The week in racing - 14 Sep ‘26

It's been one of those weeks where you don't know where to look – an Atlantic crossing decided by minutes in Lorient, several maxi world titles handed out in Porto Cervo, and new world champions in the ILCA 6, iQFOiL and J/70. Plus a bit of a surprise at the RS400 UK Nationals.

The first ever Ocean Race Atlantic could hardly have been closer, with all four front-runners crossing the line in Lorient in the same hour and Paul Meilhat's United by the Ocean just holding off 11th Hour Racing at the end of the crossing from New York. The bit that raised eyebrows is that the two boats built for the last Vendée cycle beat the two fresh-out-of-the-shed designs, DMG Mori Global One and Team Malizia.

Meilhat has lived with this boat – the old Biotherm – since 2022, and that familiarity paid off in the dying breeze on the approach to Brittany. He and his crew of Mariana Lobato, Sara Stone and Benjamin Ferré kept someone on the wheel for hour after hour rather than leaving it to the autopilot, and trimmed the IMOCA like a dinghy all the way to the line.

Meilhat himself is under no illusions: he reckons the new boats will be beating him before long. “I take my hat off to them,” he said of the teams with new designs. “They managed to cross the Atlantic twice just a few weeks after launching the boats. When you know how difficult it is to get these boats fully reliable, to complete a transatlantic race in conditions like those is seriously impressive.” Meilhat sees this whole race as a warm-up for the lap of the planet that starts in January. Even so, two Ocean Race wins in consecutive summers ain't bad! Full results here.

After the finish Andy Rice sat down with The Ocean Race Atlantic host Niall Myant-Best to unpick why newer didn't mean faster – including the moment 11th Hour Racing woke up Will Harris to sort out a boat he knew from his Malizia days, why two boats at opposite ends of the design spectrum finished minutes apart, and why knowing how to tie a knot still matters in a race full of data.

For the 2026 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Sardinia gave the maxis a bit of everything – drifting conditions early in the week, then a Mistral that got well into the high twenties – and both world titles went to crews that barely put a foot wrong. Leopard 3, the Farr 100 owned by Joost Schuijff with Chris Nicholson calling tactics, is Rolex IMA Maxi 1 world champion for the second time in three editions. A third place on day one was as bad as it got; from there the crew strung together five race wins from seven starts and finished the regatta seven points clear of WallyCento V, with last year's champion Galateia a further two back.

In the Maxi Grand Prix class, North Star III was even more emphatic. Peter Dubens' new boat, with Nick Rogers on tactics, was making her Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup debut and opened with four straight wins, wrapping up the world title with a race to spare before winning the final coastal race to round things off.

Further down the classes it was a lot tighter. James Neville's Artemis Bleu took Maxi 3 on the back of a late hat-trick of wins, the last one a 17-second squeaker over Manticore on corrected time. Yoru won Maxi 4 by a point, H2O had Maxi 5 comfortably in hand, and Highland Fling XVIII beat Allegra to the multihull title on countback after the two finished level on points. Full results here.

Something shifted in Dun Laoghaire on Saturday. Charlotte Rose became the first American to win the ILCA 6 Women's Worlds since Paige Railey in 2005 and, more strikingly, the first non-European champion in 20 years, ending a run that stretched back to Lijia Xu's title in 2006. We won’t put it down to President Trump delaying the start – the 26-year-old had been at the front all week and closed it out in a fresh 12–17 knots and a lumpy sea, posting a second and a sixth across the two Final Series races.

Rose has been in the boat since she was 13, and she wasn't hiding what it meant. “It's unbelievable – I'm just really, really proud of how I did this week, and to put it all together at the end means so much,” she said, before making clear this is a stepping stone rather than a summit: “It shows the process is working, and we're still two years out from the Games, so I'm not letting off the gas.”

Emma Plasschaert took silver for Belgium with a sixth and a second on the last day, which means she now owns a Worlds medal of every colour, while Denmark’s Anna Munch scored 5–4 for bronze and the first world championship medal of her career. The Irish had something to shout about too, with Eve McMahon seventh overall on home water. Gold and silver fleet results here and final series results here.

If you missed the Final Series live, the full replay is on The Foil's YouTube channel:

It was grey skies and a proper Weymouth breeze for the iQFOiL Medal Series, and both titles went to the sailors who'd been setting the pace since day one. Israel’s Tamar Steinberg opened the championship with four straight wins and carried a match point into the Women's Grand Final as Qualification Series winner. Compatriot Sharon Kantor led at the first mark, but Steinberg pumped her way past to win the race and the world title, with Kantor taking silver and New Zealand’s Stella Bilger bronze.

The men's finale was messier. A false start to the Semi Final meant the whole thing had to be run again, and when it was, Tom Reuveny and Kiran Badloe were both left behind. The Netherlands’ Luuc van Opzeeland then won the opening Grand Final race to see off Noah Lyons, who'd led the qualification standings for the USA into the closing stages. Denmark’s Johan Søe nicked bronze from Nicolas Goyard on the final reach with the finish line in sight. Both winners are now European and world champion in the same season. Full results here.

The full Medal Series replay is on The Foil's YouTube channel:

Sometimes the smartest race you can sail is a slow one. Brazil’s Haroldo Solberg and the OCEANPACT-Viking crew started the last day in Cascais just ahead of America's John Heaton, then dropped a 13th in the second-to-last race, which put the two teams level with one race to go. So Solberg – with Tinoco, Silva and Robles alongside him – simply glued himself to Heaton from the start gun, forgot about the rest of the fleet, crossed the line 21st and became world champion. Heaton was pushed all the way down to 48th and ended up third overall, with Spain's Luis Bugallo and the MARNATURA crew nipping through into second and collecting the Corinthian world title while they were at it. Ten races, one Brazilian champion, and a lesson in match racing within a fleet. Full results here.

Akyaka, Turkey delivered the kind of finale that makes Medal Series racing so watchable. France's Lauriane Nolot started the Women's Grand Final with a UFD, which handed the first race to Elena Lengwiler and left three riders on one win apiece. "Whoever won, won the whole regatta," as Nolot put it afterwards. “You could see it was full send on the water – we were all pushing to the maximum.” In the decider Lengwiler was the one called over early, overall leader Jessie Kampman got tangled up with Wan Li at the bottom mark, while Nolot held on. “My last gybe was horrible because my legs were really shaking,” she said. “But Elena was pushing just behind me, so it was full send all the way to the finish.”

The men's podium turned into a birthday party. Singapore’s Maximilian Maeder won the single Grand Final race to take the Open title and keep his unbeaten 2026 intact, and training partner Gian Stragiotti crossed the line right behind him to claim the European crown – both of them celebrating birthdays on the same day.

“It can't get any better than that – bringing myself on the race course to the fullest!” said Stragiotti after. “Nice fight with Max – he dominated, but I'm glad to have him as a training partner.” Full results here.

St. Francis Yacht Club has named the 12 teams heading to San Francisco Bay from 30 September to 4 October, and all of them sit inside the top 18 of the world rankings. France’s Pauline Courtois, world number one and winner of the last five titles on the bounce, is back to defend. She'll be up against Anna Östling, currently leading the Women's World Match Racing Tour, last year's runner-up Megan Thomson, and Juliet Costanzo with Katie Spithill on board, while home favourite Nicole Breault will be keen to make the most of the local knowledge.

“I'm always happy when these awesome teams come to play in my backyard because I'm excited to take them on where I'm comfortable,” Breault says. “But at the same time, having played against them, they always bring it.”

The tightest finish the class has seen in years at Hayling Island. Mark Oakey and George Yeoman took the title on countback from The Foil's own Tom 'Mozzy' Morris and Rob Ashman, who looked to have it in the bag until a right-hand shift in the last 50 yards of the final run let a handful of boats inside them at the gate. Both pairs finished on 31 points. Further back, a certain Micky Beckett and Ellie Aldridge could only manage 24th – two black flags will do that to a scoresheet. Full results here.

No rest for the IMOCA fleet. Barely a week after the Ocean Race Atlantic finished in Lorient, the Défi Azimut kicks off at Lorient La Base from 15 to 20 September, with DMG Mori Global One – and, if the rumours are right, race winner Paul Meilhat on United by the Ocean – going straight back out again. Team Malizia should be joining them too.

The format comes in three parts: crewed sprints against the clock in the channel off Groix on Wednesday from 14:30, a solo 48-hour race out into the Bay of Biscay from Thursday 15:30 with the fleet home on Saturday, and a crewed lap of the island on Sunday. Around 15 boats are confirmed, and for most of them this is the last time they'll line up against each other before the Route du Rhum.

Sam Goodchild is defending on Macif Santé Prévoyance, but Jérémie Beyou's Charal has a new hull that's supposed to foil earlier in moderate breeze, and Corentin Horeau, Ambrogio Beccaria and Elodie Bonafous are all in the mix. Sébastien Simon's brand-new Groupe Dubreuil is also set to make its competitive debut. The runs and the 48H start will be streamed live on the Défi Azimut’s YouTube.

SailGP rolls into Geneva this week, and for Seb Schneiter it's the weekend the Swiss team has been waiting for all season, for their home event on Lake Geneva.

But the talk in the paddock will be about two names who won't be driving. Martine Grael's departure from the Brazil team came out of nowhere at the end of last week, and it leaves the league without a single woman at the wheel. Paul Goodison moves across from strategist to take the driver's seat.

Then came today’s news that Taylor Canfield will be sidelined due to injury, and the timing couldn't be worse for the USA: they're currently third in the standings, after winning in Valencia last week, but only a point clear of Artemis. You'd expect Nathan Outteridge to be eyeing this weekend as the moment to lock in a grand final spot for the Swedish team in their first year.

As ever, The Foil will be all over it – Andy Rice and Freddie Carr are heading to Switzerland to bring you everything from the shores of Lake Geneva.