TF35 2026 season is still wide open
by TF35 Trophy 26 Aug 20:20 AEST
27-30 August 2026
TF35 2026 © Loris von Siebenthal
After a two-month summer break, the 2026 TF35 Trophy season resumes this Thursday, 27 August, on Lake Geneva with the Mailly Grand Prix. Three days of Grand Prix racing will be followed by a Sunday long-distance race, and with seven teams still in contention, the second half of the season is wide open.
Leading the Trophy at the halfway stage is Guy de Picciotto's Zen Too, helmed by Loïc Forestier. Having been near the front and in the mix throughout the spring, Forestier and his crew have done enough to eke out a one-point lead. But if they are to hold on, they will need to eliminate the 'one bad race' that has cost them at times.
"We've had a long break this summer and resumed training a week ago, so it's quite a short time to get back into the rhythm," says Forestier. "It's almost as if it were the start of the season again, because nothing has been decided and everything is still very close. We need to keep working as we did at the start of the season and be in the mix straight away."
In second, Duncan Späth's Sails of Change 10 has shown that it can perform in difficult light-air conditions, winning the first Grand Prix of the season in Nyon and claiming its first regatta victory as a team. With a solid crew led by tactician Julien D'Ortoli, the team will be looking to stay in the top three and add another Grand Prix win.
The final podium spot is currently held by two-time defending champions Sails of Change 8. Led by helmsman Yann Guichard, the team made crew changes in key positions at the start of the 2026 season and, as a result, has lacked its usual formidable consistency.
That said, they came back strongly at the Mies Grand Prix in May, producing an extraordinary performance: five wins from five races on the opening day.
Fourth, only four points off the lead, are the TF35 underdogs X-Wing. The latest team to join the fleet, they are quickly becoming one to watch. They won their first race of the season in Nyon and produced outstanding performances in the long-distance races, boosting their position in the overall standings.
For helmsman Marco Favale and his crew, the next step is to eliminate the mediocre results that have come between those flashes of brilliance.
Of the remaining fleet, Realteam Spirit has returned to the TF35 circuit after a break in 2025. They are only seven points off the lead, although the team admitted before the season that TF35 sailing techniques had evolved while they were away.
They have nevertheless finished second and fourth in the spring long-distance races, results that suggest they could become a genuine late-season threat.
Tied on points with Realteam Spirit and therefore still within striking distance of the podium is Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier. Their best result so far this season is a second at the Mies Grand Prix, after posting consistent top-four finishes throughout the weekend in both the Grand Prix and long-distance racing.
For Ylliam 17, the challenge is to translate their long-distance form into Grand Prix points. They won the Genève-Rolle-Genève for the second year running, demonstrating superb lake-reading. But their sixth place at Mies cost them dearly. The podium is still there if they can reproduce that tactical quality in conventional windward-leeward racing.
The long-range forecast for the Mailly Grand Prix looks changeable, with sunshine, a risk of thunderstorms and falling temperatures. As ever, the crews will need to adapt to whatever Lake Geneva throws at them. The event could be decisive. With the standings so close, three days of racing in Mailly have the potential to reshuffle the Trophy completely.
The fleet will then compete for the TF35 Versoix Grand Prix, 11-13 September, before the final event of the season, the TF35 Geneva Grand Prix, 2-4 October.
The second half of the 2026 TF35 Trophy begins on Thursday. The title is still there for the taking. Follow at www.tf35.org