The week in racing - 15 June

Three titles changed hands across Europe this week, from a Frenchman running away with the Moth Europeans on the Costa Brava, a new Musto Skiff world champ, and a Dane finally ending a 46-year wait at the OK Dinghy Worlds.

And the pace doesn’t ease off this week, with a record TP52 fleet, the Opti Worlds heading to Africa, the Newport Bermuda fleet massing in Rhode Island and SailGP rolling into Halifax.

The 2026 Moth European Championship wrapped up at Club Nàutic l'Escala on Spain's Costa Brava, and it was Enzo Balanger who walked off with the continental crown. The 25-year-old reigning world champ from Marseille barely gave the rest of the fleet a look-in across the week on the Mar d'Empúries. It rounds off quite a spell for Balanger, who is also part of the La Roche-Posay America's Cup challenge, and just recently made his F50 debut for the French SailGP team in Rio. Ryan Littlechild, who sails as a helm and trimmer aboard Athena's AC40, took second, with fellow Australian John Harris third. Full results here.

At the Yacht Club de Carnac, France, the 15th Musto Skiff World Championship served up a week of sun and strong breeze for the singlehanded skiff fleet. Nearly 40 boats from eight nations lined up, and overnight leader Rob Richardson left nothing to chance, sealing the title in the very first race of the final day before signing off with another win for good measure. Eddie Bridle nicked second off Ben Clegg in a tight scrap behind. An honourable mention, too, for The Foil's Andy Rice, who just missed the top ten – pipped on the closing day by class chairman Brennan Robinson – but took second in the Grand Masters. Full results here.

Denmark got the home result it had been after for 46 years as the OK Dinghy Worlds drew to a close at Skovshoved. Johan Schubert won both races on the final day in a meaty 12–18 knots to become the first Danish world champion in the class since 1980 – and, remarkably, it was his first event in the class. Not a bad way to learn the boat.

The event marked the class's 70th anniversary year, the OK having first been launched on Danish water back in 1956, so a home champion in the class's spiritual birthplace felt rather fitting. More than 200 boats packed into Skovshoved Havn, with Belgium's Wannes van Laer taking second and Britain's Matt Howard third. Full results here.

Fifteen TP52s line up off Porto Cervo from Tuesday, the biggest fleet the class has ever mustered for a Worlds – and, on the early evidence, one of the hardest to call in years. More than half the boats on the start line can make a strong case for the title, a sign of just how competitive the TP52 class has grown. With light winds on the cards off the Costa Smeralda, picking a winner gets harder still. In that sort of breeze one wrong shift or a messy start can swallow an entire day, so it'll likely be the boat that makes the fewest mistakes that decides who's crowned on Saturday.

Takashi Okura's Sled arrives as the form boat after winning the season opener, with three-time champion Harm Müller-Spreer's Platoon sure to be in the hunt. The early eye-catcher in practice today, though, was Gladiator – Tony Langley's 2024 champions, with The Foil's Freddie Carr onboard – leading both races despite a freshly reshuffled afterguard. The real thing starts tomorrow.

READ MORE: Freddie Carr's rundown of the teams this season

Sailing's talent factory rolls into Tangier from 18 June, with the Optimist Worlds pitching up on African soil for the first time since 1996. It's a milestone for the continent and a proper global gathering – close to 300 of the world's best under-16s from a record 77 nations, all crammed into the little pram dinghy that just about every modern Olympic and America's Cup sailor cut their teeth in. Don't be fooled by the boxy boats: Opti racing is ferociously competitive, and the sailors topping the standings in Tangier will be ones to keep tabs on for years to come.

Friday brings the start of one of offshore sailing's grand old institutions, as the Newport Bermuda Race sends its fleet charging out from Fort Adams. First sailed in 1906, it's the oldest regularly scheduled ocean race going – a 636-mile blast across open water, almost entirely out of sight of land, finishing at St David's Lighthouse.

The 2026 edition is the 54th running, with some 158 boats and well over 1,300 sailors entered, a good chunk of them first-timers. The crossing seldom goes easy on anyone, which is how it earned the nickname 'the Thrash to the Onion Patch', a nod to Bermuda’s agricultural roots. The outright multihull record sits at roughly 33 hours. You can track the fleet here.

There's no easing off for SailGP, with the fleet arriving in Halifax this weekend for what's surely the circuit's most bracing stop. Peter Burling's Black Foils are back with their brand new F50 after sitting out the last four events, and you can bet they'll be itching for a podium. Meanwhile, Italy, USA and Brazil – caught up in the messy three-way pile-up in New York just a fortnight ago – should all make the event after a miraculous turnaround from the SailGP Technologies crew. Here’s hoping we finally get 13 boats on the line – and 13 still in one piece come Sunday night. The Foil will be there to bring you all the latest.