The week in racing - 31 August ‘26

This week we’ve seen a new ILCA 7 world champion crowned in Dublin Bay, the 52 Super Series title race turned on its head in Lanzarote, and the IMOCA fleet limbering up for a transatlantic sprint that gets under way on Tuesday. Plenty more on the horizon too, with three more world championships kicking off in the next week. Let’s get into it…

Hungary had never won a sailing world title in the ILCA 7 fleet, nor a medal of any colour, so Jonatán Vadnai's victory at Dún Laoghaire last week is a proper landmark. He came into the final day needing a big score and delivered exactly that, a 4-1 sealing the title on 47 points. “Yesterday I had a super tough day, and thanks to this new format, I was back in the game,” said Vadnai. “I just went for it, and I'm so happy I managed to do it.”

The win clearly meant a lot to the 28-year-old Hungarian: “I've been sailing this boat since I was a little kid, and I've always looked up to the idols in this class and the World Championship titles. We have this beautiful blue plaque with the biggest names in sailing, and to write my name there is just really incredible – especially coming from Hungary. We're not a huge sailing nation, and it means so much. I believe we have a lot of talent coming up, but we haven't had many results yet – we're starting to perform. So I hope the young guys back home can see this and jump in a boat, and feel motivated that they can do it too.”

Behind him, Matt Wearn was the man everyone was watching. The Australian had won every Sailing Grand Slam event he'd raced this season, arriving in Dublin as the man to beat, only to sit ninth overnight going into the final day. He answered with a win and a second to jump to silver, his seventh ILCA 7 Worlds medal.

“Crossing the finish line, I didn't really have any idea what the scores were,” Wearn said after. “I knew it was going to be super close, but to come away with a Silver medal feels pretty good. I think it's probably a bit of experience showing – I've had plenty of regattas over the years where it hasn't gone well and I haven't been able to pick myself up, and you learn from that too. This year has been really good for me, and I haven't had to do that as much – a bit of a shame it happened at the Worlds, so I just had to keep chipping away. It goes to show you need to keep the consistency there and save every point you can, to make sure you're in the hunt towards the end of the regatta.”

Mickey Beckett took bronze for Britain, edging out a fleet so tightly bunched that just three points separated the top seven when the racing was done. The next ILCA 7 Worlds isn't far off, at the Fortaleza 2027 World Sailing Championships in January, which will double as the first LA 2028 qualification event. Full results here.

Platoon Aviation banked their fourth Royal Cup title in Puerto Calero, a result that marked a proper return to form for Harm Müller-Spreer's German crew, two years on from their last regatta win in Valencia, September 2024. They wrapped it up with a race to spare. “It is a while since that has been achieved in the 52 SUPER SERIES,” said Müller-Spreer. “For me it feels good, very special on the day after the donor of the Cup passed away, King Harald … I am very proud, a bit emotional but we need to focus because right now, we are 11 points ahead in the whole season and if somebody told me that before, that we’d be here after this week, 11 points ahead, I would sign it right away.”

The real battle was for second place. Brazil's Crioula, helmed by brothers Eduardo and Renato Plass, spent most of the week picking their way up from the back of the fleet, only to snatch the runner-up spot on the final day by a single point from Turkey's Provezza – cruel timing for Ergin Imre's crew, who'd sat second overall going into that last race. “Finally a great result!” said Crioula co-owner Plass. “After bad starts and bad days we came from the back of the fleet. We never started first, always the last or 11th place but we managed to get there. We never gave up. That's our thing."

It wasn't such a happy week for Takashi Okura's Sled. The reigning champions arrived with a commanding 17-point championship lead and left trailing Platoon Aviation in second by 11, after a broken forestay ram cost them time and results ahead of October's finale in Valencia, where Platoon now carry the advantage. “We didn't do a good job on the last race,” said Sled tactician Francesco Bruni. “I'm not very happy with how I sailed the week and unfortunately, we lost a lot of points. But, I mean, we are still a strong team, we still in touch for a potential win of the season, so we will fight it out in Valencia.”

We streamed the whole regatta on The Foil's YouTube channel – catch up on the replays here, and check full results and standings here.

Last week 70 teams from 17 nations headed to Medemblik for the Star Europeans, and by the end of a rain-lashed week it was Robert Scheidt and Austin Sperry who stood clear. The five-time Olympic medallist and his American crew wrapped up the title with a race to spare, riding out squalls that reduced visibility to nothing on the final downwind of the deciding race before rounding it off with two more wins on the last day for four victories out of seven overall.

“Today was very tough, especially physically,” said Scheidt. “The German team pushed us to the limit, hats off to them. In the first race they were ahead of us going into the final run, but we made the right call to gybe early as the wind shifted. Suddenly we saw the finish line in front of us and managed to pass five boats. That race put us in a better position, but they kept fighting all the way through the second race.”

Italy's Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi took second overall, with Germany's Nick Heuwinkel and Jesper Spehr completing the podium in third and picking up the U30 European title along the way. Next up for the class: the North American Championship in October, followed by the Worlds in Miami in November. Full results here.

The America's Cup's oldest institution has gone legal on the event's newest one. New York Yacht Club, which held the Cup for 132 years before losing it to Australia in 1983, has asked the New York Attorney General's Charities Bureau to examine whether the newly formed America's Cup Partnership can be squared with the Deed of Gift – the 1887 charitable trust that's governed the event since the trophy first landed in New York.

NYYC's argument centres on structure. The Deed sets up a two-way relationship: Defender and Challenger of Record agree the terms of each match by mutual consent, cycle by cycle. The Club contends the ACP creates a standing authority the Deed never envisaged, one that under its Protocol could effectively block a club's challenge if it refuses to join, and that could set rules for matches involving clubs not yet in the picture. NYYC also wants the AG to obtain the ACP's undisclosed Partnership Agreements, arguing the whole restructuring has happened without transparency or court approval. Expect this one to run and run before it's settled.

The IMOCA fleet is back in action this week as The Ocean Race Atlantic gets underway, starting from New York on 1 September for a straight 3,300-nautical mile sprint across to Lorient, with the fleet expected in as little as eight days if the Gulf Stream cooperates. Six mixed-gender crews take on the North Atlantic, each boat carrying two women and two men, with an on-board reporter aboard every boat this time round.

Where things get really interesting, though, is in the boats themselves. Two brand new IMOCAs race for the first time here: DMG MORI Global One, featuring a striking, America's Cup-inspired bustle running the length of the hull, up against Team Malizia's twin-chined new build, an evolution of designer Antoine Koch's previous winners.

Both teams are already convinced they're onto something quick. “The boat is like a rocketship,” said DMG MORI's Sam Davies. “Once it starts going you are like: ‘Whoa! Are we really going that quick and we haven't even trimmed the sails yet.’” Malizia’s Boris Herrmann was similarly blown away: “We knew after five minutes of flight that this is something spectacular. The boat is amazing.”

On the North Atlantic, Davies added: “One of the keys to doing well on this course is not to expect anything classic, to expect the unexpected, and to have no ideas of what it's going to be like before you leave because, at any time of year, the north Atlantic is pretty crazy. This is going to be a quick race, so it's going to be a no-regrets-race where every second counts and you can sleep when you get to the finish.”

Three earlier-generation boats (11th Hour Racing, United by the Ocean, Embrace The Challenge) and one 2007-vintage non-foiler (MSIG Europe) round out the fleet. If conditions are right, there's even a chance of the 24-hour distance record of 641 nautical miles coming under threat.

Last week we got an exclusive look aboard Malizia 4 with Will Harris ahead of the start. See it for yourself here:

There's hardly a pause in Dún Laoghaire before the women's fleet is back for the ILCA 6 Women's Worlds, running 5-12 September on the same Dublin Bay waters that just delivered Vadnai's win. Over 100 sailors from more than 40 countries are entered, headed by reigning champion Louise Cervera, with Belgium's Emma Plasschaert, Italy's Chiara Benini Floriani and Britain's Daisy Collingridge all fancied to trouble her. Home hopes rest on Paris Olympian Eve McMahon and the returning Annalise Murphy, while Greece's Hermione Ghicas – fresh off the Youth Worlds title – could be the fleet's wildcard.

The iQFOiL Worlds take place in Weymouth-Portland from 4-12 September, with the final Medal Series spots only decided this week at a tense Last Chance Qualifier in Silvaplana. Switzerland's Loïc Huguenin and Poland's Michał Maziarka booked automatic Grand Final places, while Britain's Abi Smith carries good form into the women's fleet. Among the 184 competitors are Britain’s defending champions Andy Brown and Emma Wilson, headlining a stacked home fleet, with Brown facing stiff competition from fellow Brits Sam Sills and Finn Hawkins. Keep an eye on Britain's Charlie Baker, too – he only booked his senior Worlds spot after winning last week's iQFOiL Youth & Junior International Games. We'll be streaming all the action on The Foil's YouTube channel, from 7 to 12 September.

Cascais hosts the J/70 Worlds from 4-12 September, with the fast-growing one-design sportboat class pulling in over 120 teams from more than 30 countries. Reigning European champions Empeiria, skippered by John Heaton, arrive as favourites after July’s Barcelona win, but Spain's Hang Ten and Brazil's OceanPact – both podium finishers at the Europeans – will also fancy their chances.

Porto Cervo hosts the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup from 6-12 September, the sport's grandest superyacht regatta now in its fifth decade, drawing a fleet of 50 boats all over 18 metres long. Paul Cayard returns aboard the ClubSwan 80 My Song, his association with the event stretching back to its first edition in 1985.

“Ever since Rolex first supported the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup over 40 years ago, it has always been the defining moment of the year, where you put all your work on the table,” says Cayard. “It was racing at competitions like this where I gained the skills and tools of my profession. I learned how to manage teams, develop strategies, think about boat preparation as well as tuning sails and other equipment on a large scale. It is a privilege to have been part of the very beginning of this impactful partnership.”

Coming off a year in which he's already claimed the Star and Etchells world titles, Cayard arrives in typically formidable form. Among the 50-strong fleet, past winners Galateia, H20 and Leopard 3 all return to defend on the Costa Smeralda.

Valencia gets its first taste of SailGP this week (5-6 September) as the F50 fleet finally gets to race the old America's Cup waters from 2007. Spain's Diego Botín and Florián Trittel head into their home event with back-to-back wins in Halifax and Portsmouth, a podium in every Grand Prix so far this season, and the home fans – the self-styled ‘Marea Roja’ – expected in force. As usual we’ll be there to bring you all the latest over the race weekend.