Global Sailing Highlights July 26.24 NYYC Race Week, 52 World Champs, 40 Days to AC more

The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup is now just one month away from exploding into life with the start of the third and final Preliminary Regatta, starting on Thursday 22nd August 2024, and running through to Sunday 25th August, where the talking stops, for a few days at least, and it’s down to business, as the A C 75's go head-to-head, for the very first time.
Right now, as it stands today, nobody knows, and everyone is guessing. Will we see sand-bagging, wil spectators, be able to recognise it? Are the teams holding back technology, (and outright speed), to spring a surprise when it really matters, – and will we, as spectators, realise the questions on everyone’s lips, be able to recognise them. These are the hopes of fans from New Zealand, Great Britain, Switzerland, Italy, America and France hang on the foils and the spills and thrills of the most fascinating Preliminary Regatta in the 173-year history of the America’s Cup.

This is your weekly Global Sailing Highlights show, Every week since 2010, The World on Water, July 26, 2024.

Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex was created in 1998 by merging two popular events hosted by New York Yacht Club and Rolex: the IMS National Championships and the One-Design Championship Regatta.
The event included the incorporation of significant events into its structure, having doubled as the Rolex I M S World Championship in 2000, the Sparkman and Stephens 75th Anniversary Celebration in 2004, Olin Stephens’s 100th birthday in 2008, and the Rolex US-IRC National Championship in 2010.

After Winning both races on Day 2 at the 2024 Rolex TP52 World Championship in Newport Rhode Island, Tony Langley’s Gladiator team have now scored three back-to-back victories and top the worlds leaderboard with a four points lead after four races.
They have won all three races from the left side of the first windward leg and in each successive contest built comfortable leading margins. In the first race of the day, raced in a fitful 7 to 9 knots of breeze with difficult choppy waves and a leftover awkward swell, Vayu, were second and Doug DeVos’, Quantum Racing powered by American Magic, were third. With their 3 2 placings Quantum were the second best scoring team and move to fifth on the standings.

The Ocean Race is announcing a new transatlantic, fully-crewed race for the IMOCA class for the summer of 2026. The event is a celebration of the ocean and ocean health initiatives, and a showcase for top-level sport, and the teams and sailors who compete.
The Ocean Race Atlantic will connect America’s leading metropolis of New York with Europe’s capital of cool, the Catalonian city of Barcelona. It will be the first point to point race in the 50-plus year history of The Ocean Race.
This new event in 2026 follows The Ocean Race Europe, which starts in Kiel, Germany in 2025 and will precede the next edition of the around the world race starting from Alicante, Spain, in 2027.

The race across the Atlantic will feature the foiling, flying IMOCA class boats in their fully-crewed configuration. For the first time, the race crew of four sailors will consist of 50-50 split, two women and two men.

While almost the entire fleet arrived safely on Saturday July 20 at midday, the evening of Friday and then the night made it possible to celebrate three new winners of the DRHEAM-CUP / GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE: defending champion, Groupe Snef (Xavier Macaire) achieved the double, while the very first race of the new Sun Fast 30 One Design was won by SL Energies Groupe (Laurent Charmy).

Harm Müller-Spreer’s 2023 defending champions Platoon Aviation won the only race sailed at the Rolex TP52 World Championship off Newport, RI today. But while their first race victory of the event elevates them to fourth at the theoretical midpoint of the 10 race series, Tony Langley’s Gladiator team sit firm at the top of the leaderboard just a single point ahead of Andy Soriano’s Alegre.

Let's relive the excitement of the final day of racing and the closing ceremony of the Youth Sailing World Championships on Lake Garda Olympic Ilca 6 Gold Medallist, Lily Zu, reports on the winners.

Takashi Okura’s Sled, the 2021 world champions representing the hosts, the New York Yacht Club, scored best today at the Rolex TP52 World Championship in Newport, RI. Their first and second places sees them going into Saturday’s finale just one single point behind championship leaders Tony Langley’s British flagged Gladiator.

Tony Langley’s Gladiator became the first British flagged team to lift the Rolex TP52 World Championship title when they emerged from a testing three race finale today off Newport, Rhode Island with a six points margin over the 2021 world champions Sled and eight on the 2023 champions Platoon Aviation.