Happy Monday everyone...
In today's newsletter:
- Cagliari delivers perfect Olympic sailing showcase
- Size matters
- An Artemis family homecoming for Sweden's Julia Gross
- The Magenta Project announces 'Mighty Magenta' community hub
- Sailing's in rude health?
- Quiz Question...
Cagliari delivers perfect Olympic sailing showcase
The 2025 49er, 49erFX & Nacra 17 Worlds in Cagliari showcased not just spectacular racing, but world-class coverage. Andy Rice and Odile van Aanholt’s sharp, insightful commentary, paired with stunning drone footage, made Olympic-class sailing gripping and easy to follow for online fans – like me.
Selling sailing as a spectator sport is not always an easy mission – particularly when the wind gods are not on the race committee’s side. The painfully light wind Olympic regatta in Marseille during Paris 2024 is a case in point. So too a number of SailGP’s events this season, and much of the Mediterranean section of this summer’s edition of The Ocean Race Europe.
But when the wind gods smile upon our sport, holy moly can we put on a show! This was very much the case this weekend as the joint 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 2025 World Championships in Cagliari, Italy came to a spectacular conclusion with Sunday’s medal race series for all three fleets.
Cagliari had delivered good racing conditions throughout the six-day event that is the first major milestone for the three high-performance Olympic classes. Conditions on Sunday for the new two-race format medal race series – that was being trialled this weekend as a potential alternative to the proposed World Sailing format – saw the wind and sea state build steadily over the day from six to eight knots for the 49erFXs to a full-foam-up crescendo for the foiling Nacra 17s.
The live coverage of the event was simply superb. British sailing journalist and one-time Olympic campaigner Andy Rice and co-host Odil van Aanholt from the Netherlands – the 2024 49erFX world champion – delivered smart and insightful commentary, while the excellent visuals came by way of some truly superb drone piloting.
For those who despair of the incessant high-adrenaline screech of the SailGP commentary, Rice and van Aanholt’s well-modulated output will have been a breath of fresh air. Despite an absence of overlaid grid line graphics – I’m guessing the budget didn’t stretch that far – the duo in the commentary booth made it easy to follow the action from start to finish.
The three classes took turns to sail their medal series, with the 49erFXs going first, followed by the 49ers, and then the Nacra 17s.
The test format comprised an initial 20-minute non-discardable race between the top 20 boats in the gold fleet, followed by a final 11 minute race between just the top four boats. Whoever wins that race is crowned world champion, with the remaining podium positions being determined by the standings in the overall series (including the initial medal race). It might sound a bit complicated but it’s easier to understand when you are watching, trust me.
Whether this format is the way forward for Olympic sailing is for smarter people than me to decide. What I will say is that as an online spectator I found myself engaged in the action throughout the day, while the jeopardy of the fourth and fifth placed teams battling to make the cut for the final race spiced things up nicely.
All three fleets delivered great action, but it was the Nacra 17s who really stole the show in their two races sailed in high teens wind strength and some awesome rolling seas had the crews on the edge of control as they hurtled downwind at 20 knots plus. Take a look for yourself and marvel as I did at the insane heel angles the top crews sail these boats at downwind to try to avoid digging in the leeward hull and the dreaded pitchpole.
Results-wise, it was the Spanish who dominated in the 49ers and 49erFXs.
In the 49ers, despite having just stepped back in their boat after time away in SailGP the reigning Olympic champions Diego Botin and Florian Trittel claimed their first world championship victory in style.
Meanwhile, in the 49erFXs Paula Barceló and María Cantero pulled off a truly audacious port tack start to deliver a wire-to-wire victory to claim the women’s title. Impressively this makes Barceló the first sailor to win the 49erFX world title as both a crew and a helm (she won the 2020 title crewing for Támara Echegoyen).
The Nacra 17 showdown saw a thrilling pitched battle between the local Italian heroes Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei and their training partners John Gimson and Anna Burnet (see image above).
This really was a full-on war of attrition with nothing between these two crews as they hurtled around the windward/leeward course on what looked like the very ragged edge of control throughout. In the end it was the British who held their nerve to disappoint the locals with Gimson and Burnet claiming their third Nacra 17 world title.
Size matters
While we are on the subject of celebrating the spectacle of sailing, this weekend the 57th edition of the world's largest regatta took place in Trieste, Italy where 1,865 boats of all sizes took part in Barcolona57.
1,341 finished the course with line honours going to Furio Benussi's 100-foot Maxi Arca SGR ahead of his 18-year-old daughter Marta on her Maxi Z86 Marta 07.
An Artemis family homecoming for Sweden's Julia Gross
The newly announced Artemis SailGP team which will join the global circuit for Season 6 next year has proved its Swedish credentials with the announcement of Julia Gross – a past 49erFX Olympic campaigner and stand-in strategist for the Red Bull Italy SailGP team – as skipper Nathan Outteridge's first signing for his new team.
Gross is no stranger to the Artemis set up having joined the Artemis Youth programme back in 2012 from where she progressed to be chosen as an AC40 driver for the Swedish Challenge in last year's Women’s America’s Cup. The team topped their qualifying group and reached the semifinals — a breakthrough for Sweden’s new generation of female sailors.
“Returning to the Artemis Racing family feels special - it’s where my professional journey began, and it’s always felt like home," she said.
“SailGP is the pinnacle of high-performance sailing, and racing under my home flag alongside Nathan Outteridge is a real honor. I’m also excited about the pathway Artemis is creating, from youth and women’s sailing to the SailGP team.”
Further crew announcements from the Swedish team are expected in due course.
The Magenta Project launches 'Mighty Magenta' community hub
The Magenta Project, a global charity driving equity and inclusion in
sailing and the wider marine industry, is proud to announce the launch of the Mighty Magenta Community Hub - a bold and vibrant digital space designed to connect, inspire, and empower.
Created by The Magenta Project, this dedicated platform is a space forthe sailing and marine community to meet, share opportunities, and strengthen networks across borders. The Mighty Magenta Community Hub goes beyond chat groups: it features an interactive newsfeed, direct messaging, access to webinars and events, curated resources, and global opportunities. Available on both desktop and mobile apps, it makes staying connected easier than ever.
“This is a milestone for our community and the wider industry,” says Victoria Low.
“The Mighty Magenta Community Hub brings people together in one space, ensuring no one is left out of the conversation. It’s a place where knowledge, opportunities, and relationships can grow, and where we can collectively drive meaningful change.”
The Hub launches alongside the new 2025/26 Magenta Mentoring Programme, bringing the latest cohort of mentees and mentors onboard and integrating their journey directly into the platform. It is also open to anyone wishing to get involved by joining as a Friend of Magenta, a membership option created to expand access to The Magenta Project’s global network.
Every membership directly supports The Magenta Project’s mission: dismantling barriers to women’s participation, leadership, and visibility across sailing and the wider marine industry.
Why it matters
With only 5% of professional sailors and 3% of the marine industry workforce being women, the Hub is a much-needed step forward in building a truly inclusive community. It strengthens pathways, fosters collaboration, and provides visibility for those who often remain underrepresented in a male-dominated industry.
Membership options
- Friends of Magenta: Open to all, offering access to the full platform for £100 per year (with a 50% discount for those joining in the first 6 months)
- Community Memberships: Special access for mentors, mentees, alumni, volunteers, and clinic participants
- Corporate Memberships: For organisations committed to equity, inclusion, and long-term impact in sailing and the marine sector
Sailing's in rude health?
There are not many sailing writers who quote German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in their stories, but fellow-British sailing journalist Magnus Wheatley does just that in a piece on his Rule69 website today, as he hits back against those commentators espousing the idea that sailboat racing is on a steep decline.
It’s always good to start a Monday with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, so here goes: “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” It’s apt for sailing because there’s a nasty self-serving narrative that is being reiterated by a rose-tined spectacle brigade that all is not right in sailing and that, if you believe them, is a sport on the wane. So vocal has the call become, that it has taken on a self-fulfilling momentum. Talk it down, it goes down, but very little solutions are offered. I would argue opportunity has never been more present in our sport, and when I take the temperature of the racing scene at international level, it is hard to peddle the negativity...
Quiz Question...
In the Racing Rules of Sailing which rule number is it that dictates that a boat on port must keep clear of a boat on starboard?
Answer in the next newsletter...
Friday's answer: The class of boat was used for the Women's Match Racing competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games was the three-person Yngling.
