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 had been building towards a two-race Finals, the scores squeezed so tight that no boat sat more than nine points off the one in front, a set-up built for a grandstand finish. Then the Baltic declined to co-operate.

The Nacra 17s spent three and a half hours afloat as start after start fell apart, the 49ers were sent out and waved back in, and the FX fleet never left the shore. By mid-afternoon the race committee accepted the inevitable, and the standings from Saturday were left to decide the lot.

Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance are Open European champions for a second year running. The Canadian sisters won the title in Thessaloniki last summer and repeated it here. Having taken the overall lead off Italy's Jana Germani and Giorgia Bertuzzi on Friday, they settled it on Saturday with a 3, 1, 1 – their best day of the week, exactly when it mattered.

Getting there was far from smooth. The Canadians sat fourth after day one and slid to eighth by the end of qualifying while Germani and Bertuzzi ran the early series. But once the Gold fleet split out the genuine contenders, the Lewin-LaFrances found top gear – two wins on the opening Gold day, the lead by Friday, as the Italians fell apart behind them to ultimately finish eighth.

Home favourites Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille finished as the leading European boat for a second year running, taking the European title and second overall in front of their own crowd. France's Mathilde Lovadina and Lou Berthomieu, who rose through the fleet all week, took third and the Vice European Champion title in their first season together, with Poland's Aleksandra Melzacka and Sandra Jankowiak claiming European bronze.

Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush don’t race often in Europe, but they rarely leave without the trophy. The New Zealanders won the Europeans in Thessaloniki last year, took the world championship in Quiberon this spring, and have now added another European title – a run that makes them the boat every other crew is trying to catch. The fact that Menzies is managing all of it at 21, while also sailing for Emirates Team New Zealand, makes it all the more impressive.

They took the yellow jersey off British shoulders on Friday with a 4, 1, 2, sailing so quickly that the Kiwis’ boat speed became the talk of the fleet. A scrappier Saturday – a 15, 10, 8 that, by their standards, passes for an off day – did nothing to loosen their grip, and they carried an eight-point cushion into a Finals that never ran.

For most of the week the story had been James Grummett and Rhos Hawes, who wore the yellow jersey from day two and held it through the light stuff on day three before the Kiwis hauled them back in. The British pair could not win it back, but second overall lands them the European title – their breakthrough at this level, and a long time in the making. Poland's Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch took the Vice European title in third, while Germany's Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger took European bronze in fourth, a 10, 5, 2 on Saturday sending the home crowd away happy.

For four days this was Willemijn Offerman and Scipio Houtman's regatta. The Dutch led from the opening gun on Tuesday and stretched clear until, by midweek, they held roughly half the points of the boat in second. Then Saturday caught up with them. An 11, 9, 11 – their worst day by a distance – opened the door, and Sweden's Emil Järudd and Hanna Jonsson took full advantage with a 2 and a 3 to lead into the Finals.

Järudd and Jonsson, who took the overall prize at the Princesa Sofía earlier this year, sailed a steady, unfussy week and were in the right place when the leaders faltered. With the Finals gone, there was nothing left to defend, and the Saturday standings settled it.

John Gimson and Anna Burnet could not defend the crown they won last year, but the reigning champions finished with a flourish: four race wins across the last two days, two of them on Saturday at the start and the finish, enough for second and the Vice European title. That left the Dutch with bronze – a hard one for the crew that led the thing for the best part of a week, then were left with no way to put it right.

The Baltic threw plenty at the fleet across five days – from the 34-knot gusts that battered the opening day, to wrists and heads knocked in start-line collisions, a jury room that never seemed to close, and an Italian FX crew who led for half the week before coming apart entirely.

Without a final-day shootout, though, this championship reverted to something more old-fashioned, the trophies decided by consistency over final-race nerve. Good thing or bad thing? You can make the case either way. But nobody will feel it more keenly than the Dutch, left to wonder what a Sunday might have brought.

Full results here.