Racing begins May 12, Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, Brittany, France
The 2026 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championship gets underway tomorrow in Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, on the rugged Atlantic coast of Brittany, and the setting alone promises drama. Quiberon was selected for this championship as it blends raw Oceanic winds but the racing is hidden from the worst of the swell behind the extended peninsula. It is exactly the environment where world titles are decided — and where the road to the LA 2028 Olympic Games takes its sharpest turn yet.
Close to 350 sailors representing more than 30 nations across six continents will compete across the three fleets, with the entry list covering countries from Australia and New Zealand to Argentina, Uruguay, India, Oman, Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across much of Europe and North America. The event has attracted a remarkable concentration of talent barely two years from the next Games.
Championship racing runs May 12–17, with the medal races on the final day also broadcast by France TV with French commentary, in addition to the live stream on the 49er YouTube channel.
49er: An Open Race in the New Cycle
The 49er fleet is arguably the most wide-open it has been in years. Diego Botín and Florian Trittel — who dominated the class throughout the Paris Olympic cycle, winning the 2025 World Championship in Cagliari — are not in the entry list for Quiberon, as they take the year off to concentrate on their SailGP and America’s Cup commitments.
The early season results across the two Sailing Grand Slam events — the Trofeo Princesa Sofía in Palma (March 30–April 4) and the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères (April 18–25) — have pointed to a diverse and deep field with no single team establishing dominance.
Germany’s Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger are the standout story so far. They won the Trofeo Princesa Sofía in Palma in dramatic fashion, coming from second on the final day to take the title with a 4th and a race win in the two-race finals. It was their first major regatta victory after a string of second-place finishes in 2025, and they arrive in Quiberon with momentum and confidence. They were 10th at the 2025 Worlds in Cagliari — a sign of how rapidly they have developed in the opening months of the new cycle.
China’s Zaiding Wen and Tian Liu won the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, their first major regatta victory. The Paris 2024 Olympians led after the fleet racing finale and held on through the medal series to take gold — a breakthrough result that positions them as genuine title contenders. Their teammates Xin Wang and Tianyu Qi also finished on the Palma podium (third), adding to the sense that China has assembled a formidable 49er programme.
Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove had a remarkable Hyères regatta, taking silver, and have looked sharp in the early season after some inconsistency post-Paris. They were 35th at the 2025 Worlds, so a podium there would be a major statement.
France’s Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin — 2024 World Champions — took bronze in Hyères racing on home waters and will be fired up on the Atlantic coast. They were 11th at the 2025 Worlds and have looked competitive at both early-season events.
Netherlands’ Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken, who finished second at the 2025 Worlds in Cagliari, are back on the entry list and remain one of the most consistent and experienced crews in the world.
Denmark’s Jonas Warrer and Mathias Lehm Sletten — third at the 2025 Worlds — are also back, as is Denmark’s Frederik Rask and Jakob Precht Jensen (6th at 2025 Worlds), giving the Danish programme multiple podium threats. Poland’s Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch (9th in Cagliari) and USA’s Andrew Mollerus and Trevor Bornarth (8th in 2025, led Hyères on day one) are also firmly in the mix.
With Botín gone, whoever steps forward this week in Quiberon will announce themselves as the early favourite for LA 2028.
49erFX: The Reigning Champions Face a Stiff New Challenge
The 49erFX is shaping up as one of the most compelling battles of the week, with reigning world champions Spain’s Paula Barceló and María Cantero facing a resurgent challenger in the form of Canada’s Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance.
Barceló and Cantero won the 2025 Worlds in Cagliari convincingly, and the Spanish pair came to Palma in March as clear favourites. They showed their class throughout the week, but a pumping penalty in the final race of the Trofeo Princesa Sofía medal series cost them the title, relegating them to third overall after winning the first finals race. They arrive in Quiberon still ranked among the world’s best, hungry to reassert their dominance — and with Barceló now competing far from home waters, she will be looking to prove the Palma penalty was an aberration.
The Lewin-LaFrance sisters capitalised fully on that opening in Palma, delivering solid results in the finals to take first overall — a controlled, confident performance that underlined why they are currently ranked first in the world in the class, with an 11-point lead over the Swedes. They have been on the podium in each of their last five major events, and their bronze medal at the 2025 Worlds in Cagliari shows they are not just capable of winning at lower-stakes events.
Sweden’s Vilma Bobeck and Ebba Berntsson, silver medallists at the 2025 Worlds, are right in the mix. They dominated the fleet racing at Hyères — winning the first two races and finishing second in the third to move into third overall — and remain the most consistent team in the fleet over recent years.
The reining Gold medalist, Odile Lambriex van Aanholt, continues her return to the fleet after having a baby last year. She is sailing with a new crew, Karlinde van Arendonk, and the pair have every ambition to put their recent practice into a great performance.
Italy’s Sofia Giunchiglia and Giulia Schio won the Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères, proving their ability across different conditions. They have been consistently competitive across both early-season events and look capable of a first major title.
Australia’s Laura Harding and Annie Wilmot were second in Hyères and have impressed throughout the season, coming from outside the top-20 standings to establish themselves as regular top-five finishers.
Keep an eye too on Norway’s Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland (14th at 2025 Worlds), Germany’s Sophie Steinlein and Catherine Bartelheimer (who came agonisingly close to winning Palma, finishing second), Great Britain’s Freya Black and Saskia Tidey (4th at 2025 Worlds, ranked 5th in the world), and Belgium’s Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts (12th at 2025 Worlds).
In a fleet where the top ten are separated by remarkably thin margins, the Quiberon conditions — likely breezy and physical — could be the deciding factor.
Nacra 17: The Heavyweights Return, New Blood Emerges
The Nacra 17 mixed fleet is in the midst of a fascinating transition. The Paris 2024 cycle saw Great Britain’s John Gimson and Anna Burnet — the reigning Olympic silver medallists — establish themselves as the world number one team and consistent medal contenders, while Italy’s Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti showed at Hyères that the Olympic champions are still a force when they choose to race. However they will not be racing at the 2026 Worlds this year due to Ruggero’s commitments to the America’s Cup.
In Palma, Sweden’s Emil Järudd and Hanna Jonsson delivered the performance of the early season, winning the Trofeo Princesa Sofía with remarkable composure — doing so while both were ill and coping with personal loss off the water. They won half the races all week and were clinical on the final day. They had been 2023 World Championship bronze medallists and are clearly maturing into a top-tier team.
Gimson and Burnet, ranked world number one heading in, were third in Palma after a final-day charge (finishing 2nd and 1st on the last day), which shows their ability to find pace when it counts. They were fifth at Hyères.
Argentina’s Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco — Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallists — finished second in Palma and second in Hyères, showing extraordinary consistency across the two events. They train with both Swedish boats and appear to be in strong form.
Also watch France’s Tim Mourniac and Aloïse Retornaz, who took bronze in Hyères on home waters, and Sweden’s Ida Svensson and Marcus Dackhammer, who had been in the mix all week in Palma before a difficult final day. Italy’s Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei won Hyères overall.
With Ugolini and Giubilei, Gimson and Burnet, Majdalani and Bosco, and the Swedes all entered, the Nacra 17 fleet has perhaps the deepest field of any of the three classes. In Quiberon’s big-wind, big-swell conditions, foiling form and boat-handling confidence will be as important as tactical sharpness.
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The stakes at this championship go beyond the world titles themselves. As the third event in the Sailing Grand Slam Series, the results in Quiberon will set the World Sailing Olympic class rankings ahead of Kieler Week in June and the Long Beach Olympic Classes event in July — all of which feed directly into the qualification and selection picture for LA 2028.
For the host nation, France’s sailors will be racing in front of a home crowd with particular intensity — Fischer and Péquin in the 49er, several FX teams, and Mourniac and Retornaz in the Nacra 17 will be carrying the hopes of the French sailing federation on waters they know well.
Racing begins on Tuesday 12 May, with six days of competition concluding with medal races on Sunday 17 May.
