There’s an awful lot going on over in IMOCA world
It’s time for us all to tune back into the IMOCA class – where there has been more going on recently than the America’s Cup and SailGP put together.
If, like me, you had slightly lost track of France’s flagship offshore class, here’s a handy update to get you all caught up…
The IMOCA world has been a hive of activity in 2026 with a multitude of top-flight campaigns currently on the go in and around the epicentre of the development class – the bustling port city of Lorient on the northwest coast of France. The next edition of the Vendée Globe – IMOCA’s pinnacle solo nonstop around the world race – does not start until the winter of 2028, but the key campaigners are very well-advanced with their preparations.
The 2026 season has already seen two IMOCA Globe Series singlehanded races: May’s 1000 Race, which saw a seven-boat fleet race a diamond-shaped course from Concarneau and back and was won by British skipper Sam Goodchild (ninth in the Vendée Globe 2024-25) on MACIF Santé Prévoyance, and June’s action-packed Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d’Olonne, when Italian Ambrogio Beccaria on Allagrande Mapei pulled off a remarkable come-from-behind victory in light winds on the Bay of Biscay on the final night.
Next up on the 2026 schedule is the inaugural edition of The Ocean Race Atlantic, a fully-crewed (two men/two women plus an OBR) transatlantic sprint from New York to Lorient, starting on September 1. Six teams are confirmed: France’s Paul Meilhat and Portugal’s Mariana Lobo’s For the Ocean (previously Biotherm), Oliver Heer’s Swiss entry Embrace the Challenge, Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing (USA), Conrad Colman (21st in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe) and his New Zealand crew aboard MSIG Europe, along with Germany’s Boris Herrmann (twelfth in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe) on Team Malizia and Japan’s Kojiro Shiraishi (24th in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe) on DMG MORI GLOBAL ONE.