Two-time America's Cup winner Jimmy Spithill says 'this is it for me' after Luna Rossa loss

BARCELONA, Spain — Two-time winner Jimmy Spithill believes that he has raced his last America’s Cup after his Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was beaten in the challengers’ final on Friday.

“I really think I am at the end of the line now. I think this is it for me,” the 45-year-old Spithill said, while lauding all the young sailing talents coming up behind him.

This was his eighth consecutive America’s Cup and third with Luna Rossa.

Luna Rossa fell 7-4 to INEOS Britannia in the Louis Vuitton challengers final. The British will face Emirates Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup final.

Spithill is best known for twice winning the America’s Cup with Oracle Team USA in 2010 and 2013. That included leading an epic comeback in 2013 when the American-based crew was down 8-1 at match point before winning eight straight races against New Zealand.

Spithill was in his second campaign with co-helmsman Francesco Bruni. In 2021 in Auckland, they had steered Luna Rossa into the final where they fell to the Kiwis.