Hi everyone and welcome to another weekly round-up of the goings-on in the sail racing world. There’s been plenty happening around the world as the 2026 season gets properly into gear – so here we go…
Jason Carroll’s American MOD70 Argo took multihull line honours in the 2026 RORC Transatlantic Race, crossing the finish line off English Harbour, Antigua, on Friday 16 January at 12:31:15 UTC in a few hours under five days. Meanwhile, in the race’s monohull division it was the foil-assisted 34-metre Baltic 111 Raven that was first home in a new monohull race record time.
Matt Sheahan on PlanetSail put together a nice video feature on the two boats’ transatlantic performances. Watch it here.
In the end, though, it was the Mach 50 Palanad 4 (FRA), owned by Olivier Magre and skippered by his son Antoine, that emerged as the overall winner on IRC corrected time.
Season 6 of SailGP exploded into life in Perth, Australia with two days of thrilling action that saw Nathan Outteridge on the wheel of the Swedish Artemis entry make an impressive return to F50 racing to lead the standings after the opening day. But it was the defending champions Emirates GBR, led by Dylan Fletcher who dominated the racing on the Sunday and closed the event out with a victory in the final three-way shoot-out against the Australians and French.
You can watch the PlanetSail event round-up here and listen to Magnus Wheatley and I discuss the weekend’s action on the Yacht Racing Life Podcast here.
The America’s Cup may not have seen any on-the-water action since racing concluded in the last edition in October 2024, but that all looks set to change with the first Preliminary Regatta of the 38th cycle of yachting’s oldest and most prestigious event being announced for May of this year.
There were two other significant announcements just ahead of Wednesday’s gathering of the five competing teams in Naples this week. Emirates Team New Zealand were first out of the blocks with the renewal of their 20-year title sponsorship. Sir Ben Ainslie followed up with news of the British team's rebrand as 'GB1' and the announcement of Dylan Fletcher as helmsman.
You can watch PlanetSail’s video feature on the Naples event – including the news that the AC38 Match will be held from July 10 – 18, 2027 – and British America’s Cup fans will also enjoy my deep dive story about the new look and feel of the GB1 syndicate based on my exclusive interviews with Dylan Fletcher, Ian Walker, and Ben Ainslie in Naples.
Also check out this week's two advertorial stories: the first about the ongoing success of the Genoa International Boat Show; and the second a fascinating look at the rebirth of one of the great offshore yacht designs of the late 20th Century, as Peter Norlin’s fast and elegant Omega 42 goes back in production.
That’s it for this week but check back regularly on the Yacht Racing Life home page for the latest news, views, and interviews from around the performance sailing world.
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