The Rolex SailGP Championship circuit returns from its midsummer break for a three event swing through Europe, before heading to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East for the season’s Grand Final events.
The first event will be this weekend, 22-23 August, in Sassnitz, Germany on the Baltic Sea. Followed by events in Valencia, Spain, 5-6 September and Geneva, Switzerland, 19-20 September.
Interestingly, September is also a busy period for the America’s Cup with the second Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Naples scheduled over the 25 to 27 September, and practice days 9 to 15 Sept. So there could be some shuffling back and forth for crew members involved in both events.
Emirates Team New Zealand have wrapped-up their down under AC75 testing so team members – Chris Draper, Nathan Outteridge, Andy Maloney and Sam Meech – from there will be back in Europe for the SailGP events . . . the ETNZ AC75 boat is expected in their Bagnoli AC base in late January 2027.
But first it’s Sassnitz, with 13 F50s back on the water and competing in the new two-fleet format that was rolled out pretty successfully at Portsmouth.
So there will be a split fleet format for qualifying, using season standings to balance the two groups. With the top two from each fleet advancing to a 4-boat final race for the event title on the Sunday.
Tom Slingsby’s Bonds Flying Roos (AUS) top the overall leaderboard on 66 pts, second is Diego Botin’s Los Gallos (ESP) with 54 pts, and third Artemis (SWE) have finally broken into the top three with 47 pts.
Emirates GBR struggled in their home town event and are now fifth with 44 pts. Skipper Dylan Fletcher, also helm for the British America’s Cup challenger, needs a good result here to steady the ship and get back on track.
SailGP are not finished with the racing format yet
They have recently circulated a Survey ahead of the new racing format they are assessing for the 2027 Rolex SailGP Championship, so expect to see more changes for next season or even trialed over the next few events.
The Fleet Split Groups for Sassnitz:
Group A
- ESP Los Gallos
- SUIExplora Swiss
- NZL Black Foils
- FRA DS Team France
- ROCKWOOL Racing
- ITA Red Bull Italy
- BRA Mubadala Brazil.
Group B
- SWE Artemis
- CAN NorthStar
- USA AUSThe US Team
- BONDS Flying Roos
- GER Germany SailGP Team/Deutsche Bank
- GBR Emirates GBR.
Race times both days: 2:00pm-3:30pm CEST (1:00pm – 2:30pm BST)