Newly crowned Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix champion Tom Slingsby has expressed great pride after being appointed as head of sailing for Australia’s first America's Cup challenge in a quarter of a century.

The Aussies have not entered a team in the prestigious regatta since 2000 and Olympic gold medal-winner and two-times world sailor of the year Slingsby is looking forward to the exciting challenge at next year’s 38th America’s Cup in Naples, Italy.

“There's a huge sense of excitement around what we're building together and I'm incredibly proud to be part of the beginning of this new chapter for Australian sailing,” Slingsby said.

The 41-year-old has already enjoyed success in the America’s Cup after helping Defender Oracle Team USA retain the prestigious Auld Mug in 2013 in one of the most stunning comebacks in sports history against Challenger Team New Zealand, who squandered a commanding 8-1 advantage in the best of 17 series in the final.

He was also a member of Oracle Team USA’s team that lost to the Kiwis in the next instalment of the America’s Cup, which Bermuda hosted in the Great Sound in 2017.

Slingsby led the Australia SailGP team to their second Apex Group Bermuda Grand Prix title, the Bonds Flying Roos second straight victory and third of the season, to extend their lead in the Rolex SailGP Championship standings.

The Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club issued a notice of challenge to the defending New Zealand Yacht Squadron on Wednesday.

Australia is backed by businessman and Sydney to Hobart Race winner John Winning Jr, while Grant Simmer, a member of the Aussie’s team that famously ended the New York Yacht Club's 132-year-old stranglehold on the Auld Mug in 1983, was named as the chief executive.

The three-times America’s Cup winner Glenn Ashby, who broke his right leg after taking a fall on-board DS Automobiles Team France’s F50 at last weekend’s Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix, has been appointed as head of performance and design.

Britain’s GB1, the Challenger of Record, Italy’s Luna Rossa, Switzerland’s Tudor Team Alinghi, France’s LA Roche-Posay Racing Team and American Racing Challenge Team USA are the remaining teams confirmed for next year’s America’s Cup.

Emirates Team New Zealand is the Defender.

The 38th America’s Cup match will be contested in the wing-sail AC75 foiling monohull and preliminary regatta in the smaller AC40 and operated by a crew of five to include at least one female.