Loro Piana Giraglia 2026 - Preview
by Yacht Club Italiano 4 Jun 14:15 PDT
12-16 June 2026
Loro Piana Giraglia 2025 © Loro Piana / Studio Borlenghi
The Loro Piana Giraglia is organised by Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, under the guidance of the Federazione Italiana Vela and the Fédération Française de Voile.
First held in 1953, the 73rd edition will feature four days of inshore racing in Saint-Tropez from 13 to 16 June, followed by the 241nm offshore race starting on 17 June. The offshore course starts from Saint-Tropez, rounds the Giraglia Rock off Corsica, and finishes in Genoa.
The Loro Piana Giraglia Regatta 2026 will feature well in excess of 140 yachts from 23 countries or territories. For the 241nm offshore race, Italy has the largest representation, followed by France, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland. With crew from six continents, the Loro Piana Giraglia is a truly international event with sailors competing from Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Oceania.
Class divisions for the regatta are yet to be finalised, but the entries include 15 boats over 20 metres in length including powerful performance maxis, as well as elegant classics and performance cruisers.
The combined length of the magnificent Giraglia fleet is 1.9Km, roughly the length of 18 football pitches. At the other end of the scale, nine boats under 10 metres in length are entered for the offshore race, the shortest waterline length is that of the J/92 Bagatelle (Holger Techen).
For the Loro Piana Giraglia offshore race, there are four boats of 30 metres capable of maintaining line honours pace: Farr 100 Leopard 3 (Joost Schuijff), Mills 100 'V' (Karel Komarek), Jones 100 ARCA SGR (Furio Benussi), which took Line Honours in 2021. Verdier 100 Magic Carpet E (Lindsay Owen-Jones) was runner up last year by just 2 minutes and 13 seconds.
The wild card for Line Honours into Genoa is FlyingNikka, the 18.7m Mills design. The futuristic foiler, sailed by Yacht Club Italiano member Roberto Lacorte, is capable of 'flying' at over 30 knots in the right conditions.
More top Italian competition comes from the overall runner up in 2025, JV 80 Capricorno (Alessandro Del Bono ITA), ClubSwan 80 My Song (Pier Luigi Loro Piana), second in the 2025 Maxi Class and the Monty Yacht Free at Last (Marco Piana).
For competing boats over 15m and under 20m, there are standout entries from across Europe: Botin 65 Artemis Bleu (James Neville GBR), Carkeek 54 Daguet 5 (Frederic Puzin FRA), Botin 52 Spirit of Lorina 2 (Jean-Pierre Barjon FRA) and JV52 Arkas Blue Moon (TUR), third place in the Loro Piana Giraglia 2025 Regatta. The Botin 52 Arobas (Gerard Logel FRA) returns having placed fourth overall in 2025. Adding considerable depth to the 15-20m division is the Sangermani 1962 classic Samurai (Luigi Pavese ITA), which competed in the 1963 edition. The Maltese Sailing Federation's drive for international competition is led by their Cookson 50 Viva Malta.
For boats under 15m, hot competition will come from Ker 46 Searcher 2 (Pete Smyth IRL), third overall last year. MAT 1220 Kuka 4 (Franco Niggeler SUI) is a new boat to the race but Niggeler is no stranger to the Giraglia podium. Adding depth to the boats under 15m, the Andre Mauric 1975 One Tonner Pilsi will be raced by the Piaggio family. JPK 1050 Invictus will be raced by Nico Popp from San Francisco USA. The Yacht Club Italiano youth team will once again be racing ELO II, the 43-foot racing prototype which introduces young sailors to offshore under the guidance of world-renowned skippers such as Tommaso Chieffi who will be on ELO II for the race.
The 73rd Loro Piana Giraglia begins in Saint Tropez with the Inshore Regatta for IRC and ORC classes, scheduled from Saturday 13 June to Tuesday 16 June 2026, with boats racing in the Gulf of Saint Tropez and Bay of Pampelonne.
The offshore race starts from Saint Tropez on Wednesday 17 June, with the warning signal scheduled for 11:55. The fleet will race from Saint Tropez, leaving Île du Levant and the Giraglia Rock to port, before finishing in Genoa after approximately 241 nautical miles.
The Loro Piana Giraglia is a classic Mediterranean programme that combines inshore racing off Saint Tropez with the famous offshore course to Genoa via the Giraglia Rock.