Martijn van Muyden from the Netherlands won the 2026 Open Finn European Championship in Gdynia, Poland after three final races were sailed super early on Saturday morning.
After two days of no racing due to ultra-light winds and with most forecasts for Saturday looking terrible, the race committee took the brave decision to start very early in the hope that the southerly would hang around long enough for at least one race to get the series in. The 05:30 launch paid dividends, with three races sailed in 8-15 knots, albeit in offshore shifty winds that were much stronger than anyone expected.
Defending champion, Valerian Lebrun, from France, won two of the races to end up second with Peter Peet, also from The Netherlands, in third. Poland's Michal Krasodomski placed fourth and won the U29 Finn European Championship.
The Swedish flagged Svea maintained their record as the dominant J Class crew as they got the better of newcomers Rainbow at the 30th Anniversary of The Superyacht Cup Palma Richard Mille regatta. The Svea crew – led by joint owners Niklas Zennström and Thommy Rylander – retained the title they won in Palma in 2024.
Competing at their first regatta as a team, Rainbow – with new owner Peter Harrison on the helm – showed great promise with a single race win, but were ultimately outperformed by the more experienced crew on Svea.
Meanwhile, the overall regatta win went to the expertly sailed Win Win, which became only the second yacht to ever win the event three times. The distinctive 33m Baltic Yacht had been a previous winner in both 2016 and 2019, and now joins Rose - which last year took her third consecutive title - in the exclusive triple-winner club. Win Win secured The Superyacht Cup Palma Richard Mille Trophy with a final performance in the St. Regis Mardavall Mallorca Race Day that saw them win their third race by just 54 seconds, winning Class A with a perfect regatta scoreline.
The seven-day countdown is officially on for the best 49er, 49erFX, and NACRA 17 sailors in Europe and across the world to hit the water in Eckernförde, Germany, for the 2026 European Championship, running July 7–12.
It’s a fitting follow-on to what’s already been a huge month of racing in Germany. The Euros will take place just two weeks after Kiel Week 2026, and with the two events so close together geographically, a large number of teams simply stayed on in Germany to train rather than fly home and back.
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After three days of superb conditions, an isobar free southern Sweden left the final three races un-sailed at the 44Cup Marstrand, the third event of the 2026 season for the high performance owner-driver one-designs. PRO Maria Torrijo and the Marstrands Segelsällskap’s race team ventured out to monitor the situation but with zero gradient and an overcast sky preventing a sea breeze developing, at 1400 the decision was made that there would be no racing for the day.
As a result the winner was Nico Poons’ Team Charisma, which following her victories here in 2018 (with Ray Davies as tactician) and then 2022-24 (under Hamish Pepper) means that the Dutchman’s team now equals the five Marstrand victories of Chris Bake’s Team Aqua.
GeMera Racing had a good first and third day, leaving her in second overall. “We made our mistakes at the beginning of the week and we managed to learn from them and ultimately do better,” explained Markus Törnqvist. Pietro Loro Piana is campaigning Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing this season and despite two last places – un-discardable in the 44Cup – still managed to finish in third place overall.
Italian America’s Cup challenger Luna Rossa have expanded their digital engineering partnership with Siemens ahead of the competition’s 38th edition. The collaboration will support the team in managing increasingly complex engineering workflows and accelerating decision-making across simulation, structures, systems and technical development.
Through the wider adoption of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, Luna Rossa will connect key areas such as data management, requirements traceability, advanced simulation, system modelling and structural optimisation within a more integrated digital engineering environment.
The partnership will help the team explore technical options earlier, improve the connection between simulation and engineering data, and support faster, more informed development decisions as preparations continue for the next America’s Cup campaign.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) has confirmed that entries will open on July 1, 2026 for the 2027 Admiral’s Cup, marking the 25th edition of one of offshore racing’s most prestigious international team competitions.
Rolex will continue as the Official Timepiece of The Admiral’s Cup, further strengthening their longstanding relationship with the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Rolex has been the title sponsor of the Rolex Fastnet Race since 2001.
The Admiral’s Cup 2027 Schedule has been published, setting out the key dates and activities, including registration, the press conference, skipper briefings, the short offshore race, inshore race days, prizegivings and crew events.
First contested in 1957, The Admiral’s Cup will celebrate 70 years of offshore racing heritage in 2027, building on its successful modern revival and reaffirming its position at the pinnacle of global yacht racing.
Yacht clubs from around the world are invited to enter two-boat teams, competing across a demanding series that combines inshore racing, an offshore race, and the Rolex Fastnet Race, which forms the climax of the event.
The Admiral’s Cup format tests the full spectrum of sailing performance, strategy and teamwork, with overall honours awarded to the best combined team performance across the series. The inclusion of the Rolex Fastnet Race further underscores the event’s stature within the international racing calendar.
The 2027 edition will also continue to reflect the evolving nature of the sport, with team compositions encouraging greater diversity and youth participation, reinforcing the role of The Admiral’s Cup in shaping the future of offshore racing.
With just one week to go until the launch of their new IMOCA race yacht, Team Malizia and skipper Boris Herrmann are pleased to confirm his Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe 2026 campaign.
The iconic solo transatlantic race, which starts from Saint-Malo, France, on 1 November 2026 at 13:02 local time, will mark Boris Herrmann's third participation in the event and his first solo race aboard Team Malizia's brand-new IMOCA, following the yacht's launch in early July and a summer dedicated to qualification and training.
The 13th edition of the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe will once again bring together the offshore racing world for a unique challenge across the Atlantic. Held every four years, the race will see 117 solo sailors, potentially joined by a small number of wildcard entries, set sail from Saint-Malo in northern France to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, covering a theoretical distance of 3,542 nautical miles (6,560 km). Professionals, leading figures in sailing and passionate amateur sailors will all line up together for the same start, racing across several classes: Ultim, IMOCA, Ocean Fifty, Class40, Vintage Multi and Vintage Mono. In the IMOCA class, the race also serves as a qualifier for the Vendée Globe 2028-2029.
For Team Malizia, the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe 2026 is an important milestone in a packed and ambitious first season for its new yacht. Before heading to Saint-Malo in the autumn, the team will first compete in the crewed Ocean Race Atlantic from New York to Lorient (starting 1st September), before Boris Herrmann takes on the Route du Rhum solo, followed by The Ocean Race with a crew in 2027 (start on 17 January 2027 in Alicante, Spain).
Francesca Clapcich does things differently. Her current goal is the 2028 Vendée Globe and yet contrary to many of those who have either completed or are aiming to do the race, she says the non-stop race around the world was never her dream.
Instead she has competed at many of the world's biggest sailing events from the Olympics to the Women's America's Cup and was part of the crew that won the fully crewed Ocean Race around the world aboard 11th Hour Racing in 2023. The message is clear, Clapcich' experience is as broad as it is deep, and it is this that she is drawing on in her current campaign to compete in the next Vendée Globe.
PlanetSail's Matt Sheahan caught up with Francesca a couple of days before she set out on her first solo offshore race in an IMOCA as she took on the 1000 Race. It was clear that there was far more to Clapcich than could fit in a single episode. So, for those who'd like to know more, here's the full and unfiltered version of their one-to-one chat.
