The Foil Weekly Wrap - 18 May '26

Plenty to chew over from the past week: four Olympic-class Worlds decided, the Figaro fleet heading offshore, a first glimpse of Ferrari's offshore weapon, and an AC40 start line in Sardinia about to give us our first proper look at the AC38 pecking order.

Viana do Castelo in Portugal served up its usual Atlantic mix for the climax of the Formula Kite Worlds – strong breeze, shifty winds and swell enough to separate the good from the great. France's Lauriane Nolot and Singapore's Maximilian Maeder were both chasing a third world title going into the medal series, and both got it.

In the women's final, defending champion Jessie Kampman was pinned wide by Elena Lengwiler and Daniela Moroz, forced beyond the layline, and dumped it on port reaching back across the course at full tilt. Her title defence went with her. That gave Nolot clear water to claim the bullet she needed for her third crown, with Kampman having to settle for second. Lengwiler – who'd started the day in tenth – scrapped her way to bronze.

The men's was settled by a single rounding. Maeder and Swiss training partner Gian Stragiotti cut their laylines impossibly fine at the top mark; Maeder just made it, while Stragiotti couldn't pump his foil up in time and was forced into a costly double-tack. A blistering downwind hauled Stragiotti back into silver, while Maeder held on for the title. Full results from the kiters here.

New world champions were also crowned in the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 fleets this week – check who won what here.

The closing day of the Etchells Worlds in San Diego was a slow burn – clouds, delay, eventually 10 knots – but once the breeze filled in, Magpie read it best. James Mayo, Paul Cayard and Ben Lamb wrapped up a third straight title for Mayo – the first three-peat at this regatta in over forty years. The Aussie boat reeled in Canada's Luke Lawrence on Cruel Jane between the first windward mark and the second, then sealed it with a race-nine win to finish on 56 points. Scott Kaufman's Rogue took second with 73, John Sommi's Encore third on 80. Not a bad result for Cayard, all of twenty days into his Etchells career and already adding his name to a trophy that lists Dennis Conner and Vince Brun. Full results here.

Gruissan got its mojo back this year. After two editions starved of wind, the Tramontane returned with proper force for the 2026 Défi Wind – gusting past 40 knots on the opening day – and the 1,350 riders who turned up on Les Chalets beach were treated to five full races over the classic 40-kilometre course.

This is the sport's Woodstock – an intergenerational gathering of veterans, shapers, young guns and devotees from around the world, and the atmosphere on the beach and at the evening events is as much the point as the racing itself. Check the results here.

The 57th La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec got underway on Sunday from Perros-Guirec, sending 36 solo sailors off on a 1,660-mile course via Vigo, Pornichet and Le Havre. It started gently: around 10 knots, a reaching start, and hundreds of spectators lining the shore.

By Monday afternoon, with the fleet upwind off the tip of Brittany, Nicolas Lunven on PRB had moved into the lead, with 2024 winner Tom Dolan on Kingspan and 2024 runner-up Loïs Berrehar on Banque Populaire shadowing him. Berrehar, who took the Paprec Trophy for the opening coastal sprint, will fancy a rematch. A low-pressure system rolling in overnight will tell us a good deal about who's got the legs for 1,660 miles, three Channel crossings and two laps of Cape Finisterre.

Running alongside the main fleet is the Défi Paprec – six double-handed crews shadowing the solo sailors on the same course, fifteen minutes behind the gun. It's designed as a gateway into the world of elite solo offshore racing, and the format is working: several graduates of earlier editions are now racing the main Solitaire. One entrant this year worth noting is Croatian alpine skiing legend Ivica Kostelić – four-time Olympic medallist on the slopes – who is using the Défi as a stepping stone toward more serious offshore ambitions. Track the fleets here.

It's still very much a construction site, but the Ferrari Hypersail is beginning to look like a boat. This week the project completed the demoulding of the hull – pulling back the mould after more than a year of lamination and curing to reveal the vessel's external form for the first time. The shell is just a few millimetres thick, constructed from a sandwich of carbon fibre, foam and honeycomb composite, built to balance lightness and stiffness in roughly equal measure.

With the livery already unveiled a few weeks ago, this marks the end of the first major phase of construction. Next comes the installation of the mechanical, hydraulic and electrical systems, before the team turns its attention to sea trials.

After months of training and speculation, eight AC40s line up off Cagliari at 15:13 local time on Friday 22 May, and this cycle of the Cup gets seriously underway. Five of the seven Naples-bound teams are entered – ETNZ, GB1, Luna Rossa, Alinghi and La Roche-Posay – alongside the Women & Youth squads of the Kiwi, British and Italian teams. It's the first time in the foiling era of the Cup that Women & Youth teams will line up against senior crews in scoring races, which alone makes Sardinia worth the watch.

Format-wise: eight fleet races, with the top two then going through to a match-race final for the Louis Vuitton trophy. Plenty of names you'll recognise in the cockpits – Outteridge, Fletcher, Burling, Goodison, Delapierre – with Hannah Mills leading Athena Pathway and Marco Gradoni set to skipper Luna Rossa's Youth & Women boat.

From Tuesday to Saturday, wingfoil racers are in Urla on Turkey's Aegean coast for a World Cup event (17-22 May) carrying 300 ranking points and a €10,000 prize pot. Not a headline event, but a solid mid-season fixture for the growing wingfoil circuit.

More Olympic-class racing is underway this week in Portugal, with the iQFOIL European Championship running through to Sunday in Portimão. The entry list is substantial – 119 men and 79 women – and Portimão's Atlantic coastline has a reputation for pushing riders hard across a wide range of conditions. The medal series is set for Saturday 23 May, with livestreams available for the final three days of racing. Full entry list here.