Peter Burling's picked up his first regatta win since joining Italian syndicate Luna Rossa, comfortably beating his old crew Team New Zealand.
The match race brought a thrilling end to the first preliminary regatta ahead of the 38th America's Cup in Naples next July.
Italian fans packed out the waterfront area on the island of Sardinia for the grand finale, and loudly celebrated the Luna Rossa victory.
Burling said he was "super proud" of his crew.
"As a team we wanted to be both boats in the finals, so obviously a little bit gutted we couldn't have the youth and women for the derby for that final race, but you know, in saying that, quite enjoyable racing my old team," he told 1News.
"We felt like we left so many points out there and the results weren't quite showing the level we're sailing at for the first couple of days but to go put together a day like that under quite a bit of pressure today was, you know, super proud of what we can achieve in the future," Burling said.
He said it was "pretty special" to get his first Luna Rossa victory on the first attempt and it "was nice to beat Team New Zealand".
"Still a little strange looking across and seeing that boat, but really proud of the way our group just kept building during this week."
He also reflected on his departure from Team New Zealand in April last year.
"I didn't think I'd be doing the next America's Cup. I didn't agree with a couple of things and we didn't manage to come to terms on the contracts.
"It was definitely, I suppose, a bit emotional to leave and I was looking at doing other things, but this opportunity came up and the rules have kind of transitioned a fair bit since that time.
"Super excited by trying to help Luna Rossa and Italy win their first America's Cup."
Team New Zealand were on the back foot after losing the start, skipper Nathan Outteridge told 1News.
"They had the port entry and decided to do that early 360 and we know it's pretty strong to engage in these pre-starts as opposed to leave the competition away," he said.
Outteridge said the crew was in a strong position after completing manoeuvres with 50 seconds to go until the race began.
"We actually were controlling the start and they were in a bit of trouble and when they did their final manoeuvres out, we should have just gone with them and kept controlling, instead we kind of let them off the hook and then had an unforced error.
"Frustrating.
"We shuffled down the line because there was a bit of a line bias at the leeward end and overrun the time."
They misjudged they'd be two seconds late for the start but had gained more distance than they expected.
Outteridge and Burling were part of the New Zealand crew who won the last America's Cup in Barcelona in 2024.
"We knew the set plays that were in there and we'd been spending the last two or three years developing them together so it's why it's frustrating he got the better of us on this one but there'll be plenty more to come."
Team New Zealand featured the new helming combination of Outteridge and Seb Menzies and trimmers Iain Jensen and Andy Maloney.
Outteridge said the crew had gained a lot of confidence and experience from racing together ahead of the next preliminary meeting in Naples in September. He said he'll "definitely" be co-helming with 21-year-old Menzies again.
"He's a fantastic sailor and he did a great job all week and looking forward to getting more and more races under our belts together."
He said he was pleased with how the crew performed overall in the regatta.
"We lost the boat (AC40) for a few months shipping it up here now it's up here in Europe we're going to be able to use them a lot more and get the momentum going for the next event."
"To me, at the end of the day, the 75 is the most important boat in the America's Cup and that development will keep going but from a sailing team to be able to come here, race in the AC40s in the home waters of Luna Rossa, make the final and come up short is obviously disappointing but it's a huge feat to make the final so we're really happy we're in there," he said.
Luna Rossa gained the port advantage from entering the final match race at the top of the table on 63 points.
New Zealand scraped into the final race with 60 points, a single point ahead of Luna Rossa's women and youth crew who were dominating the regatta until today when they were disqualified from the first race after not falling back when penalised three times for starting early.
Team New Zealand's youth and women crew was skippered by Jake Pye, with Erica Dawson in co-helm and Josh Armit and Serena Woodall the trimmers. The crew completed the regatta in fifth place overall, just crossing the line behind the principal crew in the second fleet race.
TVNZ will have full live coverage of the 38th America's Cup in 2027.
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