The week in racing - 27 July ‘26

Olympic hopefuls sizing up the LA 2028 racecourse in California, a long-awaited first 52 Super Series win for a French crew, the most wide-open SailGP weekend of the season in Portsmouth, and the Clipper fleet home after the best part of a year at sea. Plus: the Cowes Week bicentenary and 29er Europeans just ahead.

San Pedro Olympic Classes Regatta at the LA 2028 Olympic venue wrapped up for the ILCA and 470 fleets on Friday, and it was a week to savour for British Sailing: two golds and a bronze. Hannah Snellgrove ground her way back up the ILCA 6 leaderboard after slipping to seventh mid-week, holding on for a gold that clearly meant a lot. “It's special to win on Olympic waters two years out from the Games,” Snellgrove said. “But this one is particularly emotional for me as it's my first time back racing since losing my dad a few weeks ago. This gold medal is for him.”

Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris led the mixed 470 from the front, while Micky Beckett closed the ILCA 7 with a race win to pinch bronze. Top of that fleet, as ever, was Australia's Matt Wearn, and with two Olympic golds, that third Sailing Grand Slam win marks him out as the one to beat in two years' time. The new two-race final made for a punchy finish, but with everyone treating the week as recon in the 2028 venue, the intel banked probably counts for more than the medals. The 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 fleets take over next week to close off the 2026 Sailing Grand Slam. Full results here.

Over in Lanzarote, Paprec finally got their hands on a 52 Super Series title, the first in the French team's long history on the circuit. Jean-Luc Petithuguenin's crew went into the final race sitting third, a single point off the lead, and simply kept it clean while their rivals came unstuck. Freshly crowned world champions Sled picked up a penalty and tumbled down the order, Italy's Alkedo Vitamina were over the line early, and Paprec threaded the shifts to take the event by two points. With Loïck Peyron on tactics and Vendée Globe runner-up Yoann Richomme navigating for the first time, the pedigree was never in doubt; what they'd been missing was the finish.

“I have been waiting for the last 17 years to win a TP52 regatta and I am so happy,” said Petithuguenin. “You can't realise. You know I started with nothing. I started with my family 30 years ago at my first regatta with Stephane Névé in Brest… a small French team from Brittany, we were able to win against all these stars, the very best level in the world of sailing. It's so amazing.”

Andrea Lacorte's Alkedo took second to top owner-driver honours, with Sled third – still leading the championship, though a cushion of 30 points a few days ago has now been trimmed to 17. Full results here.

Ten fleet races in Portsmouth with ten different winners. That tells you how tight this league has become. What’s more, top teams Australia, Britain, USA and New Zealand all missed out on the final. “The reigning champions didn't even get a point at this event,” said Nathan Outteridge. “They came last in our group, and that shows you what the level is really like – all these teams are really good.”

Ultimately the weekend belonged to Diego Botín’s Los Gallos, Outteridge’s Artemis pushing hard for a first event win before Spain’s downwind speed settled it, making it back-to-back wins for Botín's crew. Canada and Switzerland rounded out the top four, both increasingly hard to ignore. Here’s how it went down.

Just down the road from SailGP, the Clipper fleet rolled home into Portsmouth this weekend, closing out a race that set off almost a year ago. The Qingdao crew won the final leg from Oban into the Solent on Friday, but the overall win went to Team GOSH, sailed by 26-year-old skipper Oli Irvine and 22-year-old first mate Otto Kurlow – the youngest professional pairing ever to take the title, with seven leg wins to their name. Team London Business School were second and Team Scotland third, the latter's Heather Thomas and Millie Apperley becoming the first all-female pairing to reach a Clipper podium.

Down at Gunwharf Quays – right next to our first-ever live podcast at the Musto store – there was a buzz as the boats came in, and judging by the stages, tents and general goings-on, your average Portsmouth local was probably more clued up on the Clipper than the F50s. Full results here.

Once SailGP moves on, there's no lull on the Solent: Cowes Week runs from 1 to 7 August, and this year it turns 200. First staged in 1826 – seven yachts and a £100 Gold Cup – it has grown into the oldest continuously run regatta going, missing only the two world wars.

More than 600 boats across 27 classes will make an appearance, from century-old wooden one-designs to modern ocean racers, with up to 40 starts a day off the Royal Yacht Squadron line. The bicentenary adds a commemorative Gold Cup, a Solent-wide Parade of Sail, a new 1826 Stage for live music at Northwood House, the return of the fireworks after a six-year gap, and the Red Arrows over the water on the Friday to close it off. And if you're around, don't miss our next live podcast on Sunday 2 August, where Freddie and Andy will get stuck into all things Cowes.

The other one to watch is the 29er European Championship, on Lake Lipno in the Czech Republic from 1 to 8 August – a rare freshwater outing for the continent's best youth skiff sailors, on a lake known for shifty, tactical breeze that rewards clear thinking over raw pace. The stakes are set: just a few weeks ago the class crowned its world champions in Kiel, at a record-breaking Worlds of 552 sailors. France's Alexandre Mostini and Raphaël Allain snatched that title on the final day after Argentina, having led for days, wobbled at the worst possible moment. The Europeans look set to go right down to the wire too.