The week in racing - 26 Oct ’26

A big-name signing for Alinghi, a nervous glance at the Gulf from SailGP and a family affair at the SB20 Worlds made for a busy week. Plus the Hobart fleet is set and Saint-Malo is counting down to the Route du Rhum.

Tudor Team Alinghi have made the signing of the week, bringing in Francesco Bruni as helmsman and skipper for Naples – with Luna Rossa’s blessing. The Sicilian co-helmed the Italian AC75 at the last two Cups before moving into coaching, and this will be his seventh campaign.

READ MORE: Francesco Bruni joins Tudor Team Alinghi as helmsman and skipper

BoatOne starts sailing on the Gulf of Naples in December, when the Bagnoli base should also be up and running. It’s a lean operation, with around 100 staff – half the Barcelona headcount – and modular, so it can be packed up and reused. It’s a tight neighbourhood too – six other bases are being put up around Alinghi’s, with Luna Rossa and the French on either side.

SailGP is sticking with its Gulf finale, even after Washington ordered non-emergency US government staff out of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday following Houthi attacks on Saudi airports. The order applies to Saudi Arabia alone, the airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are operating, and for now the penultimate round at Port Rashid on 21–22 November and the Abu Dhabi Grand Final on 28–29 November remain on the calendar.

Still, US and UK officials warn things could escalate, and the World Match Racing Tour has already shunted its Saudi finals to January. F1, though, is sticking with Qatar on 29 November and Abu Dhabi on 6 December – a week after SailGP’s finale – and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem insists both will go ahead. Fans with flights booked should know SailGP won’t reimburse travel or accommodation, and their insurer may not step in. Not long ago, our biggest worry about Abu Dhabi was a lack of breeze.

Hyères threw the lot at the SB20 Worlds, with two days lost to fierce easterlies and a stormy final day that ended with the mistral gusting past 30 knots and racing abandoned. None of it could spoil a feel-good family story. William Borghesi skippered Kidzink Youth to the title in a 66-boat fleet, the youngest skipper to win it, two years after his mother Charlotte became the first woman to do so in Dubai.

Olympic 470 sailor Julien Bunel took second on Socare Marbrerie, even after another boat broke its mast in race six, with France’s Corinthian Lynx third and Ares top women’s crew, a point off the podium. Full results here.

Magnus Overbeck didn’t have to wait long to get one back on Paul Hameeteman. A week after the Dutchman beat him to the open Switch Global Championship at Torbole, Overbeck won the 8.5 rig at the first Switch Global Youth Championship, just down the lake at Malcesine, with six bullets from ten races. Italy’s Mattia Cesana and Federico Bergamasco, second and third, took the other four, while Hameeteman never got a sniff of a race win and finished fourth.

Antonia Schultheis was all but untouchable in the 7.5 rig, winning eight races to finish on the minimum eight points and adding the women’s title for Malta. Hats off, too, to the class’s new charter scheme, which got several sailors to Garda who might otherwise have stayed at home. Full results: 7.5 and 8.5.

Entries for the 81st Rolex Sydney Hobart closed on Friday with 107 boats signed up for Boxing Day, and the defending champions are back with new kit. Last year Jiang Lin and Alexis Loison became the first two-handed crew to win overall on their JPK 10.30, with Lin the first woman to lift the Tattersall Cup. Now they’ve traded up to a JPK 10.50, still called Min River – the design Loison raced to the overall Fastnet win in 2025, and a boat that loves reaching and running, so if the forecast turns downwind, their rivals better watch out.

Up front, four 100-footers – LawConnect, Loyal, Palm Beach XI and Wild Thing 100 – will scrap for line honours.

It’s a quiet week on the racing calendar, with one very big exception: on Sunday the 13th Route du Rhum leaves Saint-Malo to cross the Atlantic. The gun goes at 13:02 on 1 November off Pointe du Grouin, and more than a hundred solo skippers will then race 3,542 miles to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe.

What makes the Rhum special is the sheer range of the fleet. Eight Ultims chase line honours and Charles Caudrelier’s record of 6d 19h 47m, with Caudrelier defending on the brand-new and untested Gitana 18. Sam Goodchild starts as IMOCA favourite, though he’s never actually finished this race, and 49 Class40s make up the biggest fleet. Then there are the new Vintage classes, featuring a quartet of ORMA 60 trimarans, with 70-year-old Francis Joyon and Jean Le Cam on a 1986 Swan 59.

The Ultims have been in port for a week and the village is open – if you’re within reach of Brittany, get yourself there.

READ MORE: Route du Rhum 2026: the essential guide