Benedict Donovan
The week in racing - 20 July ‘26
Olympic hopefuls chasing points on the future LA28 waters at Long Beach, the SSL Gold Cup dishing out its final European tickets to Rio in Switzerland, and fresh European champions crowned in the WASZP and ILCA fleets. And to top...
Ferrari Hypersail: Why a car company is building an ocean racer
Ferrari has never built a sailing boat. Its first is Hypersail, a 100-foot fully foiling monohull designed to fly across oceans on renewable energy alone and chase records that have only ever belonged to multihulls. It's an...
How do you sail an AC75 and two AC40s at once? Ask Luna Rossa
Last week we asked The Foil community whether Emirates Team New Zealand could be beaten in the 38th America’s Cup. 71% said yes, and on current evidence the Italians are as well placed as anyone to do it. Luna Rossa have...
What La Roche-Posay’s Lorient capsize reveals about the lighter AC75
Last Tuesday, La Roche-Posay Racing Team's AC75 capsized during training off Lorient, the crew were unharmed, and the boat was towed back to base with a “systems issue” as the only official word. It was the team's fourth day on...
The week in racing - 13 July '26
Plenty going on across the fleets this week. A sun-soaked Round the Island, three European titles decided ashore, four fresh faces crowned at the iQFOiL Youth Worlds, and a record-breaking offshore epic in Greek waters. Let’s get...
49er, 49erFX & Nacra 17 Europeans wrap up as three new titles are settled on dry land
Three European titles were decided in Eckernförde this week, and the crews who won them can thank the work they banked before Sunday – because Sunday gave them nothing. The 2026 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 European Championships...
Calendar clash or golden opportunity? The Foil community have their say
On last week's podcast, the team sat down to wrestle with a question that keeps hanging over the sport just as it's booming: with SailGP, the America's Cup and the Olympics all pulling hard at once, can they actually share a...
The tech behind Ferrari Hypersail
Ferrari has never built a sailing boat. So it's fitting that its first isn't a boat in any usual sense, but a 100-foot machine designed to fly across oceans. Hypersail is a fully foiling monohull – the first of its kind – 20...
ETNZ join Luna Rossa on the Bay of Naples
In the past few days, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa – the defender and Italy's home favourite – have both launched boats on the stretch of water that will decide the next America’s Cup. New Zealand rolled out their two...
The week in racing - 6 July ‘26
Lots to chew over this week: a record fleet let loose on the Aegean, an America's Cup team finally reaches Naples, and world titles being handed out everywhere from Lake Garda to the Baltic. Let’s get into it. Foiling Week's 13th...
Quentin Delapierre: Playing the long game
Almost every move Quentin Delapierre has made has been the right one. He has chosen his disciplines well, picked the correct boats at the correct moments, turned down the wrong opportunities and said yes to the ones that...
Recon: Subdued first sail for La Roche-Posay Racing Team
There are few clearer signs that an America’s Cup campaign has got serious than the moment the new boat finally gets flying under its own steam. For La Roche-Posay Racing Team, that moment came on Tuesday, when the French...
France splashes its next-gen AC75 in Lorient
France knows the AC75 well enough by now, but it had never seen one on home water. That changed in Lorient yesterday, where the team now racing as La Roche-Posay – reborn from the Orient Express outfit that carried French hopes...
The week in racing - 29 June ‘26
Light air was the great leveller this week, rewarding the patient and the tactically sharp over anyone hoping to just blast their way to the front. As always, there’s plenty to get stuck into… The next wave of sailing talent put...
‘Full steam ahead and scrambling to keep our heads above water’: Grant Simmer on Australia's Cup comeback
Few people are more bound up in Australia's America's Cup story than Grant Simmer. He was the young navigator aboard Australia II in 1983 – the boat with the wing keel that ended the New York Yacht Club's stranglehold and lodged...
