Garmin Equips Luna Rossa Chase Boats for 38th America’s Cup Campaign

Garmin joins Luna Rossa for the 38th America’s Cup campaign

Garmin has been selected as an official supplier to Luna Rossa, the Italian challenger preparing for the 38th America’s Cup in Naples in 2027. The agreement covers the campaign leading into the event and places Garmin equipment on the team’s chase boats during both training and racing.

An America’s Cup chase boat operates as a high-speed mobile support platform, moving technical staff, equipment and information around the race area while following some of the fastest sailing yachts ever built. Reliable navigation, communications and systems integration therefore matter because the support craft must operate efficiently without becoming a distraction to the team.

Chase boats receive a broad electronics package

Garmin says the Luna Rossa support fleet will use GPSMAP 9000 chartplotters, Garmin Navionics Vision+ mapping and other navigation, communication, lighting, digital-switching and audio products. The selection gives the team a common electronics environment rather than assembling unrelated systems from several suppliers for each function.

That approach can simplify training and troubleshooting because crew members become familiar with one network philosophy across multiple chase boats. Superyacht owners use a similar logic when standardising tenders and chase boats around the same electronics family, particularly when those smaller craft must be supported by the yacht’s own engineering and deck teams.

Performance data extends beyond the boats

Garmin is also supporting Luna Rossa athletes with fitness products linked through Garmin Connect, reflecting how modern race campaigns combine vessel performance with individual physical data. America’s Cup sailors work in a highly physical environment, so training and recovery information can become part of the same performance culture that drives engineering development on the water.

The connection between wearable data and marine equipment is increasingly visible in recreational and professional boating. While a superyacht does not need the same athletic analysis as an America’s Cup team, owners and crew are becoming accustomed to personal devices that interact with onboard systems rather than existing entirely outside the vessel’s technology ecosystem.

Precision matters most when operating tempo rises

Luna Rossa’s technology and operations leadership highlights precision, reliability and timing as key reasons for continuing the relationship with Garmin. Those priorities are unsurprising in a campaign where short training windows, rapidly changing conditions and high-speed manoeuvres leave little room for unreliable equipment or slow decision-making.

The support boats may not attract the same public attention as the race yacht, but their performance is part of the team’s wider operating system. A missed position, delayed transfer or communications problem can waste valuable training time, which makes the reliability of navigation and onboard systems commercially important even when the equipment itself is not the headline technology.

The partnership is relevant beyond racing

For Garmin, the America’s Cup provides a demanding demonstration environment and a visible reference among serious sailors, builders and marine professionals. The equipment is still standard commercial marine technology rather than bespoke race hardware, so the lessons about integration and user workflow can transfer to tenders, chase boats and performance yachts outside the competition.

For superyacht projects, the strongest parallel is the growing importance of the support fleet as an extension of the main yacht. Owners increasingly expect chase boats and tenders to have capable navigation, communications, audio and control systems of their own, and a race campaign such as Luna Rossa shows how those systems can be treated as one integrated operating package.