The Foil Weekly Roundup - 5 Jan '26

From a record-breaking bid in Shenzhen to a rule breach that rewrote Sydney-Hobart history, the first week of 2026 has given us plenty to talk about. We've also got grassroots foiling making waves in Naples, potentially 250 boats braving the cold for the Bloody Mary, and a 3,000-mile Atlantic crossing on the horizon. Here's your weekly roundup.

The 2025 World Match Racing Tour Final gets underway in Shenzhen this week, with Ian Williams gunning for a record ninth world title. The Brit has dominated this discipline like few others, and his bid to extend an already remarkable legacy makes this one to watch.

Williams isn't the only familiar name on the start list. Cole Tapper contested the Youth America's Cup with Australia in 2024, while 2022 champion Nick Egnot-Johnson skippered Japan in SailGP's early seasons. The WMRT has long been the proving ground for those with eyes on the America's Cup and grand prix sailing – Ben Ainslie cut his teeth here before building his Cup programme, and past winners Taylor Canfield and Phil Robertson are now central figures in the SailGP paddock.

Williams himself has recently joined the NorthStar Canada SailGP team as starts coach for the upcoming season, a role that speaks to just how transferable match racing skills are to the cut-and-thrust of F50 racing. With sixteen skippers battling it out across six days for a share of the $200,000 prize purse, Shenzhen should deliver plenty of drama.

The 80th Sydney Hobart ended with a twist that left the French crew of BNC wondering how a tidy-up job cost them victory. Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal were set to claim overall honours on handicap – a prize the sailing community values above line honours as the true test of seamanship – until a protest changed everything.

In the final two nautical miles, with the finish line in sight and media boats closing in, the BNC crew rigged a pole to hold their spinnaker in place while they cleaned the deck and prepared for their moment in the spotlight. A sensible enough idea in theory, except the configuration breached Rule 55.3, a technical regulation governing how sails can be sheeted.

Min River, skippered by Jiang Lin with Alexis Loison, had originally lodged the protest after receiving video footage from onlookers. Though that protest was technically invalid – they hadn't witnessed the infringement themselves – the race committee filed its own complaint, and the international jury upheld it. BNC received a one-hour, five-minute penalty, handing overall victory to Min River. Lin became the first woman to win the Tattersall Cup in the race's history.

The BNC crew were gracious in defeat, describing it as a 'silly mistake' and acknowledging they hadn't deliberately sought an advantage. A brutal way to lose, but rules are rules. In offshore racing, even the final stretch demands attention to the details.

Despite our name, we don’t just cover foiling boats at The Foil – but of course we’ll always celebrate them when we see something special. The Junior Foiling Cup in Naples delivered exactly that over the weekend, with under-16s blasting around the Bay in challenging conditions aboard Nikki foilers.

Where the International Moth scene can easily top $100,000 for a competitive campaign, the Junior Foiling Cup offers a pathway into high-speed foiling that's actually accessible. The model relies on shared boats stationed at regional hubs – Naples, Lake Garda, Switzerland, the SailGP base in Cádiz – so kids rotate through locations rather than shipping equipment around Europe. It's foiling without the financial arms race, and that alone makes it worth paying attention to.

A full European circuit is now taking shape for 2026, with events from Porto Cervo to Malcesine Foiling Week on the calendar. If the elite end of sailing is serious about building a pipeline for future talent, initiatives like this are precisely what's needed.

This Saturday will mark the 50th running of British sailing's most anarchic winter pursuit race, held on the reservoir at Queen Mary Sailing Club. Expect up to 250 boats, 60-odd classes, and competitors from more than 100 clubs – all launching into what promises to be properly bitter January conditions for two and a half hours of handicap-adjusted mayhem. Thermals, drysuits and a healthy tolerance for frozen extremities are essential.

The 12th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race sets off from Marina Lanzarote on Sunday, with over 20 teams pointing their bows towards a new Caribbean finish in Antigua (Grenada in previous events). It's a 3,000-mile crossing that tests endurance, navigation and crew cohesion in equal measure – and this year's fleet includes some serious firepower.

Last year's overall winner, Christian Zugel's Volvo 70 Tschüss 2, showed what a well-drilled crew can achieve, taking victory despite losing wind instruments for the final two days and sailing entirely by feel. Zugel turns 65 this year and has a packed offshore schedule ahead, including the RORC Caribbean 600 and the centenary Rolex Fastnet. One to follow when the start gun fires.