The Foil Weekly Wrap - 23 Feb '26

From maxi yacht faceoffs in Antigua to frozen lakes in Sweden, the sailing world has seen a week of extremes. Cape Horn looms for the Globe40 fleet, the America's Cup appoints a new CEO, and SailGP heads to Sydney two boats lighter after Auckland's collision.

The RORC Nelson's Cup – the four-day warm-up regatta held off Antigua's English Harbour each February that serves as the traditional lead-in to the RORC Caribbean 600 – delivered a nail-biter for its fourth edition.

Going into the final coastal race of the Nelson's Cup Series on Thursday, just one point separated overall leader Wendy Schmidt's Deep Blue from Joost Schuijff's Leopard 3 and Karel Komárek's V. V had stolen a bullet in the penultimate race – their first of the week – but Leopard 3 found another gear when it counted. Tactician Chris Nicholson described the pre-start as "hectic" – three 100-footers tacking within three boat lengths of each other – but his crew ground their way out and won the decider by more than two and a half minutes on corrected time to take the series by two points. The maxi podium was rounded out by two female skippers – Schmidt in second, Lizz Flowers' Galateia in third.

The following day's Antigua 360, a 48-mile lap of the island, provided even more drama. Jason Carroll's MOD70 Argo obliterated her own multihull record by 25%, completing the 48-mile lap in 2 hours 29 minutes. But the real theatre came from the 100-footers: Leopard 3, Galateia, V, and Black Jack 100 went boat-for-boat around Antigua, all four separated by less than two minutes after three and a half hours of racing. Leopard 3 had built a decent lead until a jib top issue dropped her to fourth, yet Nicholson played the shifts on the final beat and Schuijff's crew crossed the line just a boat-length ahead to set a new monohull record. Roll on this week’s Caribbean 600…

The Globe40 fleet punched out of Valparaíso last Tuesday afternoon in 25 knots of Chilean sunshine, beginning the most daunting leg of the race: 4,860 miles to Recife via the most storied cape in offshore sailing. Cape Horn looms some 1,500 miles south, and the latest-generation scows should reach the legendary rock within a week.

For Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier on Credit Mutuel, this is where they make their move. They finished Leg 4 tied on elapsed time with Belgium Ocean Racing–Curium after an extraordinary dead heat across the Pacific – a first in offshore racing – but trail by two points overall. As of Monday afternoon, they're about 155 nm ahead of Free Dom in second, while the Belgian boat, with Corentin Douguet now aboard alongside Jonas Gerckens, sits 315 nm behind at the back of the fleet. Track their progress here.

While most of the sailing world had its eyes on Caribbean trade winds this week, 95 competitors from twelve nations were doing something altogether different on a frozen lake in Sweden. The Ice and Snow Sailing World Championships (WISSA) descended on Västerås, transforming Lake Mälaren into a high-speed playground for wings, kites, and windsurfing rigs mounted on skis, sleds, and ice skates.

Estonia's Ranno Rumm dominated the kite course racing, winning four of the first five heats to claim his third world title. Lithuania proved the nation to beat on sleds, with Arvydas Moliusis taking course racing honours ahead of compatriot Robertas Berkelis, and Giedrius Liutkus winning the short track slalom. Estonia's Lisbeth Orav and Johanna Lukk took the corresponding women's titles. Norway's Idan Shubin topped the wing course racing, with Czechia's Bianka Micke winning the women's, while Sweden's Erik Karelfelt delighted the home crowd by claiming the wing slalom ahead of teammates Wilhelm Eriksson and Alexander Sahlin; American Annie Tuthill won the women's.

The championship concluded with a one-hour marathon – Sweden's Andreas Gustavsson stormed to his fourth consecutive marathon victory in the kites, completing ten laps of the lake at highway speeds. In other classes the winners were Erik Karelfelt (SWE wings men), Cerley Aulik (EST wings women), Jedrzej Cituk (POL sleds men), and Lisbeth Orav (EST sleds women).

It's visually stunning and undeniably niche – but with kiteboarding now an Olympic summer sport and wing foiling rapidly gaining ground, WISSA sees a path to the Winter Games.
 

France's top Olympic-class sailors gathered at the Stade Nautique Florence Arthaud in Marseille this week for the revived Championnat de France Elite 2026 – the first such event in roughly two decades. Bringing all ten Olympic disciplines together on one stretch of water, the championship offered a rare chance to benchmark French depth and unearth new talent before the LA 2028 cycle begins in earnest. The Mediterranean duly obliged with a weather lottery: violent mistral on day one forced cancellations, before conditions mellowed for a light-airs finale.

Nicolas Goyard claimed the men's iQFoil title ahead of Tom Arnoux, while Hélène Noesmoen took the women's. Lauriane Nolot was imperious in Formula Kite, with Nell de Jaham taking the men's title. The 49er went to Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin; the 49erFX to Manon Peyre and Amélie Riou in their first regatta together. Alexandre Kowalski topped the ILCA 7 fleet, Louise Cervera the ILCA 6, and Tim Mourniac paired with Aloïse Retornaz to take the Nacra 17.

Sydney Harbour plays host to the Sydney Sail Grand Prix this weekend, marking a record seventh visit for the league to one of the most photogenic venues on the sailing calendar. Tom Slingsby's Flying Roos will be keen to follow up their Auckland victory with a win in front of a home crowd. Both the Black Foils and DS Team France have been ruled out following their high-speed collision in Auckland, with engineering teams now working to Frankenstein a single race-ready F50 from the viable components of both wrecked boats.

Today 56 boats and nearly 500 sailors from 40 nations set off on one of offshore racing's great adventures. The RORC Caribbean 600 threads 600 miles through 11 Caribbean islands, from the acceleration zones off Barbuda and Saba to the notorious wind shadow beneath Guadeloupe. It's a race that rewards precision, punishes complacency, and delivers scenery most locals never see.

The headline act is the MOD70 duel between Jason Carroll's Argo, which holds the transatlantic multihull record, and Jon Desmond's chartered Zoulou. Both trimarans are capable of sustained speeds above 30 knots, and around the islands, handling will matter as much as horsepower. Among the monohulls, the 100-foot battle between Leopard 3 and Black Jack 100 promises fireworks after their boat-length finish in the Antigua 360. And at the other end of the fleet, keep an eye on Speedy Maltese, a radically modified Mini 6.50 attempting the Caribbean 600 for the first time. David versus a whole lot of Goliaths.

The gun went at 1100 local time on Monday, and you can track the fleet here.

Just days after the Finn Gold Cup wrapped in Brisbane, over 100 sailors from 18 nations are back on the water for the 56th Finn World Masters at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. Racing runs Monday through Friday with eight races scheduled. Conditions will differ markedly from last week's open-water Gold Cup: expect more wind shifts, trickier currents, and a tactical premium on local knowledge.

The fleet spans generations and includes several names who featured prominently at the Gold Cup. Brendan Casey, the Aussie who took bronze last week and proved almost unbeatable when the breeze dropped, leads after the first day of racing, followed by Spain's Rafael Trujillo and Lawrence Crispin of Britain.