Championship glory for Belgium, Uruguay and Great Britain

Sunday was the conclusion of the 49er and 49erFX European Championships as well as the Nacra 17 World Championship in La Grande Motte, France. 49erFX Europeans: Belgium win first major title Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts didn’t sail a great medal race but the Belgians had built up a sufficient buffer that it didn’t matter. […]

Belgian 49erFX in the Box Seat

Steph Roble and Maggie Shea sailed a stellar day in the 49erFX Europeans, the USA team winning three of the four races in gold fleet. This lifts them just inside the top 10 and gives them a place in Sunday’s medal race. Further up the field, Freya Black and Saskia Tidey also performed well, the […]

Uruguay surges to top of the 49ers

Uruguay has never qualified a 49er to the Olympic Games. In fact across the whole history of the modern Olympics the South American nation has just won 10 medals, none yet in sailing. So when Uruguay’s Hernan Umpierre and Fernando Diz go out and score 1,1,4 from the first three races of gold fleet competition […]

Big switch-around in FX fortunes

A drop in wind strength brought huge changes to the 49erFX leaderboard on day three of the European Championship in La Grande Motte in the South of France. Two of the front runners struggled to maintain such strong form from the windy weather, with the teams from Finland and Italy falling out of the top […]

A change of leader but GBR still on top in 49er

Day two of the European Championships was another wild and windy outing for the skiff fleets in La Grande Motte, France. Three more races in wildly shifty conditions of up to 40 degrees variation have done nothing to dislodge Great Britain from the top two spots in the men’s 49er. It’s just the order of […]

British seize early lead in Europeans

British teams took the lead on both sides of the qualifying draw at the 49er European Championship on day one of the competition. With three Olympic class championships taking place alongside each other in La Grande Motte in the South of France, day one on the Mediterranean Sea hurled some difficult but exhilarating conditions at […]

Fischer & Pequin looking for a good result on home waters

The 49er and 49erFX European Championships, along with the Nacra 17 World Championship are about to start in La Grande Motte in the South of France, with sailors looking to make the most of the final major test before this summer’s Olympic Games. Last November at the 2023 49er Europeans in Portugal, Lucas Rual and […]

France claims first ever 49er world title and Dutch reclaim FX crown

Erwan Fischer and Clement Pequin (FRA) won France’s first ever 49er world title on the final day of the 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Lanzarote. Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz (NED) reclaimed the 49erFX world title for The Netherlands. The final day brought lighter breezes but still sufficient for twin trapezing up and […]

French on the brink of 49er history

Day 5 of the 49er and 49erFX World Championships brought the windiest and waviest conditions so far in Lanzarote. With the breeze gusting between 15 and 19 knots from the north-west, today would be the toughest physical challenge yet. The Gold Fleet departed Marina Rubicon for three hard races on the huge Atlantic swell. PORT […]

Fischer and Pequin in pole position for Paris 2024

Day 4 of the Worlds was the first day of Gold Fleet Racing, when the top 25 teams went head to head for the first time in three intense races. There were so many dimensions to today’s race course – big wind shifts, gusts and lulls, all played out on a three-dimensional playing field of […]