The Foil Weekly Wrap - 23 March '26

This week in the sailing world we saw another America's Cup challenger on the water, The Ocean Race reveal a new transatlantic route, a legal spat threatens to derail GB1. Meanwhile, the Olympic fleets head to Palma and the foiling masses descend on Pensacola.

The Ocean Race is heading somewhere new. St. Pete-Clearwater, Florida will host the start of a transatlantic leg in the 2027 edition – the first time the race has visited the Gulf Coast in its 54-year history.

The IMOCA fleet will arrive into St. Pete-Clearwater from Itajaí, Brazil for a stopover running from 4–16 May before embarking on a 4,500-nautical-mile crossing to Cascais, Portugal. It's a notable new stop to a route that already includes the longest opening leg ever – 14,000 miles from Alicante to Auckland – and finishes with a first-ever sprint down the Red Sea.

The sailors seem to like what they’re hearing. Charlie Enright, the 2023 winning skipper and now US Sailing CEO, called it “a fantastic initiative” and said launching from Florida’s Gulf Coast across to Cascais is “a leg I would race in a heartbeat – I might have to dig out my sea boots”. Portuguese sailor Mariana Lobato, who raced in the 2023 edition, described arriving into Cascais at the end of a transatlantic leg as the most emotional moment imaginable for a Portuguese sailor, adding that it’s “a source of immense national pride”.

Florida has hosted the race five times before – Fort Lauderdale and Miami have welcomed the fleet in previous editions – but the Gulf Coast brings something fresh. With its year-round sunshine and thriving sailing scene, St. Pete-Clearwater looks to be a natural fit.

The French have finally joined the party. A week after announcing their crew lineup, La Roche-Posay Racing Team launched their AC40 out of Lorient on Wednesday for a 4.5-hour maiden sail in picture-perfect conditions.

Quentin Delapierre led a crew that included Diego Botín, Enzo Balanger, Jason Saunders and Amélie Grassi. Olympic champion Florian Trittel sat out due to illness, while Leigh McMillan is still recovering from his SailGP shoulder injury. Both are expected back soon, but for now the French were focused on rotations – getting everyone wet and comfortable before their preliminary regatta appearance in Sardinia this May. Sporting director Philippe Presti summed up the mood: “Conditions in Brittany were exceptional today – bright sunshine, cloudless skies, almost summer-like warmth, and a perfect easterly breeze. Simply stunning.”

Meanwhile, Luna Rossa have been ramping up the intensity in Cagliari. Last week saw Peter Burling and Josh Junior go head-to-head for the first time across two AC40s – a big step given Junior had only sailed one boat for part of one session since training started back on 13 February. Burling paired with Marco Gradoni, Junior with Ruggero Tita. Conditions built through the session from 7 to 18 knots, with the team running through starts, drills and short-course racing.

Over in Auckland, Emirates Team New Zealand have now used five of their 45 permitted sailing days on their next-gen AC75. Light air has been the theme – they've been chasing pressure across the Hauraki Gulf, working on rig tuning, tacking technique and low-speed performance. Observers noted aggressive traveller use through manoeuvres and a windward-heel configuration downwind as the Kiwis probed the edges of marginal foiling conditions.

That leaves Tudor Team Alinghi as the only AC38 entrant yet to get on the water.

Just when Sir Ben Ainslie’s AC38 campaign was gathering momentum, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has lobbed a grenade. Ineos claims ownership of the AC75 Britannia used in the last America’s Cup – the very boat Ainslie’s Athena Racing team has been modifying for the next cycle under the new name GB1. Ineos says the boat “belongs to Ineos” and it’s “inappropriate to assume it can be used without seeking our permission”. Athena immediately responded that it should come as “no surprise” – the boat has “always been in the possession of” Athena Racing. Legal proceedings are underway. Read more here.

The entry deadline for the 38th America's Cup is only eight days away, and the paddock gossip is getting louder.

As reported by Richard Gladwell in Yachts and Yachting, an Australian challenge may be taking shape – with Tom Slingsby and Glenn Ashby said to be at the helm. Word is they've struck a deal to acquire Emirates Team New Zealand's 2021 AC75, which would mark a return to Cup racing for Australia after their short-lived 2013 challenge collapsed.

The Czech challenge, too, appears to be making progress. Backed by Karel Komárek, the team is reportedly chasing American Magic's boat from the 37th Cup, with plans to shift to a US-based yacht club. However, they're understood to be running into difficulties with the America's Cup Partnership requirements.

No fresh news on Riptide Racing or the rumoured second Italian entry. According to Tom Ehman, host of online live sailing show Sailing Illustrated, the market for second-hand AC75s has heated up dramatically – prices have reportedly doubled since the Czech challenge surfaced.

The biggest one-design foiling event in North American history is underway in Pensacola. The 2026 Waszp Games (22–28 March) brings 70+ foilers to Florida's Gulf Coast. After last week's All-Stars Invitational and Pre-Games regatta, we already have a sense of the form book.

Louis Tilly claimed the men's All-Stars title with a late surge, winning the final two races to leapfrog the field and pocket the US$5,000 prize. He described it as “a massive game of snakes and ladders – in this format with no drops, it’s all about fighting for every point”. With all the top sailors on the start line and cash on the table, the intensity was relentless. Pearl Lattanzi dominated the women’s event from start to finish, her consistency across both days proving insurmountable. The American arrives as defending Waszp Games champion; she’ll be the one to beat again. Both were crowned at American Magic’s performance centre in Pensacola – SailGP’s first permanent training base – drawing a clear line between the Waszp and the top tier of the sport.

In the Pre-Games, ten races over three days saw Spain’s Antonio Gasperini top the 8.2 division while Norway’s Martinius Melleby-Hopstock won the 7.5 fleet after a tight battle with Lattanzi. A new race format was tested on the final day: reaching starts followed by windward-leeward courses, SailGP-style.

Pensacola itself is proving ideal, with reliable breeze, flat water and sunshine. The sight of the fleet hitting the line at 20 knots-plus made for a spectacular start to the week's racing. For the Waszp, now approaching its 10th anniversary, the Games show how far the class has come while offering a glimpse of where it could be heading.

The 55th edition of the Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca gets underway on Friday (27 March – 4 April), bringing together one of the biggest fleets of the Olympic season on the Bay of Palma.

Some 895 teams and 1,155 sailors from 59 countries have registered, with female participation at 46% of the fleet – a direct reflection of the Olympic programme's gender parity format since Paris 2024. Spain and Italy lead the national contingents with 57 entries each, followed by Germany, Great Britain and China.

This edition also sees organisers adapting race formats to mirror LA 2028, with shorter race times in the 470 and ILCA classes – giving sailors a taste of what they'll face on the Olympic waters of Long Beach and San Pedro. The 49er classes will trial the Vakaros RaceSense system – which puts the starting countdown on every sailor's screen and automates OCS calls.

The Sofía is the first of five events on the 2026 Sailing Grand Slam calendar. From Palma, the circuit heads to the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères (18–25 April), Dutch Water Week on the Ijmeer in Almere (30 May – 7 June), and Kieler Woche (20–28 June), before culminating in the Long Beach & Los Angeles OCR (13 July – 7 August) – the pre-Olympic test event taking place on LA 2028 waters.

Ranking points are up for grabs at all five events, with organisers working towards a season-ending Sailing Grand Slam Final, where the top-ranked sailors in each discipline could compete for overall honours and prize money – but for now, the focus is on building the circuit event by event.