Home Water, Higher Stakes: SailGP Returns to Sassnitz
The Rolex SailGP Championship returns to the Baltic this weekend for the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix (August 22-23), the ninth event of the 2026 Season. Thirteen international teams will race meters from the shoreline in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,000 across the weekend.
Photo: Jason Ludlow for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
Germany returns eighth in the championship but in its strongest form yet, with 13 fleet-race top-three finishes this season – more than in any previous campaign. The team has yet to claim a 2026 event win though – a milestone driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil said “would mean the world to us” at home.
“Last year, we had a very bad season until we came here. Feeling the crowd and getting their energy was a big turning point for us for the rest of the season,” said Heil. “We’ve made a lot of progress, especially on speed. We’re now able to overtake people on the course, but it still feels like we’re not getting off the line quickly enough, so the big challenge again is to nail the starts.”
The draw offers no relief: Germany shares Group B with championship leaders the BONDS Flying Roos, Artemis Racing, Emirates GBR, NorthStar Canada and the U.S.
Sassnitz boasts SailGP’s speed record – 103.93 km/h, set by Denmark’s ROCKWOOL Racing in 2025. With stronger winds expected this weekend, driver Nikolai Sehested said the fastest racetrack in the world could get even faster.
“It needs to be a good window. All things have to line up to get it,” said Sehested. “There was way more in the tank. It’s still in these boats, and it’s just a matter of time before we break 105 kilometres an hour.”
After nearly capsizing in training earlier in the week, Sehested said, “That’s definitely the wrong way to get the speed record. When you’re doing 90km/h, a crash with the water hurts almost as much as a crash with something solid.”
At the front of the championship, Spain’s Los Gallos arrive in Sassnitz as back-to-back winners in Halifax and Portsmouth, 12 points behind the BONDS Flying Roos.
“Right now, the pressure is on us. The last time we performed really well, with two wins, was last season, and after that, which would be now Sassnitz, we had a bad event,” said Los Gallos wing trimmer Florian Trittel. “So no gap is big enough, let’s say.”
(L-r) Phil Robertson, driver of Red Bull Italy SailGP Team, Taylor Canfield, driver of United States SailGP Team, Sebastien Schneiter, driver of Explora Journeys Swiss SailGP Team, Martine Grael, driver of Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team, Liv Mackay, strategist of Black Foils SailGP Team, Kahena Kunze, strategist of ROCKWOOL Racing SailGP Team, Giles Scott, driver of NORTHSTAR SailGP Team, Hannah Mills, strategist of Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, Anna Barth, strategist of Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank, Julia Gross, strategist of Artemis SailGP Team, Tom Slingsby, driver of BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team, and Manon Audinet, strategist of DS Automobiles SailGP Team France. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
Having finished second at both of those same events (New York, Portsmouth) Sweden’s Artemis Racing will be pushing for their first event in Sassnitz. Driver Nathan Outteridge said, “This year has been a really good year for us. We started as a brand-new team and, at the start of the season, we were getting some good results but never really converting them into podiums. Now we’re starting to find a little bit of form, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”
Day 1 – France Set New SailGP Speed Record on Wild Opening Day in Sassnitz
Six races, five different winners and a new speed record: the fastest racecourse in the world lived up to the name on opening day of the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix. Three-time Rolex SailGP Champions Australia lead Group B into Day 2 with 10 points on the event leaderboard, as trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand top the Group A standings with 12 points.
Photo: Jason Ludlow for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
DS Automobiles SailGP Team France hit 107.63 km/h in the final race, obliterating the all-time SailGP record of 103.93 km/h set by Denmark’s ROCKWOOL Racing in the same location last year. ROCKWOOL Racing themselves went past their own mark at 106.79 km/h in the same race, before losing control in a high-speed nosedive. Los Gallos of Spain clocked 106.55 km/h.
DS Automobiles Team France driver, Quetin Delapierre, said: “I was definitely on the edge and it was quite scary on that last bear-away. I guess that’s where we broke the record. It was quite a slow bear-away, so we were going really fast. I was just focusing on not putting too much pressure on Jason’s foil so he could stay on the foil. At this speed, the first boundary comes up very quickly.”
Battling it out at speeds upwards of 40km/h of Baltic breeze, F50s were configured with the smallest 18-meter wingsail, high-speed rudders and boards. Teams competed in two groups: Sweden, Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany and Great Britain together in Group B, alongside Spain, Switzerland, New Zealand, France, Denmark, Italy and Brazil in Group A.
Opening day (race B1) got off to a flying start, as the Bonds Flying Roos led the sprint to mark one, building a significant lead in a masterful display of boathandling. A rare wobble on leg five looked like it might open the door for NorthStar, but the Australians held them off to win as Artemis crossed the line in third.
Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
Group A’s Sassnitz opener (race 2) went the way of the Black Foils, as Peter Burling took control at the second gate and never gave it back – crossing the line first ahead of Explora Journeys Swiss SailGP Team in second and Red Bull Italy in third.
Black Foils driver, Peter Burling, said: “Yeah, it was a super-fun day of racing. It was definitely super shifty, with the little rain squalls coming through, and I think the group did an amazing job starting the day strong, chipping away and getting some good results on the board.”
The Australians controlled the start once more in race 3 (B2), leading at mark one to stretch away with a 24-second lead to claim their second consecutive race win. Emirates GBR came back from fifth to take second, followed by Artemis in third.
BONDS Flying Roos’ Tom Slingsby said: “It felt super easy in the first two races. You get a good start, you’re out in front and you’re just sailing around by yourself. It felt great. Then the last race was just a battle. Everyone’s attacking you and everyone just slows each other up if you get caught in the pack, and that’s what happened to us. So, two good ones and a shocker.”
DS Automobiles Team France led at mark one in race 4 (A2), while the Black Foils picked up an early boundary penalty. France held the lead at gate three with the Kiwis closing in – battling throughout to finish first and second, respectively, as Denmark crossed the line in third.
In their third and final fleet race of the day (race 5), Germany took the lead and eventually the win – much to the delight of the sold-out Sassnitz crowd. Northstar finished second, as Artemis surged from sixth to third at the final mark – their third podium finish in as many races.
Driver Erik Kosegarten-Heil said, “It was fantastic to win one race in front of the home crowd. We had a good start and we didn’t have the other races before that. Now we are back in the game. It will be a tough second day of racing for us, but everything is still in it.”
The day’s headline arrived in the finale (race 6), as DS Team France shattered the Rolex SailGP Championship’s speed record: a blistering 107.63 km/h.
ROCKWOOL Racing suffered a heavy nosedive that dropped them from second to seventh, as Los Gallos fought their way back from a boundary penalty to overtake France – claiming their race win and keeping their Final hopes alive for tomorrow.
Day 2 – Bonds Flying Roos Stretch Championship Lead With Fifth Win of 2026 Season
Tom Slingsby’s Bonds Flying Roos ended a two-event wait for a Final with a flawless win on the Baltic Sea, as NorthStar took second and Los Gallos third. Australia moved 14 points clear at the top of the 2026 Rolex SailGP Championship standings.
Photo: Andrew Baker for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand’s made their first final appearance of 2026, finishing fourth after a frustrating final-whistle penalty to driver Peter Burling. Despite missing out on the final, Sweden’s Artemis Racing moved into the top three overall after a standout weekend in Sassnitz.
Championship Sunday looked very different from the top-speeds of day 1 – with heavy rain, and gusty, patchy breezes of 40 km/h. No one read the conditions better than the home team, who fought their way through the fleet to steal a commanding win in race 4 – finishing 600 meters ahead of NorthStar in second.
Driver for the Germany SailGP Team presented by Deutsche Bank, Erik Kosegarten-Heil said, “It was great. We had, I would say, not a very lucky start, but we saw the breeze coming, and we were lucky that everyone on the other side was completely falling off the foils. So we had a kind of easy race, just staying on the foils, which was a nice moment for us and for the home crowd.
The Kiwis sailed away with the race 4 win in Group A, holding off Spain and France to claim their second win in four races and secure their spot in the event final.
With the top four teams in Group B separated by just a single point heading into their final fleet race, a three-way cross between Australia, Canada and Sweden caused a major reshuffling on leg three. NorthStar emerged with the lead as the Bonds Flyings dropped to second and Artemis fared the worst, eventually crossing the line in fifth – ending their final run.
“It was a bit of a frustrating day for us,” said driver Nathan Outteridge. “We got ourselves into some pretty good spots around the front, but then managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in that last race. I thought we were in really good shape, and we were still in the hunt for the Final at that point, but we went for a split on the upwind, we both went right, and we lost a few spots.”
“It was fantastic racing in that group today. If every weekend could be like that, racing in conditions like that where every race is super tight, it would be awesome.”
In Group B’s final qualifying fleet race, Los Gallos needed to come out firing and Diego Botín delivered, nailing the start to gain the lead at mark one. A dramatic nosedive on leg 5 spelled the end of the weekend for DS Automobiles Team France as Spain ran away with the win ahead of ROCKWOOL Denmark in second and Red Bull Italy in third.
Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
With a formidable line-up of four Olympic champion drivers, the event final was defined by dropping breeze and the deteriorating conditions. The Bonds Flying Roos made the start count, rounding mark one clear of NorthStar and New Zealand, as Los Gallos rounded last.
Diego Botín’s crew again worked their way forward, passing the Black Foils at gate four to take second, but the Australians were out of reach. Tom Slingsby’s team had built a commanding lead by leg five and held it to the line for a fifth event win of the 2026 Season.
Photo: Benjamin Rosewall for SailGP. Handout image supplied by SailGP
“We definitely had to work for it, but that Final just came out firing,” said Slingsby. “There was massive déjà vu heading into it when the wind started shutting down – in race one we went from first to last, and then in the Final the wind started shutting down again. But we learned a lot of lessons in that first race about how to get the boat boiling and find the breeze quickly, and we managed to stay boiling all the way around the track.”
For the rest the finish was decided at a walking pace: as the Black Foils, NorthStar and Los Gallos – all off their foils – closed on the line together. New Zealand were issued a deciding penalty for failing to keep clear of Los Gallos. NorthStar drifted through to take second, as Spain completed the podium in third.
New Zealand finished fourth – missing out on their first bonus prize winnings of the season so far. Driver Peter Burling reflected, “When your worst race of the event is the last one, it definitely hurts.”
“I think the team took another step up this weekend,” continued Burling. “We performed really well in the qualifying series and got ourselves into the Final. In that last race we were down in the rain with quite a few issues on board. I thought we did a really good job of the first part of it, keeping the boat on the foils and making ourselves opportunities to get back to the front of that group, but we couldn’t quite make it. That’s the last two events now where we’ve gone out on a negative note, which is always frustrating, but we know that if we keep pushing hard and working through the processes, we’ll be right in it.”
It was a weekend to forget for reigning champions Emirates GBR, who finished ninth overall. Dylan Fletcher’s team are level on points with the U.S. SailGP Team, now in fourth in the Rolex SailGP Championship – and 30 points adrift of the Bonds Flying Roos.
With nine events down and just four remaining, the question is clear: can anyone catch the Bonds Flying Roos? “Momentum’s a hell of a thing,” said Slingsby. “You go up and down throughout the year, and once you get on a down slope you wonder where it’s going to stop. We’re stoked to be going into three events back to back to back with a lot of momentum.”
SailGP returns next month, with the inaugural Spain Sail Grand Prix | Valencia, September 5-6, 2026. Limited tickets remain – find out more at SailGP.com/Valencia.
