The Foil Weekly Wrap - 6 April '26

Olympic classes testing a brand new medal format in Palma, a major leadership change at Ferrari's moonshot sailing project, and Team New Zealand wrapping up their first AC75 training block of the year. Plus, Easter brought plenty of on-the-water action on both sides of the Atlantic, and SailGP is about to make its South American debut.

Giovanni Soldini, Italy's most celebrated offshore sailor, has stepped back from Ferrari's audacious Hypersail project after overseeing its design and construction phase. The 60-year-old considers that first chapter closed and is handing the tiller to his friend and collaborator Enrico Voltolini.

Voltolini, 39, brings an unusual blend of credentials: a nautical engineer by training, he's also raced in Olympic classes (Finn and Star), competed in SailGP with Red Bull Italy, and spent time as a grinder aboard Luna Rossa during the America's Cup. It's exactly the kind of hybrid profile you'd want for a project that demands both engineering nous and hands-on sailing experience. The next phase will focus on validating the 30-metre flying monohull designed to break ocean records, and Ferrari clearly see Voltolini as the man to push it through.

Soldini described the project as "a shared journey, built day by day through dialogue and collaboration between different areas of expertise" and paid tribute to the shipyard workers for their dedication and passion. "This boat is the result of a truly remarkable collective effort," he said, "which we are all proud of." His involvement may have concluded, but the ambition he helped set in motion is very much alive.

Olympic sailing has to wrestle with the same question as many other sports: how do you keep gold up for grabs until the final day? World Sailing's answer has been a new points structure that's been trialled at smaller events over recent months, but the 55th Trofeo Princesa Sofía in Palma was the biggest test yet.

The key change is this: rather than a single medal race where leaders can sometimes clinch gold before they've even crossed the finish line, the new format guarantees all ten finalists retain a theoretical shot at the podium. It's a shift away from pure aggregate scoring, with greater weighting on performance at the end of the week. In practice, sailors carry their qualifying position through to subsequent rounds, and the maths is designed so nobody's race is run before the final day arrives.

Trofeo Princesa Sofía principal race officer Ricardo Navarro believes it strikes the right balance between sporting integrity and spectator appeal, and the IOC will be watching closely. The format is still being refined, with final confirmation expected by year's end, but the direction of travel is clear: sailing wants to be a sport where the medals are genuinely contested, not merely confirmed, on the last day of competition.

Martin Wrigley, the British Olympian and recent 470 European champ, below attempts to explain the new format as simply as possible. While the two extremes – winner takes all vs. pure aggregate – are easy enough to explain, any compromise between them is inevitably a bit messier.

Ten gold medals went to nine nations on the Bay of Palma. France topped the charts with two golds, both from the foiling boards: Nicolas Goyard in men's iQFOiL and Loriane Nolot snatching a dramatic last-gasp victory from the Netherlands' Jessie Kampman in women's Formula Kite. Spain's home fans had plenty to cheer too, with Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona taking 470 mixed gold.

In the Nacra 17, Sweden's Emil Järudd and Hanna Jonsson held the yellow bib from day one and never let go – a dominant performance that also earned them the overall prize as top performers of the 55th Trofeo Princesa Sofía.

Great Britain collected four medals (three silver, one bronze) for the second consecutive year, even if it fell well short of last year's haul of nine. The wind was all over the place throughout the six days, creating plenty of drama across the ten events. Next up, the Olympic roadshow heads to Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères at the end of the month.

Full results here.

Emirates Team New Zealand completed their first nine-day sailing block of the year on Wednesday, with 36 more days on the water still to come before January next year.

The squad rotated throughout, though Nathan Outteridge was a constant presence alongside Jo Aleh, whose role in systems monitoring and power management continues to develop. Seb Menzies got plenty of wheel time alongside Outteridge, with the pair shaping up as a likely co-helm combination. New recruit Iain Jensen – Outteridge's Olympic crewmate from London 2012 – has slotted into trim and flight control.

On the development front, a modified rudder with more forward rake was introduced as the team looked for better consistency in light air, particularly around keeping the bow out of the water through manoeuvres. The foils carried pitot tubes throughout to measure flow and cavitation speeds, and the sailors have been aggressive with aero trim, dancing the line between displacement and foiling with plenty of traveller-up action.

The path of development is now set, and the next training block begins in just two weeks, on 20 April.

More than 2000 sailors across 400 crews descended on La Trinité-sur-Mer for the 48th edition of Spi Ouest-France Banque Populaire Grand Ouest, the traditional season opener for France's inshore and offshore keelboat scene. The regatta has run from Friday and will wrap up today in Quiberon Bay, with conditions ranging from lumpy and challenging early on to sunny and competitive by the weekend's end.

The Open 7.50 fleet has seen Banque Populaire, skippered by Loïs Berrehar, take the lead with exemplary consistency, never finishing outside the top three across the weekend. Behind them, the fight for the podium has been tight throughout, with Nicolas Groleau's BT Blue and Thomas Normand's Altaïr right in the mix.

In the Mach 6.5 class, Dimension Polyant and skipper Mathieu Bourdais made it clear they're chasing a third consecutive title, holding a comfortable but far-from-decisive lead by the halfway point.

Full results here.

Leg one of the 505 Euro Cup brought 42 teams to La Rochelle Nautique on France's Atlantic coast, where they were treated to three days of varied conditions and tight racing. A breezy, cold and damp first day gave way to sunshine and lighter breeze on day two, before the finale offered pleasant westerly conditions in the 7–10 knot range.

Germany's Jan-Philipp Hofmann and Felix Brockerhoff were the class of the fleet, winning with a race to spare after a supremely consistent series. The American pairing of Mike Holt and Rob Woelfel finished second, just ahead of Britain's Paul Brotherton and James Fawcett in third. Howie Hamlin and Jeff Nelson (USA) and Ian Pinnell with Rich Mundell (GBR) rounded out the top five. La Rochelle was a new venue for the class and a popular one – expect them back.

The Caribbean's Easter weekend fixture brought nearly 40 boats to the US Virgin Islands, with sailors flying in from Puerto Rico, the BVI, St. Maarten, the US mainland, and as far afield as the UK and Ireland. The 52nd edition of STIR delivered three days of warm-water racing across CSA Spinnaker and one-design classes, and finished in properly Caribbean fashion when a massive rain squall tore through Pillsbury Sound with 70-degree wind shifts and gusts hitting 27 knots.

Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer took CSA Spinnaker honours, edging Puerto Rico's Exodus by two points despite a gear failure that dumped their kite in the water during the final race. In the fiercely competitive IC24 class, Puerto Rico's Marco Teixidor drove Cachondo to victory through sheer consistency across 15 races – his first class win here since 2015. St. Croix's Peter Stanton, the current ISCA Master's World Champion, won the Sunfish division handily, while 12-year-old Hunter Reinbold and 11-year-old Kip Hodgens sailed Boogie Board Bandits to victory in the Hobie Wave class in their first STIR appearance.

Full results here.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club's annual training regatta wrapped up on Easter Sunday in the Solent, with seven races completed across three days in conditions that ranged from spring tides and 30-knot gusts to lighter patches. It's a shakedown event at heart – part racing, part coaching – with North Sails experts, Olympian Vita Heathcote and professional coach Phil Devereux all on hand to offer feedback.

Simon Patterson's FAST40+ Standfast was untouchable in IRC One, posting seven bullets for a perfect scorecard. David Franks' J/112 Leon won six races to take IRC Two, while John Smart's J/109 Jukebox topped IRC Three after a tight duel with Frank 4. The flavour of the weekend was collaborative rather than cut-throat, with crews sharing ideas, poring over video footage, and visibly improving as the racing went on.

Full results here.

SailGP makes its long-awaited South American debut this weekend, with the Enel Rio Sail Grand Prix taking place on Guanabara Bay. Christ the Redeemer watching from above, Sugarloaf Mountain framing the skyline, and F50s foiling past at close to 100 km/h – it's going to look spectacular, and naturally The Foil will be on the ground in Rio to bring you all the latest.

The current forecast points to light and variable conditions, which will test the fleet's ability to keep flying in marginal air. The surrounding mountains tend to create tricky, shifting wind patterns, so expect tactical complexity and a premium on local knowledge. Fourteen SailGP athletes won Olympic medals here in 2016, but no one knows Guanabara Bay like Martine Grael, who grew up sailing these waters and won 49erFX gold on this very course a decade ago. She'll be under huge pressure at the wheel of the home team, but if anyone can turn familiarity into an edge, it's her.

DS Automobiles SailGP Team France return after missing Sydney, with Glenn Ashby stepping in as wing trimmer while Leigh McMillan recovers from the shoulder injury he sustained in the Auckland collision. The French were exonerated for that incident and remain firmly in the championship fight, and Quentin Delapierre's crew will be hungry to prove a point.