SailGP news, The Ocean Race Europe, Women's Match Racing World Championship, and the Mini Transat
by David Schmidt 24 Sep 2025 03:00 AEST
September 22, 2025
Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank helmed by Erik Heil celebrate - Race Day 2 of the Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix - Geneva, Switzerland - September 21, 2025 © Jason Ludlow for SailGP
Good things often happen when preparation meets opportunity. Such was the case for the Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank squad when they notched their first-ever SailGP event win at last weekend's Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix (September 20-21), which took place on the fresh waters of Lake Geneva. While light airs caused some delays, the event provided a great first opportunity for SailGP teams to try their new light-air T-foils in a for-keeps racing situation. And while there was some speculation that the boats were configured with the wrong rudder elevators for the prevailing conditions, the new kit's debut bodes well for allowing F50s to fly in otherwise marginal foiling conditions.
While the Germany SailGP Team struggled in the first six events of Season 5, this started to turn around at the Germany Sail Grand Prix (August 16-17), where they finished the event in fifth place. Driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil and company then finished in fourth place at the Rockwool France Sail Grand Prix (September 12-13), before then landing on the podium's top step this past weekend.
Germany was joined on the Geneva winner's podium by driver Tom Slingsby and Australian-flagged Bonds Flying Roos SailGP Team, who finished in second place, and by Sébastian Schneiter and Switzerland SailGP Team, which finished their homeport event in third place.
"It feels amazing - a little bit shocking as well, but surprisingly good," Kosegarten-Heil said in a SailGP report, after securing his first win in the professional sailing league. "It's a very good time for the team to get some success, we've worked really hard and it's really cool."
The Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix was the tenth event in SailGP's fifth season of racing. This leaves just two events left—the DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix (October 4-5) and the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix 2025 Season Grand Final (November 29-30)—to determine the season's bragging rights and the accompanying $2M prize purse.
Given how close the racing has been in Season 5, it's perhaps not surprising that the season's leaderboard shows little daylight between the top performing teams.
Slingsby and the Bonds Flying Roos SailGP Team are currently topping the scoreboard with 76 points, followed a single point astern by Dylan Fletcher's Emirates Great Brittain SailGP team in second place, while Peter Burling and his New Zealand-flagged Black Foils team are sitting in third place with 73 points.
In fourth place, driver Diego Botin and his Spanish-flagged Los Gallos SailGP Team, who won Season 4's championship title, are sitting on 70 points, putting them within striking range of reaching Season 5's winner-takes-all Grand Final in Abu Dhabi.
Meanwhile, and also on European waters, The Ocean Race Europe (August 10 to September 21) concluded this past Saturday after teams, racing aboard IMOCA 60s, reached the finish of event's fifth leg, which stretched from Genova, Italy, to Montenegro's Boka Bay.
After seven weeks of coastal and offshore racing, skipper Paul Meilhat and his French-flagged Biotherm team took first place, followed by Yoann Richomme and his French-flagged Team Paprec Arkea, and Rosalin Kuiper's Swiss-flagged Team Holcim-PRB.
"We're so happy. We've lived together for two months with this goal in mind," said Meilhat in an official event communication. "This victory is all bonus and pure happiness."
Much closer to home, the World Sailing Women's Match Racing World Championship (September 17-20) was recently hosted by the Chicago Yacht Club and contested on the waters of Lake Michigan aboard TOM 28s. Skipper Pauline Courtois and her French-flagged Match in Pink team of Maëlenn Lemaitre, Louise Acker, Sophie Faguet, and Laurane Mettraux took top honors. Impressively, this was the fifth consecutive time that Courtois earned this proud title.
"It's just incredible to win again here in Chicago," said Courtois in an official event communication. "Any world championship feels special, but this one was particularly challenging with the difficult [light] conditions during the week. To defend the title for the fifth time with my team is a huge accomplishment for us, and I am so proud of them for this amazing win!"
Match in Pink was joined on the winner's podium by Megan Thomson's New Zealand-flagged 2.0 racing team (Tiana Wittey, Josi Andres, Charlotte Porter, and Hattie Rogers), which finished in second place, and by Lea Richter Vogelius's Danish-flagged WOW Racing team (Joan Hansen, Annette Strøm, Anne Sofie Munk-Hansen, and Josefine Boel Rasmussen), which finished in third place.
North American interests were represented by skipper Nicole Breault and her Vela Racing team (Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer, Dana Riley Hayes, McKenzie Wilson, and Hailey Thompson), which finished in seventh place out of 12 competing teams.
Finally, last Sunday (September 21) also marked the start of the 2025 Mini Transat, which takes singlehanded sailors racing aboard 21-foot offshore speedsters from Les Sables d'Olonne, France to Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the Canary Islands, before then crossing the North Atlantic to St. Francois Riviera du Levant, Guadeloupe.
Racing takes place in both production and prototype Minis. A total of 90 skippers, representing 13 different nationalities, set forth on this singlehanded small-boat epic. Impressively, 75 percent of these skippers are first-time Mini Transat participants, and 14 of the 90 starting skippers are women.
While this event is largely a Francophile affair, North American interests are being represented by Ambre Hasson, who is racing solo aboard On the Road Again II (USA 618), her prototype Mini. Impressively, Hasson didn't even know how to sail when the pandemic began, but, in the last five and a half years, it's fair to say that she has been on a fairly vertical learning curve. Don't miss Sail-World's interviews with Hasson leading up to 2025 Mini Transat (www.sail-world.com/news/288759/Ambre-Hasson-on-her-2025-Mini-Transat-campaign).
May the four winds blow you safely home.
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor