TOUCHDOWN VALENCIA: SAILGP ARRIVES IN HISTORIC SAILING WATERS WITH THE TITLE RACE WIDE OPEN

Los Gallos welcome SailGP to a new home event as they chase Australia, France arrive with a 107.63 km/h record from Sassnitz, Canada have momentum with three finals from four events, and reigning champions GBR fight to stay alive.

Spain come home 14 points off the championship lead. Australia arrive with five wins. France have just broken SailGP’s speed record. New Zealand are finally back. And the defending champions are running out of weekends. Valencia is making its SailGP debut at exactly the right moment.

Valencia already knows what the sharp end of international sailing looks like. The America’s Cup was decided here in 2007 and again in 2010. Alinghi defended the Cup against Emirates Team New Zealand in 2007; three years later Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing, with Russell Coutts running the campaign and Jimmy Spithill on the wheel, beat Alinghi with the extraordinary giant wing-sailed USA 17 trimaran. Now thirteen foiling F50s move in.

Sixteen years later, Coutts is back. On 5–6 September, SailGP races in Valencia for the first time, beginning a three-year agreement that keeps the Spanish Sail Grand Prix here through 2028.

Coutts didn’t undersell the choice when SailGP officially presented Valencia in March.

“Valencia is exactly the kind of city SailGP was built for.”

His follow-up was even stronger: among the cities on the SailGP calendar, he said Valencia “doesn’t just belong on that list, it elevates it.”  For Diego Botín, it is simpler.

“Los Gallos are coming home.”  

HOME TEAM. TITLE FIGHT.

Spain arrive in Valencia second in the championship, 14 points behind Australia, after nine events. They have already won back-to-back Grands Prix in Halifax and Portsmouth and took third in the Sassnitz final two weeks ago. Australia, meanwhile, left Germany with its fifth event victory of the season.   There are only three events after Valencia.

That turns the first Valencia Sail Grand Prix into considerably more than a homecoming.

Botín knows what home support can do. “Having a home event is always very exciting and gives us an extra boost. To have our event today almost in front of the racecourse gave me goosebumps.”  

SailGP has moved its Spanish stop from Cádiz and placed the F50 racecourse directly off Valencia’s Marina Norte waterfront. The marina has spent the past month adapting its facilities for the fleet, teams, technical operations and spectators.  

FROM AMERICA’S CUP TO F50

Valencia’s modern marina was transformed by the 32nd America’s Cup, held here in 2007. Alinghi’s defence against Emirates Team New Zealand produced one of the Cup’s great finishes: the Swiss team clinched the Match 5–2, with the deciding race won by just one second.

Then came 2010. The 33rd America’s Cup was sailing’s great technological grudge match: Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing against Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi, following years of legal fighting over the rules governing the challenge.

The result looked more aerospace project than conventional yacht race. Oracle’s USA 17 was a 90-foot trimaran carrying a giant rigid wing sail. Jimmy Spithill drove it. Russell Coutts, already an America’s Cup legend, was CEO of BMW Oracle Racing. Oracle won 2–0.

FRANCE: 107.63 KM/H

Sassnitz provided the warning. On Saturday in Germany, Quentin Delapierre’s French F50 reached 107.63 km/h, the fastest speed ever recorded in SailGP. The number only tells half the story. Around France, boats were struggling to keep control. Denmark nosedived. Spain went out of bounds. France stayed flying. The F50s were operating close to the point where sailing stops looking like sailing and starts looking like controlled flight. Delapierre described the calculation rather neatly:

“It’s just a bet if the foils are able to stay on the water or not.”

And the record matters even more when placed against where their season started.

The team came through the Auckland collision, injuries and subsequent crew disruption before producing the fastest run SailGP has ever seen. Delapierre’s description of dealing with the aftermath is almost the opposite of the violence of the incident:

“Just have to be chill when the accident happens and try to reset the mindset of the team.”

BLACK FOILS: BACK

Peter Burling’s Black Foils spent much of 2026 trying to recover a season compromised by their Auckland collision. Sassnitz finally produced the breakthrough: their first final appearance of the season. They crossed the line in contention before a penalty for failing to keep clear of Spain relegated them to fourth.   But Burling isn’t particularly interested in calculating what might have been.

“We’re not too worried about that. We’re just here to try and win these events.”

That’s essentially the Black Foils’ remaining equation. The championship damage has already happened. What remains is the opportunity to win races, rebuild momentum and take points from teams fighting for the final. And Burling’s reading of the fleet is useful going into Valencia:

“Teams are having good weekends, teams are having bad weekends.”

GBR: THE CHAMPIONS ARE CHASING

Emirates GBR entered 2026 as defending SailGP champions. They arrive in Valencia fourth in the championship and outside the Grand Final positions.  In Sassnitz, Dylan Fletcher’s team finished only three points short of advancing from its group, another near miss after failing to reach the event final at the previous round. Fletcher’s diagnosis:

“Fine margins in SailGP and we’ve just been on that wrong side.”

The problem with fine margins in September is that the calendar is no longer forgiving.

Valencia. Geneva. Dubai. Abu Dhabi. Four events remain including this weekend, and only the top three championship teams reach the season-deciding Grand Final. Fletcher isn’t pretending there is an easier route through it.

“You’ve got to beat every boat at the end of the day.”

NORTHSTAR: THE WRONG FORECAST?

Canada have almost the inverse problem. NorthStar arrive with three final appearances from the past four events, including second place behind Australia in Sassnitz.  Consistency is no longer the question. Conditions may be.

Valencia is expected to produce considerably more marginal conditions than the 100 km/h madness seen on the opening day in Germany. And Annie Haeger isn’t hiding the area Canada have been working on.

“It’s a weakness of ours. We’ve identified it. We’re working on it.”

Light-air performance could become one of the weekend’s defining variables.

That’s the fascinating thing about moving directly from Sassnitz to Valencia: the same F50 that became a 107 km/h projectile on the Baltic can become an entirely different performance problem when the wind drops.

WHERE WE ARE AT

Here is where SailGP stands on the eve of its first SailGP race in Valencia

Australia lead after five victories.

Spain are 14 points behind and finally racing at home.

France arrive having put 107.63 km/h on the clock.

Emirates GBR are defending champions sitting outside the top three.

NorthStar have reached three of the past four finals.

The Black Foils have finally made one.

And Valencia itself is the new variable.