ways with its America's Cup team, Alinghi - which is now owned by Ernesto Bertarelli's business interests. After saying it was exiting the 2027 America's Cup, the team preannounced its entry with Swiss watchmaker Tudor as its naming sponsor.

The dates of the 2027 America's Cup and Preliminary Regattas are expected to be announced in Naples around 17-20 January 2026.

Changing gears

This coming week, the window opens for the America's Cup teams to start sailing their modified AC75s - being either a test boat/mule from a previous cycle or their 2024 Race Boat, which will also have to be their 2027 Race Boat. Quite what the options are will be interesting to see. Obviously the reward is getting your race boat and systems fully sorted. The risk is breaking the boat or a spar, which can setback a program by a month or more - and teams are particularly vulnerable with a limited amount of legacy gear permitted. However our guess is that it is just a matter of time before those rules are eased.

The joint reconnaissance program also starts with the AC75 sailing. No recon teams have been announced yet. The output will be made available to sailing media. But the quality of the media stories is very dependent on the quality of the base content and questioning.

This week SailGP starts gearing up for the first event of Season 6, with some high-octane racing expected from sailing off the Fishing harbour seawall in Fremantle. The so-called Transfer Window closed earlier this week. When the crew lists are posted for Freo, we'll see who has gone where, and the sailing crew positions.

The nationality rules look to become very stretched, and the end position for SailGP looks to be that it will devolve into a contest between 20 mixed nationality teams of professional sailors. In that scenario the hope is that fans will orientate around a favorite team, which may or may not have its roots in their home country. That opens the way for more team merchandising which falls very neatly into the wake of professional teams in other pro-leagues - and is something that non-sailing team investors understand as a revenue stream.