Seven events in. Four different Grand Prix winners. A season-defining collision. A debut team already reaching Finals. And one team with a winning streak that seemed like it might never end.
The 2026 Rolex SailGP Championship has already delivered more drama in its first half than many seasons manage across their entirety. With six events still to run and a Grand Final in Abu Dhabi deciding the championship, here is the story so far.
The season opened in January in Western Australia, where reigning champions Emirates GBR immediately served notice of their intentions. Dylan Fletcher and his crew controlled Championship Sunday in the challenging Fremantle Doctor conditions, defeating the Bonds Flying Roos and DS Automobiles Team France in the three-boat Final to claim the opening event. It was the kind of composed, authoritative performance that made them heavy favourites to defend their title.
The weekend was not without incident. The Black Foils lost their F50 in the opening race after a high-speed collision with the Explora Swiss SailGP Team and were handed an eight-point penalty for causing the incident. It was a bruising start to the season for Peter Burling's crew, and one that would only get worse.
February brought the fleet to the Waitematā Harbour for the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix, and with it one of the most significant incidents in SailGP history. During the third fleet race, the Black Foils lost control of their F50 at speed and veered sharply across the path of DS Team France. The two boats collided heavily. Two athletes, French strategist Manon Audinet and Kiwi grinder Louis Sinclair, were treated for injuries, and racing was abandoned for the day.
The consequences reached well beyond the weekend. Both the Black Foils and France were ruled out of Sydney. DS Team France eventually returned in Rio, but the Black Foils' F50 required far more extensive repairs, keeping them out of action until Halifax, five months after the crash.
On the water, the Bonds Flying Roos won the Final in squall conditions on the Waitematā, with Emirates GBR second and Spain's Los Gallos third. It was win number one for the Bonds Flying Roos, and it would not be their last.
The third event, the KPMG Sydney Sail Grand Prix, produced the season's first major shock. The Bonds Flying Roos, racing in front of their own fans, failed to reach the Final on home waters for the first time in their history. Instead, it was Taylor Canfield and the U.S. SailGP Team who took centre stage, winning the Final ahead of Emirates GBR and Spain. It was the first SailGP event win of Canfield's career, a moment the American driver called "an incredible feeling."
The result reshuffled the early standings. Emirates GBR led on 28 points, the Bonds Flying Roos second on 25, the Americans suddenly third on 20. A season that had looked set to be a two-horse race between the champions and the challengers suddenly had a third contender.
The Enel Rio Sail Grand Prix, SailGP's South American debut on Guanabara Bay, was where the Bonds Flying Roos announced themselves as the team to beat. Four different teams had won the four Saturday fleet races. On Sunday, only one team mattered. The Aussies swept the day, Slingsby and his crew saving their best for when it counted and winning the Final ahead of Los Gallos and Artemis SailGP, the Swedish outfit's first ever event podium. Emirates GBR, chasing the Bonds Flying Roos at the top of the standings, had one of the worst weekends of their championship tenure, finishing at or near the bottom of the fleet. "They deserved to be in last place," SailGP CEO Russell Coutts said afterwards.
The result put the Aussies firmly in control: 35 points at the top, Emirates GBR on 28, and the gap growing.
Bermuda was more of the same, only colder. The Bonds Flying Roos arrived at the Apex Group Bermuda Sail Grand Prix on Great Sound riding strong form and left with their third event win of the season, defeating Los Gallos and Germany presented by Deutsche Bank in the Final. The Germans' Final appearance was itself a breakthrough, their first of the 2026 Season and a sign that the midfield was beginning to shake up.
Los Gallos, meanwhile, had now podiumed at four consecutive events. Consistent enough to be clearly one of the best teams in the fleet, but unable to find a way past Tom Slingsby's Bonds Flying Roos when it mattered most.
The Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix brought more drama and another Australian victory, though neither came easily. On day one, with winds gusting beyond 40km/h causing chaos with crane operations on the Hudson, Australia's F50 took a heavy nosedive in warm-up, forcing the team to sit out the day's reduced racing entirely. Day one results were wiped and the slate reset for Sunday.
Spain had looked poised for the win they had been threatening all season, but hydraulic problems struck on Sunday and prevented them from starting the second fleet race, ending their hopes of reaching the Final. A start-line collision eliminated the U.S. team, who had delighted home fans as the form team up until that point, from the deciding race. That sent the Bonds Flying Roos, Emirates GBR and NorthStar into the Final.
What followed was one of the most extraordinary finishes SailGP has produced. The Bonds Flying Roos and Emirates GBR were locked together to the last mark, both teams lodging protests as they rounded virtually side by side. The umpires ruled no penalty. The Aussies crossed the line three seconds clear and the hat-trick was complete. Slingsby admitted the team had "been on the back foot all day" before delivering when it counted.
NorthStar's Final appearance was its own story. It was the Canadian team's first since San Francisco in 2025, arriving just in time before their home event in Halifax.
If any event was going to disrupt the natural order, it was Canada Sail Grand Prix | Halifax. SailGP debuted a four-boat Final for the first time in the championship's history. The Bonds Flying Roos had been dominant in qualifying, but the expanded format levelled the field, and when the race mattered most, it was Spain who delivered. Diego Botín's Los Gallos won their first event of the 2026 Season and in doing so made Australian history of the wrong kind. The Bonds Flying Roos became the first team ever to qualify for a Final and fail to reach the podium, finishing fourth.
The day had begun with more bad news for Emirates GBR, whose campaign ended before racing started after a warm-up nosedive damaged both the wing and jib. The Black Foils, racing for the first time since Auckland, returned to a welcome that underlined just how much they had been missed.
Second in the Final went to Artemis SailGP, denied what would have been a fairytale maiden win in their debut season. Third went to Switzerland's Explora Swiss, completing a remarkable podium formed entirely of 49er alumni. Botín, Artemis driver Nathan Outteridge and Swiss helmsman Sébastien Schneiter all cut their teeth in the Olympic class.
Six events remain, culminating in the Grand Final in Abu Dhabi in November. The Bonds Flying Roos lead the championship on 65 points. Los Gallos sit second on 44, with Emirates GBR third on 44 points and the Americans fourth on 44 points.
Australia's winning streak is over. Their dominance is not. Los Gallos have found their form at exactly the right moment, Artemis have now reached two Finals in their debut season, and the four-boat Final format has shown it can produce the unexpected. With Portsmouth, Sassnitz, Valencia, Geneva, Dubai and Abu Dhabi still to come, the teams chasing Tom Slingsby now have reason to believe.
