Francesco Bruni, the Argo Group Gold Cup champion, admits that retaining his title will be no easy feat.

However, the Luna Rossa skipper has vowed to give it his best shot with a completely new crew from the one he led to victory last year.

“It’s difficult to do it twice in a row so it’s going to be very hard to repeat,” Bruni said.

“The weather forecast is good, which is very important, because the programme now has been squeezed so we need some good wind.”

The last man to lead his crew to back-to-back Gold Cups was Sir Ben Ainslie, of England, who Bruni beat in last year’s final to become the first Italian skipper to have his name inscribed on the prestigious King Edward VII Gold Cup.

Bruni and his team-mates have been placed in group one, which also includes fellow past Gold Cup winners Johnie Berntsson and Ian Williams.

The 41-year-old is among the eight Alpari World Match Racing Tour card holders competing in this year’s Gold Cup and leads one of two America’s Cup teams represented in Bermuda along with Artemis Racing.

Bruni is the only surviving member from last year’s victorious Gold Cup Luna Rossa team that lost just two matches en route to glory.

“We have a new team here so there’s going to be a little bit of a challenge there,” Bruni said.

“But they are all very good sailors.”