Kylian Mbappé joins France SailGP Team as investor and charity partner

There is good news for French SailGP fans on the eve of the Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix their team announces a major investment from French footballer Kylian Mbappé's via his company Coalition Capital. Mbappé’s foundation 'Inspired by KM' will become the team’s official charity partner. As well as the undisclosed money the team and the league will no doubt benefit from exposure to the football star's 123 million Instagram fans.

Jim puts the cat amongst the pigeons – a little bit

Speaking in a recent BBC interview Jim Ratcliffe – the British billionaire backer of the last two British America's Cup campaigns – made a suggestion that the format of the America's Cup may be in for a pretty major overhaul.

The vast majority of the interview conducted by BBC sports editor Dan Roan concerned Ratcliffe's controlling role at Manchester United, but when Roan switched the subject briefly to the America's Cup and asked the reasons behind his acrimonious split with British five-time Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie, Ratcliffe parried effectively, saying:

"All I can say is Ben wanted to do his own thing and that's fine. He's going to do his own thing. We will be at the next America's Cup and I think we will be there with a very quick boat."

No new information there.

But it was when Roan dug a little deeper by asking whether Ratcliffe or Ainslie would be the Challenger of Record (i.e. the representative of the Royal Yacht Squadron) that things got more interesting.

"The question is really whether there will be a Challenger of Record because the format of the America's Cup will change where the likelihood is you'll finish with a governing body who will replace the challenger of record," Ratcliffe responded – following up with: "I think probably we will not be the Challenger of Record at the next America's Cup but then the Challenger of Record has never won the America's Cup. It doesn't worry me too much if we're not Challenger of Record."

It is hard to read too much into these off-the-cuff remarks but we should remember that the INEOS boss is likely to have plenty of influence with the ultimate decision maker – Emirates Team New Zealand's Grant Dalton. That means it is likely that the idea of replacing the COR with an – presumably independent – governing body must have been discussed down in Auckland.

Whether it is a workable concept is difficult to say. That would depend on Dalton believing it to be a good idea that would encourage plenty of entries and would need the support of the current crop of America's Cup teams like NYYC American Magic, Alinghi Red Bull, Orient Express Racing Team, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

One potential upside of a permanent America's Cup event authority would be that it would put an end to the vast gulf of inactivity – like the one we are in now – that follows the end of each Cup cycle.

The New York Times wakes up to SailGP

It is great to see that SailGP has finally caught the attention of a mainstream publication such as the New York Times who have hired renowned British sailing journalist Andy Rice to produce their coverage of the international circuit for their sports offshoot The Athletic – beginning this weekend with the latest stage of Season 5 taking place in Los Angeles.

Here is the first page of Andy's excellent introductory SailGP primer published this week.

Humans have sailed the oceans for centuries. But, as a spectator sport, sailing has barely made a dent in the public consciousness, outside of the Olympics at least. There’s no denying that it can often be difficult to make sense of what’s going on way out there on the water, for a start.

But the SailGP Championship has set out to prove watching sailboat racing can be thrilling, entertaining and even get you jumping off the sofa and yelling at your TV.

Every aspect of this global competition — the boats, the track, the sudden-death format — has been designed to grab attention. The aim has been to turn heads, generate excitement and engage people who have previously never shown any interest in sailing.

And now you’ll be able to follow the action with The Athletic too, as we bring our fan-first approach to global sports coverage to SailGP, taking you inside the championship and telling you everything you need to know about a competition that has been likened to Formula 1 on water.

SailGP in a nutshell

SailGP is a high-speed, close-to-shore international sailing championship consisting of 12 national teams who race identical F50 catamarans head-to-head at 13 venues around the world over a 12-month season.

For 2024-25, which runs from November to November, the competition takes the six-person teams to five continents. Three Grands Prix are held in the United States (Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York), while England, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Switzerland, France and Italy also host race weekends. The season-ending round will be in Abu Dhabi.

So far, the competition has been open, with multiple winners across the opening three Grands Prix in Dubai, New Zealand and Australia. Each race weekend, the 12 teams compete in a maximum of seven fleet races, four on the Saturday and three on Sunday. The top three teams from the fleet racing then progress to a winner-takes-all final race.

Nice awarded Ocean Race Europe 2025 stopover

For the first time in its storied history, The Ocean Race will make landfall on France’s Mediterranean coast, adding the city of Nice as a stopover in The Ocean Race Europe 2025.

The five-week passage race will see a fleet of some of the top IMOCA teams battle it out over a course that will take them through the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Adriatic seas, and the inclusion of Nice promises a spectacular new venue for offshore racing.

This exciting development brings France’s rich offshore sailing tradition into new waters. While much of the French IMOCA scene has historically been focused on the Atlantic coast, the Nice stopover offers a fresh opportunity for teams to engage with Mediterranean fans. “France is a foundational base for so many IMOCA sailors and teams,” said Phil Lawrence, Race Director for The Ocean Race. “Bringing the race to the Med allows us to showcase the talent, the sport, and the incredible boats in one of France’s most stunning waterfront venues.”