The Foil

Walk the pontoons at Lorient La Base on any weekday and you are in the most concentrated gathering of offshore racing talent on the planet. Ultims, IMOCAs, Class40s and Minis lie moored in the shadow of colossal concrete bunkers built to shelter U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic. The boats are mostly French.

The 52 Super Series season comes down to one last regatta, and The Foil is there for all of it. We're livestreaming every day of Valencia Sailing Week, 6–10 October, as a record 16-boat fleet from 11 nations races off Malvarrosa Beach in Spain's America's Cup city. Platoon Aviation arrives top of the table after winning the Royal Cup in Puerto Calero, 11 points clear of Sled.

There are regattas you go to because you want to win, and there are regattas that remind you why you fell in love with sailing in the first place. Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez manages to do both. The racing matters.

The Foil presents the latest Other Sailing news, interviews, opinions and analysis that goes the extra nautical mile - by sailing fans, for sailing fans.

It's been a busy old week, from Olympic qualification getting under way at the Asian Games to the giant Ultims touching the mid-40s off Brittany, with a double-handed offshore world title for France and the classics out in force in Saint-Tropez. Next up, the 52 Super Series heads to Valencia to settle its season, before more than 1,300 boats pile onto the start line in Trieste for the Barcolana. The sailing at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya mattered more than usual this time, with the ILCA fleets handing out the very first sailing places for the LA 2028 Olympics.

Most grand prix sailing classes burn bright and fade fast. Owners arrive, spend heavily, win or lose, and move on to the next shiny thing within three or four seasons. The RC44 has defied that cycle for the best part of two decades.

The Foil presents the latest SailGP news, interviews, opinions and analysis that goes the extra nautical mile - by sailing fans, for sailing fans.

Listen on Spotify and other platforms Mozzy's back. He's spent the summer on the beach sailing a Mirror, but the America's Cup has “summoned” him back “like a demon from the deep”, and he's brought some opinions with him. Mozzy thinks the two AC40 preliminary regattas “mean pretty much nothing”, so he has ideas to change that: extra wind tunnel time, extra budget, or testing development foils on the racecourse.

Listen on Spotify and other platforms Naples brought the crowds, the drama and a taste of what next year’s America’s Cup could deliver. But how much did we really learn from the preliminary regatta? Neil Cole, Andy Rice, Lewis Smith and Shona Gibson break down the weekend: the atmosphere on the waterfront, what the results tell us about the teams, and why getting a reliable boat onto the racecourse is still part of the competition.

It's been a busy week across the board. In Naples, Peter Burling got one over on his old team to win the second Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, while on the Solent, Pietro Loro Piana and his crew ended a 15-year wait on a nail-biting final day. Out in the Bay of Biscay, the big multihulls went flat out through the night for one last shakedown before the Route du Rhum.

Luna Rossa have taken the Naples title, beating Emirates Team New Zealand by 17 seconds in the match race final – a show of strength from the home team on the very waters that will host the 2027 America’s Cup. For Peter Burling, there was the added satisfaction of putting one over his old team. Heading into the last day, though, only Luna Rossa were all but guaranteed their place in the final – the question was who would join them.

Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand remain in the top two heading into the final day of the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Naples, but day two belonged to La Roche-Posay Racing Team. Quentin Delapierre’s French crew won two of the four races – and were one gybe away from making it three, capsizing with a 500-metre lead on the final downwind leg of Race 5. It was their second capsize in two days and, with a DNS from day one still weighing on their scorecard, they sit seventh overall despite being the only crew to win more than once today.