The week in racing - 29 June ‘26

Light air was the great leveller this week, rewarding the patient and the tactically sharp over anyone hoping to just blast their way to the front. As always, there’s plenty to get stuck into…

The next wave of sailing talent put on a show in the Danish town of Middelfart, and Team USA came out on top. Skipper Morgan Pinckney, with Kelly Holthus, Cam Spriggs, Jacob Posner and Alice Schmid, earned it the hard way: a five-boat tie to untangle after the round robin, a sharp French crew to beat in the semis, and then world number two Daniel Kemp of Australia standing between them and gold in a final that ran all five races.

It came down to the last 200 metres. Pinckney nailed the start and had Kemp on a penalty, only for the Australian to claw back, shed it and nose ahead – before the Americans pinched the lead at the final windward mark and held on. “Even though we got the start right, and the umpires gave Daniel a penalty, I got a little nervous on the first beat, and he reeled us back in,” 20-year-old Pinckney said after. “He got ahead and killed his penalty, then we got ahead just before the last windward mark and managed to stay in the lead until the finish thanks to great crew work – I am so happy to be sailing with these guys.”

Kemp took silver while home favourite Mathias Rossing took bronze. In a heatwave and light, shifty breeze, all 104 races still got away, and on the evidence plenty of these names will be worth following. Full results here.

Bit of a flat end to the third round of the 44Cup, with Nico Poons' Team Charisma crowned in Marstrand without a race on the final day. A windless, isobar-free morning over southern Sweden saw off the last three scheduled races, and with Charisma already top – having made the fewest mistakes across three days of close, high-quality racing – the title was theirs.

The win is Poons' fifth in Marstrand, and it came with old ally Hamish Pepper back on tactics, the pairing behind Charisma's 2022 and 2023 titles. “Charisma has been a very good team in the past and we were lucky a few times when we needed to be, so that somehow we ended up at the top of the table,” Pepper said. “RC44 racing is so close – there could have been more different winners if we'd raced today.”

Behind them, Markus Törnqvist's GeMera Racing took second and, more importantly, holds the overall series lead, a point clear of Aleph Racing and two ahead of Charisma. There was a nice subplot in the Törnqvist household, too: Markus is currently ahead of father Torbjörn, whose Artemis Racing finished seventh but did win the last race into the harbour. “Annoyingly, he's ahead of me,” said Törnqvist senior. “Obviously, I see that as a challenge. He's a good sailor, a good driver and definitely has a flair for it. I take it as an inspiration for me to do better.” The circuit heads to Cowes for the Worlds in September. Full results here.

Tangier made history this fortnight with the first Optimist Worlds held in Africa since the championship began in 1962, as 284 of the world's most promising youngsters from 73 nations headed to Morocco. Top of the Gold fleet, and the individual world champion, was Brazil's Manuel Bragança, who reeled in long-time leader Cengiz Eren Güvenç of Türkiye in the closing days and rounded it off by also taking the Jacobsen Trophy. Switzerland's Elliot Novara and Malta's Andrei Zhakov completed the overall podium.

The team racing crown, meanwhile, stayed in Spanish hands. Spain saw off Türkiye in a tense best-of-three final to make it three team racing world titles in a row, as Argentina took bronze. Full results here.

If you like your offshore racing fast and furious, look away now. The 2026 Round Ireland Race was among the lightest on record – quite possibly the longest ever – turning the 704-mile lap of the island into a test of patience as much as pace. The British Botin 56 Khumbu, skippered by Guy Gillon, took line honours into Wicklow on Wednesday morning, having broken clear of the pack with a bold push deep offshore in search of breeze. With the next boat home over 24 hours behind and the rest of the fleet repeatedly parked up, Khumbu's corrected time soon proved unbeatable, the overall win confirmed two days later as 11/45 crews retired.

Gillon's team, training for next year's Admiral's Cup, are already plotting a return. “This is our first Round Ireland but we'd love to come back for the renowned high winds and all of Ireland's weather glory,” he said. “We didn't see much of the coastline due to fog and also going halfway to America looking for wind, so we'd love to do that again at high speed.” Full results here.

Down in Cagliari, Luna Rossa are quietly getting their 2027 campaign up and running. Five days into their sailing programme, the Italians are firmly in commissioning mode, sailing their AC75 in what looks like a Barcelona-spec set-up – legacy foils and sails and all – before the new kit for Naples gets fitted. That leaves them well behind Emirates Team New Zealand on the day count (who are on 16 already), but the early signs are promising, and from a distance it looks of it they're not far off the benchmark Kiwis, even if actual performance numbers are off-limits. For now, much of it is about bedding in the crew, with new faces being eased into the boat – Marco Gradoni learning the ropes alongside co-helm Peter Burling – with plenty of tacks and gybes.

Elsewhere, in Lorient, a bit of French history was made today as the La Roche-Posay Racing Team unveiled its AC75, the Barcelona boat now brought up to AC38 spec. A mast-free test run went off without a hitch, and the maiden sail is scheduled for tomorrow. From there the team will be racking up the hours on home water across two training blocks this summer, the first running from 29 June - 17 July and a second 1-14 August.

Over on Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland, the Formula Wing Youth and WingFoil Masters Worlds spread its titles across four nations.

Italy's Ernesto De Amicis led the Youth Men from start to finish for his second world title, ahead of New Zealand's Kosta Gladiadis and Italy's Michele Capitani. “This has never been an easy venue for me, so I'm even happier to have won here,” said De Amicis. “I led the event all week in every kind of condition, from strong winds to lighter breeze.”

The Youth Women's crown went to France's Vaina Picot, who turned a frustrating runner-up at the previous week's World Cup on the same water into a dominant result, winning out over China's Yana Li and France's Anna Hélies. “Last week didn't go the way I wanted, so this feels like my revenge,” said Picot. “I kept the same strategy and the same mindset throughout the championship. I stayed focused, avoided the big mistakes and, above all, I was consistent.”

The Masters Men brought the late drama, Britain's Chris Rashley pouncing when early leader Ho Chi Ho stumbled on a tack and holding off Anton Kuzmenko for a win he admitted he hadn't seen coming. Poland's Paulina Ziolkowska took the Masters Women's title. Full results here.

The foiling world's biggest annual get-together is back at Malcesine on Lake Garda, the 13th Foiling Week running from Saturday 27 June to 5 July. More than 500 foilers are expected, and the racing roster covers just about every flavour of foiling: WASZP (round three of the Eurocup), Switch One Design, the ETF26 series, Moths, BirdyFish, and a raft of SFT board world cups. Off the water, the Foiling Sport Congress on 1–2 July headlines the talking, with a 'Peak of Italian Foiling' panel on Tuesday gathering names from Ferrari Hypersail, Red Bull Italy SailGP, Vendée Arctique winner Ambrogio Beccaria and IMOCA skipper Francesca Clapcich.

The Foil's Andy Rice is in Malcesine for the duration, keeping us posted as the racing unfolds. Check the schedule here and the results here.

No sooner has the 44Cup packed up than the same island turns over to the GKSS Match Cup Sweden, the World Match Racing Tour stop run by the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club on iconic, car-free Marstrand from 28 June - 4 July.

As one of match racing's biggest dates, the field is suitably strong. Keep an eye on Australia's Cole Tapper, who at 23 became one of the youngest winners of the Congressional Cup's Crimson Blazer this year – a Youth America's Cup sailor you'd expect the Australian AC38 challenge to be in talks with. There's also Chris Poole, the American who tried to get a US Cup campaign going with Riptide Racing, and Switzerland's Eric Monnin, fresh from victory at the Ledro Match Race in Italy last week.

For something completely different, the 64th Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy takes over Ullswater in the Lake District this weekend (4-5 July). Dubbed 'the Glastonbury of sailing', it's a glorious leveller – national champions, Olympians and total novices all lining up together in a huge mix of dinghies and small keelboats for two mass-start handicap races the length of the lake. With entries maxed out at 230, this old favourite is clearly as popular as ever.

The Baltic stays busy as Kiel hosts the 29er World Championship from 2–9 July, right off the back of Kiel Week (which Andy Rice recapped here). The 29er is the proving ground for the next wave of skiff talent, the natural stepping stone towards the Olympic 49er and, for many, a route into the foiling and pro ranks beyond. A teenage Blair Tuke was crowned 29er world champion in 2009, and we all know how that turned out. Expect top youth teams from around the world and the sort of quick, physical racing that soon shows who's worth keeping tabs on.

The dinghy classics keep coming with the 505 World Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club, racing under way from 5-11 July. More than 90 boats from 11 nations are entered, packed with past world champions, and the front of the fleet looks ferociously tight.

Australia's Peter Nicholas and Luke Payne want their title back, Germany's Jan-Philipp Hofmann and Felix Björn Brockerhoff are the form pairing in Europe, and the US challenge is led by the vastly experienced Mike Holt and Howie Hamlin. The hosts haven't produced a 505 world champion in nearly two decades but bring big numbers and real contenders – while four-time champion Peter Colclough is back more than 30 years on from his last Worlds, proof that once the 505 gets hold of you, it doesn't let go. Track the races here.