An America’s Cup without an American boat? American Magic says it may not sail in Naples

American Magic has put its participation in the next America’s Cup in serious doubt after it cited “transparency” concerns related to Team New Zealand’s decision to hold the 2027 regatta in Naples, Italy.

The team that represented the New York Yacht Club in last year’s cup in Barcelona issued a statement on Thursday saying America’s Cup defending champion Team New Zealand “has been unwilling to commit to the transparency and cooperation necessary” regarding its plans for Naples that were announced last week.

If American Magic doesn’t compete and no other American team enters in its place, then for the first time in the event’s history, there will not be an American syndicate in the America’s Cup.

American boats have won the America’s Cup a record 25 times and held it from its first race in 1851 all the way through 1983, when an Australian syndicate won it.

Team New Zealand responded to the American Magic statement by publicly releasing the latest draft version of the 2027 protocols “as an illustration of complete transparency.”

American Magic’s complaint was made public shortly after British team Athena Racing, representing all challengers, issued a statement criticizing what it called the lack of information provided by Team New Zealand on the deal with Italian organizers.

It is “difficult to understand what exactly has been agreed between Team New Zealand and the government of Italy as the sporting framework and details of the event do not yet exist,” Athena said.

American Magic backed up Athena’s position by saying that “without the meaningful changes they (Athena) are advocating, it is difficult to see how NYYC American Magic can participate in the 38th America’s Cup.”

Neither Athena nor American Magic went into further detail regarding their complaints.

In a statement, Team New Zealand said it had been working with all teams in developing plans for the 2027 event and the latest protocol went back to Athena Racing 10 days ago, before the announcement of Naples as host.

“The defender has not had any feedback back from the challenger of record on the latest version other than acknowledgement it had been well received by the teams,” Team New Zealand said. “However, the defender now feels due to the unreasonable allegations that have been levelled at it by Athena Racing and American Magic, that it is appropriate to publicly release the latest draft.”

Team New Zealand said all teams had been offered “full access and transparency to the host venue agreement” upon the signing of a non-disclosure agreement, but no NDAs had been returned.

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