Carlo Borlenghi, the Italian photographer regarded as the defining eye of America’s Cup and offshore sailing photography for more than four decades, died suddenly in the early hours of 3 August 2026 at his home town of Bellano on Lake Como. He was 70.
Reports from Italy say he had felt unwell the previous evening and appeared to recover, before his heart stopped the following morning. His funeral takes place on Wednesday 5 August 2026 at 11:30 at the Chiesa dei Santi Nazzaro e Celso in Bellano.
An America’s Cup career
Borlenghi covered every America’s Cup from 1983 onward, becoming official campaign photographer for Azzurra, Italia at Fremantle in 1987, Il Moro di Venezia at San Diego in 1992, Luna Rossa’s Auckland campaigns in 2000 and 2003, the event itself at Valencia in 2007, Alinghi in 2010 and Luna Rossa again in San Francisco in 2013.
But his lens also turned to powerboat racing. Chris Davies, who covers powerboat racing for Powerboat News, said Borlenghi photographed offshore Class 1 racing between 2004 and 2006, a lesser-known strand of a career built mainly around sail.
A school of his own
Borlenghi never tried to create copies of himself. He passed on his knowledge and a way of working, giving each photographer who came through his studio the freedom to develop their own eye rather than imitate his. Studio Borlenghi grew into a collective effort built on a shared approach but open to different perspectives, with some of its photographers working alongside him for close to twenty years.
That studio, and the archive behind it, is why his work will not end with his passing. It survives in the photographs held in books, magazines and agency files, in the images that introduced sailing to people who had never experienced it, and in the photographers he trained, who will keep setting out aboard a RIB or a helicopter, studying the wind and the course, and trying to be in the right place at the decisive moment.
From Lake Como to the world
Borlenghi began by photographing local regattas on Lake Como as a teenager, before a collaboration with the magazine Uomo Mare Vogue took him to America’s Cup campaigns from 1983. He founded the Sea&See Italia agency in 1989, later part of the Mediatree Group, and from 1994 documented Giovanni Soldini’s ocean voyages, several editions of the Whitbread Round the World Race and the Volvo Ocean Race, and Grant Dalton’s Club Med campaign in The Race in 2000.
He was honoured by Italian president Giorgio Napolitano in 2007 for his contribution to sailing, and exhibited at the Louis Vuitton space in Paris the same year.
He is survived by his wife, Alessandra.
See his work
Carlo Borlenghi’s archive, spanning four decades of sailing and offshore powerboat photography, remains online at his official site.
Visit carloborlenghi.com
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
