The Foil Weekly Wrap - 27 April '26

Antigua went around the island, the 44Cup in Sardinia went down to the wire, and Italy went home with three golds from Hyères. Here's what's been happening in sailing this week, and what you should keep an eye out for next…

The first ever 44Cup event in Puntaldia, northeast Sardinia, turned out to be one of the closest the circuit has seen. The racing took place in 7-10 knots of onshore southeasterly over 12 races, and the margins were wafer-thin throughout – the winner averaging 4.5 points per race, the ninth-placed boat just 6.5.

Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika entered the final day with a six-point lead over Pietro Loro Piana's Aleph Racing, then very nearly undid all of it in the space of an afternoon, including a seventh-place finish that brought Aleph back to within two. They promptly responded with a second place to re-open seven points going into the last, then crossed the line seventh in that final race – which was enough. Two points the margin after 12 races.

Aleph took second, GeMera Racing third, with Black Star and Peninsula Racing notable over the final few races. But it’s GeMera – Swedish owner Markus Törnqvist's team, with Francesco Bruni navigating – who leave Sardinia with the circuit lead. Their 2-3 across the opening two events of the season earns them the RC44 golden wheels going into the next event in Marstrand, Sweden, in late June, and puts them in the kind of early-season position that could be decisive come the end of the year. Event winner Team Nika, by contrast, sits third on the circuit after an uncharacteristic seventh in February's Calero Marinas competition. Check the full standings here.

Five days of Caribbean racing came to a close at Nelson's Dockyard on Sunday, with a full circumnavigation of Antigua making for a characteristically unpredictable final leg. Southeast breeze starting at 10 knots built into 18-20 out beyond English Harbour, while a humid pressure system sat on the island's west coast producing light rain and – more critically for the racing – a shifting, patchy breeze that had boats virtually next to each other sailing in entirely different conditions.

CSA Class 1 provided the closest finish of the day, with Eira crossing the line just a single second ahead of Ilios, capping a rivalry that had played out across the whole week. In Class 3, Caipirinha spent much of the final leg moving forward through the fleet as it spread out past Pelican Island, eventually ending the event in second. Among the boats that struggled in lighter mid-week breezes, the stronger final day offered something of a redemption run – Westwind and Sete Mares among those who came alive as the pressure built.

Back ashore, crews returned to the Dockyard for music, rum and the prize-giving. Check the full results here.

Italy came to Hyères and made themselves very hard to ignore. Three golds and two silvers from ten Olympic classes at the 57th Semaine Olympique Française represents their strongest national haul in recent memory.

The three Italian golds came in the 49er FX, where Sofia Giunchiglia and Giulia Schio won both finals convincingly following a difficult middle stretch of the week when rougher conditions had worked against them; the Nacra 17, where Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei did exactly what was required in the medal races to finish ahead of the Argentinians; and iQFOiL Women, where Marta Maggetti came from behind to overturn an overnight deficit and take the title from two-time defending champ Tamar Steinberg of Israel.

Beyond Italy: Matt Wearn won the ILCA 7 at a canter despite a black flag on the first day that left him 72nd overnight, which says something about both his composure and how well he knows this venue. Max Maeder took the Formula Kite Men's title for Singapore – back-to-back wins at the opening two Sailing Grand Slam events of the season after also winning in Palma. France's Lauriane Nolot did the same in Formula Kite Women. Charlotte Rose won the ILCA 6 for the USA after a decisive final race, while China's Zaiding Wen and Tian Liu took the 49er and Spain's Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona retained their 470 Mixed title from Palma.

Check our full class-by-class reports here and here. The third Sailing Grand Slam event of 2026 is Dutch Water Week in Almere, running 30 May to 7 June.

The 61st Congressional Cup runs from Wednesday to Sunday off Long Beach, California, for stage three of the World Match Racing Tour. It’s the oldest event of its kind in North America, running since 1965, and the prize – a Crimson Blazer – carries roughly the same cultural weight in sailing as the Masters green jacket does in golf.

Defending champion Eric Monnin returns for his 12th appearance, despite sitting 11th in the world rankings, and faces the world's top two in Chris Poole and Sweden's Johnie Berntsson, along with seven more of the tour's elite. One new addition this year: GPS-controlled robotic buoys replace traditional inflatable marks, letting the race committee adjust the course in real time from an app.

The IMOCA season gets properly underway on Sunday with the 1000 Race, departing Les Sables d'Olonne solo, out past the Fastnet Rock and into Concarneau. It is the aperitif before the Vendée Arctique in June and the Route du Rhum in November, and this year it comes with a very interesting entry list.

Ten boats have signed up, which includes six sailors making their solo IMOCA debut. Among them are Francesca Clapcich on 11th Hour Racing, Violette Dorange on Initiatives-Coeur, and four others who are about to find out at close quarters what it means to be alone on a 60-foot foiling machine in the North Atlantic. Against them, reigning IMOCA Globe Series champion Sam Goodchild will be looking to make a statement early on MACIF Santé Prévoyance. As season-opening shakeouts go, it tends to separate the sorted from the still-figuring-it-out rather efficiently.