October 8, 2025
2 minutes reading time
Spain top of the pack in 49er & 49erFX, GBR leads Nacra 17
A really good opening day to the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championship, with light to medium sea breeze and dusk-to-dawn sunshine across the bay of Cagliari. Spain is ahead in both the men’s and women’s skiffs and Great Britain takes the early lead in the Nacra 17 fleet.
49er Men: Olympic Champions back in at the top
Fresh off a weekend of SailGP racing in Cadiz, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel (ESP) jetted across the Mediterranean into Cagliari and straight into day one of the 49er Worlds. Scores of 2,1,7 in Yellow Group of Qualifying have launched the reigning Olympic Champions right to the top of the 84-boat leaderboard.
Sharing equal points but second on tie-break are the reigning World Champions Erwan Fischer and Clement Pequin (FRA) with scores of 4,5,1 from Red Group.
Maybe it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to see these big hitters so fast out of the gate, but they haven’t done a lot of time in the boat since Paris 2024. But a look down the top 10 of the 49ers after day one points to past championship-winning experience being pretty important.
Here are some other big names near the front:
- 4th. Three-time World Champions Bart Lambriex and Floris van der Werken (NED)
- 5th. Junior World Champion Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger (GER)
- 6th. Olympic silver medallists Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie (NZL)
- 7th Junior World Champion Jack Ferguson and Jack Hildebrand (AUS)
- 8th Junior World Champion Mikolaj Staniul and Jakub Sztorch (POL)
- 9th Olympic Champion 2008 Jonas Warrer and Mathias Lehm (DEN)
Meanwhile, a stand-out day for Swedish team Marius Westerlind and Olle Aronsson, finishing the day in third place with all these more experienced teams around them. The Swedes got scores of 3,4,5 in Yellow Group and apparently even had the legs on the Spanish Olympic Champions in a straight-line upwind arm wrestle.
49erFX: When the crew becomes the helm
After a long career pulling the ropes at the front of the 49erFX for Tamara Echegoyen, Paola Barcelo has picked up the tiller at the back of the boat and, with new crew Maria Cantero, is leading the Worlds after three opening races. Scores of 5,2,1 in Yellow Group put the Spanish four points clear of French duo Mathilde Lovadina and Lou Berthomieu who hold second place as top performers from the Blue Group. Canadian sisters Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance are in third overall.
Great start for Great Britain in the Nacra 17
John Gimson and Anna Burnet have been fast out of the blocks on day one of the Nacra 17 Worlds in Cagliari, the British team taking a five-point lead at the head of the 40-boat fleet. Just seven months together as a team, but both experienced Olympians in their own right, Sinem Kurtbay and Alican Kaynar won race two and put together a solid day to sit in second place overall, six points clear of the Olympic silver medallists from Argentina, Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco. Local favourites Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei sit in fifth place ahead of fellow Italians Federico Figlia di Granara and Caterina Sedmak.
Text by Andy Rice, event reporter. Images courtesy of Sailing Energy. Read the full story here.