ROCKWOOL Germany SailGP 2026 Final. Australia's Bonds Flying Roos have won the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix, crossing the line just before the breeze died completely and left the three remaining boats grinding home off the foils in an old-fashioned drift race for the minor placings.
Australia had the better of the start. Slingsby got away clean while NorthStar Canada came in too close to the line and had to slow down, bunching up the rest of the fleet behind them. The Black Foils (NZ), boxed in high on the line early, worked through to second by the first mark but couldn't close the gap to the BONDS Flying Roos.
The middle of the race was sailed in driving rain and visibility bad enough that commentators compared it to a fog bank rolling through, with wind around 30km/h and the boats punching upwind through it at speeds high enough to make the rain feel like it was hitting the crews horizontally. The Black Foils held second through the middle stages, but lost real distance on the leg where the wind dropped away, and Los Gallos Spain and NorthStar Canada closed back up into the fight behind Australia.
Then the wind died altogether. The BONDS Flying Roos crossed the finish line with the dying breeze and was already celebrating on the water by the time it dropped out completely behind them. NorthStar Canada, Los Gallos Spain and the Black Foils were left to finish the race in barely a breath of air, each off their foils and hunting for ripples and dark patches on the water for any speed at all. Canada secured second 'comfortably' – from our angle what looked to be half a boat length. The Black Foils and Los Gallos Spain arrived at the line together, overlapped at a boundary crossing where the Black Foils held the right of way but were judged not to have given Spain enough room. The penalty required the Black Foils to drop back behind Los Gallos Spain to serve the penalty, which settled the last two places on the podium: third to Los Gallos Spain, fourth to the Black Foils, even though the Black Foil's crossing time was marginally the quicker of the two.
Event final result
| Pos | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bonds Flying Roos (Australia) | 10:04.3 |
| 2 | NorthStar Canada | +3:11.3 |
| 3 | Los Gallos Spain | +3:26.1 |
| 4 | Black Foils NZ | +3:25.9 |
A first win of the weekend, and the one that counted
The BONDS Flying Roos won two fleet races on Saturday and led for most of that day before fouling their way to last in the third fleet race and getting becalmed to fifth in Race 4. Their final win was the one worth the most: it's their first event victory since New York earlier this season, and it comes with $400,000 of the event's prize pool. It also extends their season lead, taking them to 76 championship points with four events left. Los Gallos Spain's third place stretches their own gap over Artemis Sweden in the standings by 11 points.
DS Team France, who set the weekend's first headline moment with an all-time SailGP speed record of 107.63km/h on Saturday, spent the final watching from side line. Speed alone wasn't enough to convert into a top-two finish in their group, and they missed Sunday's decider entirely.
