The week in racing - 17 August ‘26

From Enoshima to the North Sea, this week's had it all: three sets of world champions crowned, a 1,805-mile race finally settled, and a start-line near miss that's got us rethinking how SailGP might start its races.

Enoshima delivered a proper nail-biter to close out the 470 World Championships – the largest since 2020 when the class became mixed – with Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris taking the title after two Medal Races sailed in painfully light wind. The British pair led from the gun in the decisive second race and were never troubled, but it came after a nervy opening race in which they finished seventh – saved only by the cushion they'd built over the rest of the week. “It's so surreal after we had such a tough start,” said Harris after. “It's especially special being here in Enoshima, where obviously the Tokyo Games weren't that long ago. It feels like the home of the 470.”

Silver went to Germany's Theresa Löffler and Christopher Hoerr, who recovered from a penalty at the start of the second race to sail their way back into second – a result that pushed Spain's Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona down into bronze. A podium's still a podium, though, and this one carries some weight: Xammar becomes the first sailor in 470 history to reach eight consecutive World Championship podiums, a run stretching back to 2018. “It's very hard to get a medal in a World Championship,” Xammar reflected, seemingly taking the near-miss in his stride. “I think it's also important to value how hard it is.” Full results here.

Watch the medal series below, with The Foil's Andy Rice on commentary:

USA 1 are the new Team Racing World Champions after seeing off compatriots USA 2 3–0 in Sunday's final on Stockholm's Riddarfjärden, needing only three of a possible five races to settle it. Skipper Alex Curtiss stepped ashore to loud applause, crediting the tight-knit nature of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club squad for the win, and had plenty of praise too for the volunteers who'd given up days of their own time to help run the regatta.

Great Britain took bronze, seeing off New Zealand 2–0 in two races that went right down to the wire. “There were so many changes during the races and it could have gone either way,” said GBR captain Scott Wallis. “But we managed to win both races close to the finish line.”

A whopping 220 races were completed across four days, in mostly stable but shifting westerlies, sailed right up against Stockholm's waterfront with crowds gathering along the shore to watch. World Sailing's event delegate Steven Wolff called it a "champagne championship," pointing to the volunteers, venue and city itself as the ingredients that made it work. It's been ten years since the last edition, so having more than ten nations turn up in both 2025 and 2026 is a promising sign of where the sport's headed. “We're certainly hopeful in the team racing world that we can find a way to get into the Olympics,” Wolff added. Full results here.

Istanbul gave us two new world champions on the Bosphorus this week at the 2026 Formula Wing World Championships, with Italy's Alessandro Tomasi and France's Vaina Picot taking the men's and women's titles on the final day. Tomasi found better pressure on the right-hand side to see off training partner and reigning silver medallist Francesco Cappuzzo, with the Italian saying after: “Winning the world title is amazing. I've won other events and they were also important to me but crossing the line first in a world championship is something else.” Meanwhile Picot – who'd battled health problems all week – produced a decisive move downwind to overhaul defending champion Maddalena Spanu and win her first world title.

But the story that'll probably stick longest happened in the men's semi-final, and it could have ended very differently. With less than ten seconds to the start, Poland's Kamil Manowiecki was coming into the line at close to 30 knots when the rider directly ahead of him suddenly bore away into his path. Manowiecki jumped to avoid the collision and found himself airborne, flying straight at the race committee boat – somehow adjusting his trajectory mid-air just enough to miss it.

See footage from the incident below:

It's worth highlighting the wingfoil's starting procedure here, because it's one we've floated before as a possible model for making SailGP's reaching starts safer. What happened to Manowiecki is a reminder that no starting rule is foolproof – we'll be digging into what this means for how the format evolves from here.

Fifty years of the Round Britain and Ireland Race, and this edition brought all the drama the anniversary deserved. 1,805 nautical miles around the entire British Isles, taking in the tidal gates of the Channel, the swell of the Atlantic off Ireland's west coast, the traffic separation schemes and wind farms of the North Sea, and pretty much every kind of weather the British Isles can throw at a fleet in the space of a week or two.

Pace, Johnny Vincent's Volvo 70, took Monohull Line Honours after finishing in 6 days, 14 hours and 47 minutes – a run that included a 486-mile day and boat speeds nudging 27 knots off the Irish coast, before a nerve-shredding finish spent gybing through the dark past a maze of North Sea infrastructure. She's also currently sitting in pole position for IRC Overall on corrected time, though that result stays open until the rest of the fleet – including Antoine Magre's Palanad 4, which led on projected IRC Overall standings over the weekend – makes it home.

Read the full account of how Pace's crew fought for line honours across a week at sea.

Aarhus has been host to the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds this week, running 11-19 August with 429 sailors representing 45 nations, and the story so far has been one of shifting conditions and shifting leaderboards. Greece's Hermionie Chichas, the defending champion, has held the top of the women's fleet through the opening rounds, but Ireland's Sienna Wright has stayed close on her heels throughout – the gap between them narrowing and stretching by the day as the wind has swung from barely-there on day one to a gusty 25 knots by day three. In the men's fleet, Italy's Lorenzo Ghirotti has led from early on, with Turkey's Ali Özdemir and a chasing pack keeping the pressure on right through the Qualifying Series. The championship wraps up on Wednesday, and there's still plenty left to be decided before a winner in either fleet is confirmed. Track the results here.

This weekend SailGP returns to Sassnitz for the ninth event of the season, back for a second edition after a 2025 debut that exceeded expectations: 13,000 fans packed into the grandstands, spectators lining every vantage point along the shore, and a new league speed record to boot, with Rockwool Racing clocking 56.2 knots (or 103.93 kmh in SailGP-speak). Tucked away on the northeastern tip of Rügen island, a good three hours' drive from Berlin, it's not the venue anyone would have picked as a SailGP hotspot a couple of years ago – but ticket sales suggest it'll be one of the best-attended events of the season.

Average winds sit around 10–12 knots in August, generally out of the west, but the breeze off the seawall can turn choppy and unpredictable fast – flat water for top speeds one moment, chaotic bottom-gate conditions catching crews out the next. Los Gallos arrive with the momentum of two straight event wins behind them, now just 12 points off the Flying Roos at the top, while the Brits need a turnaround, having slid from third to fifth overall after coming away empty-handed at their home event in Portsmouth.

As ever, The Foil will be bringing you plenty of coverage from Sassnitz this week, including exclusive interviews and a racecourse preview ahead of race weekend, so stay tuned.