SailGP rolls through Cadiz, Formula Kite World Championships, J/22 and Hobie 16 Nas, GL52 action
by David Schmidt 8 Oct 02:00 AEDT
October 7, 2025
Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team celebrate winning DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix © Andrew Baker for SailGP
SailGP has enjoyed a fine tour of the United Kingdom and Europe this summer and early fall. This five-event run began in Portsmouth, in the UK, over the weekend of July 19 and 20, and then moved to Sassnitz, Germany (August 16-17), before hitting Saint-Tropez, France (September 12-13) and Geneva, Switzerland (September 20-21). This tour wrapped up this past weekend in Cadiz, Spain, where the DP World Spain Sail Grand Prix was contested using the league's 24-meter wingsails and the light-air T-foils and rudders.
Seven fleet races selected the three fastest teams—Emirates Great Britian, the Kiwi-flagged Black Foils, and Germany by Deutsche Bank—who proceeded to the event's zero-sum Final race.
While Peter Burling and his Black Foils squad had been leading the hunt in the Final, Dlyan Fletcher and his Emirates Great Britian team managed to sneak under the Kiwis as the boats approached the final mark. This move proved definitive: The Kiwis' undercarriages connected with saltwater—never a good thing for foiling catamarans—and the Brits took the bullet and the cash prize for the event.
The Black Foils managed to stave off the Germans to collect second place, while Erik Heil and his Germany by Deutsche Bank teammates settled for third place.
"It was an unbelievable weekend for the team," said Fletcher in an official SailGP communication. "We had to fight hard for it. We'd been fighting through the fleet all day, so we just kept pushing. It was a great battle with the Black Foils - they were sailing brilliantly too - but we managed to come out on top."
Much of this battle boiled down to the key passing moment, just prior to the last mark.
"On that final turn towards the finish, we thought we'd be able to get to the zone off the left boundary, but we ended up on a much worse angle than expected going into the last mark," said Burling in a league communication. "We were trying to get into the zone on the inside, but the Brits managed to just get an overlap on the outside. At that point we were just trying to make something happen. Still, we were happy to secure second and extend our gap over Spain and Australia in the overall standings."
Now, with SailGP's Season 5 European swing concluded, all eyes are on the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix 2025 Season Grand Final (November 29-30), which will determine the winner-takes-all Grand Final and its associated $2,000,000 cash prize.
As of now, Emirates GBR leads the Season 5 scoreboard with 85 points, followed by the Black Foils (82 points) and the Australian-flagged Bonds Flying Roos (80 points), with the Spanish-flagged Los Gallos, which won Season 4, sitting on 76 points.
Interestingly, these top four teams are separated by a slimmer points spread than that which exists between the Spanish team and the France SailGP Team, which is sitting on fifth place (61 points).
"It definitely feels like a really good time to get the win before Abu Dhabi," said Hannah Mills, who is the strategist aboard Emirates GBR. "The leaderboard looks a bit different now to how it did coming into the weekend, which is great for us heading into the Grand Final. We're super happy - it's been a really tough couple of days, very physical racing, and tricky conditions to keep the boat flying cleanly."
Here, the smart money suggests that the Grand Final will be comprised of three of these four top-performing teams, however Abu Dhabi has historically shown itself to be a light-air venue, which could play to different teams' strengths.
Stat tuned for more SailGP news, as it breaks.
Jumping to Olympic class sailing, the Formula Kite World Championships just concluded in Quartu Sant'Elena, Sardinia, after six days of racing. Italy's Riccardo Pianosi proved to be the fastest man on foils, followed by Singapore's Maximilian Maeder, and France's Benoit Gomez.
On the women's side of the scoreboard, Jessie Kampman, of The Netherlands, took top honors on the women's side, followed by the USA's Daniela Moroz and France's Lauriane Nolot.
Much closer to home, the Hobie 16 North American Championship (September 27-October 3) just wrapped up at the Pensacola Yacht Club, in Pensacola, Florida.
After 16 races, Jason Hess and Sofia Ponce took first place, followed by Yamil and Andrea Saba in second, and Keki and Irene Figueroa in third place.
The J/22 Class also recently contested its North American Championship on the waters of Lake Ontario from October 3-5. The event, which was hosted by the Rochester Yacht Club, saw eight races contested over two days of light-air racing.
Once the finishing guns fell silent, Adam Burns and his What? NoooWaay! team took top honors, followed by Brad Julian's squad, and—representing the Rochester Yacht Club—Travis Odenbach's Honeybadger crew finishing in third place.
And finally, the GL52 class enjoyed a fine fall outing on the waters of Lake Michigan last weekend for the Macatawa Challenge 2025. After eight races, John Huhn's Katana proved the boat to beat, followed by Peter Askew's Wizard, and Laura and Robert Huges' Heartbreaker.
May the four winds blow you safely home.
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor