Freddie Carr: What I can’t wait to see in 2026

Thank goodness for SailGP. In a sporting world that often treats calendars like state secrets, SailGP does something refreshingly simple: it tells the fans what’s coming, and it does so early. 

Established teams, a format people actually understand and roughly one event per month makes it easy to follow. There’s a storyline, you can back a team, and momentum builds across a weekend towards discovering a Grand Final winner. That clarity matters.

What really jumps out this year, though, are the venues. Compared to some of the lighter locations we saw last season, the 2026 calendar has real edge. More breeze, more risk, and far less margin for error. 

Add to that the growing financial muscle of SailGP and suddenly the stakes feel very real. With successful crews now capable of quadrupling, with prize money, what a sailor might earn on a traditional grand prix circuit, this is no longer just about prestige. It’s about livelihoods.

Which raises an uncomfortable but fascinating question: are we about to see SailGP turn ruthless? Other professional sports don’t wait long before pulling the trigger when results don’t come. If a team is struggling by event six, do heads start to roll? For the first time, it feels like anything could happen.

That sense of momentum carries straight into the America’s Cup. The end-of-year announcements around the America’s Cup partnership were genuinely exciting, and the proposal of an America’s Cup every two years makes enormous sense, competitively and commercially.

But if we’re serious about growing the sport, fans need certainty. Dates, venues, formats – get them in the diary. I am an AC guy, I need to plan my year of sports viewing!

The likelihood of AC40 regattas for senior, youth and women’s teams next year is another huge positive. The fleet racing (love an upwind start!) followed by a top-two match-racing shootout worked brilliantly last time, and I’d love to see that format return.

It also feeds perfectly into what feels like an inevitable reshuffle of talent. With Jimmy Spithill and Francesco ‘Checco’ Bruni moving on from their sailing roles at Luna Rossa, speculation is unavoidable. Pete Burling might have made the jump off the ‘isle of the long white cloud’ at the perfect time as he starts his journey with this Italian sailing power house Luna Rossa. 

On the flip side Team New Zealand, three-time America’s Cup winners, enter their first cycle without Burling at the wheel for a decade. The answers of what man or machine wins the AC won’t get answered until 2027 but we could see the impact of Burling’s transfer this year when the AC75s get dusted down for testing. 

Ben Ainslie has publicly suggested he may not drive in the next America’s Cup. With Dylan Fletcher a shoe-in to drive, who is his offside helms person? Decisions made in the next few weeks will define a team’s result in 18 months from now. 

Meanwhile, there’s a strong sense that the rebranded TUDOR Team Alinghi may look very different from the Red Bull team we saw in Barcelona in 2024. The revised nationality rules have clearly favoured the Swiss, and with American Magic absent from AC38, there’s serious talent on the market. Just saying.

Scheduling will be a delicate balancing act. The America’s Cup World Series can’t clash with SailGP, and that juggling act only gets harder with a full America’s Cup drawing closer in the summer of 2027. 

One stop I desperately hope makes the cut for a World Series Regatta this year is Naples. Racing there with Luna Rossa in 2012 and 2013 remains one of the most extraordinary experiences of my career. The rumour was 200,000 people lined the seafront on the final Sunday. Walking back to the hotel felt like being a footballer – the passion was unmatched. The sooner the sailing world remembers this city and its fantastic race course the better.

What excites me most, though, may well be the youth and women’s events. Right now, youth sailing simply isn’t in the spotlight enough. In every other sport, fans are obsessed with the next superstar – the Victor Wembanyama, the Coco Gauff, the Jude Bellingham. Outside the Olympics, sailing doesn’t really offer that window. 

I want to see the next generation foiling AC40s, building rivalries, and giving us names to follow for the next decade. Is 2026, where do we find sailing’s next household name?

After the resounding success of the first Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona, expectations are only going one way. The standard will rise again. What fascinates me is whether teams will be bold enough to fast-track elite female sailors into their senior race squads for the 2026. We know women will race on AC75s in Naples in 2027 – so will any teams integrate them early? I sincerely hope so. Often the teams that learn the fastest rise to the top.

Beyond foiling, the Olympic cycle is already gathering pace. Two years out from Los Angeles 2028, results matter less than direction. World Sailing is under pressure from the IOC to modernise Olympic racing – to make it more accessible, more understandable and more engaging for a younger audience. 

New formats are expected to be trialled across multiple classes in 2026, with an eye on LA28. For me, the real story isn’t who’s winning yet, but whether Olympic sailing can evolve without losing its soul. Andy Rice will be diving deep into that debate in the coming weeks on The Foil.

Away from flying above the water, there are the TP52s. Entering their 21st consecutive season, the TP52 Super Series remains, in many eyes, the gold standard of monohull fleet racing. With two-time champions Quantum Racing stepping away, the 2026 title race feels wide open. Expect a hungry fleet and a potentially windier season, especially with two regattas scheduled in Lanzarote.

The RC44 circuit also deserves attention, with Team Nika chasing a remarkable three-peat. Their world championship off Cowes later in the year promises some of the tightest racing you’ll see anywhere. If you are a stadium racing fan then this is for you. A perfect mix of traditional sailing on a small, tight course close to shore. 

Finally, top end Grand Prix Racing continues its resurgence. After the 2025 Admiral’s Cup revival, the RORC is relaunching the Sardinia Cup in Porto Cervo – two-boat teams from clubs across Europe competing for a trophy last awarded in 2012. It’s another sign that grand prix yacht racing, across all disciplines, is thriving. 

Healthy, competitive and full of storylines… sailing has rarely looked in better shape.