Two third places bookend the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix, on a weekend that swung from the fastest speed in SailGP history to a wet, dying Sunday breeze.
Sassnitz, Germany, 23 August 2026 – The ninth event of the Rolex SailGP Championship Season 6 brought the F50 fleet back to Sassnitz, on the island of Rügen, and the ROCKWOOL Germany Sail Grand Prix served up a genuine rollercoaster for the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team. Strong, shifting winds and wildly changeable conditions tested every crew across two demanding days on the water.
A year on from its debut, Sassnitz confirmed its billing as one of the calendar’s most challenging and thrilling stops. With the F50s tearing along just metres from the shore in front of sold-out grandstands, the crowd was treated to a high-speed spectacle – and, as it turned out, the fastest racing SailGP has ever seen.
For the Italian squad, the work began well before the racing, with two intensive training sessions dedicated to boat development and testing different configurations. It also marked a milestone, as Jana Germani took the helm of the Italian F50 for the first time, with Maëlle Frascari alongside as strategist.
Saturday brought the big breeze, with offshore winds of 16 to 22 knots (30-40 kph), pressure and direction shifting constantly, and simply staying on the foils a challenge in itself. The Italians met it head-on, opening with a third place before a sixth and a fifth in the day’s remaining races.
“The adrenaline is right up there! That was a wicked little day,” said driver Phil Robertson. “A lot of fun sailing these boats on flat water. It was really breezy, so super high speed and somewhat in control for most of it. When it’s top end conditions, you’re just fighting the boat to get around the course safely and fast at the same time. Then you throw in the shifting breeze, and it gets pretty tough. But we had a great day. We made huge progress.”
The day’s headline number belonged to France. Quentin Delapierre drove DS Automobiles SailGP Team France to a record-shattering 107.63 kph, eclipsing the 103.93 kph ROCKWOOL Racing had set at this very venue last season.
“It was the last bearaway of the day and it was quite violent,” said Delapierre. “We were on the point of cavitation, so I tried to do a super-soft bearaway … When you bear away gently like that, the boat goes much faster.”
Sunday told a different story, with conditions growing even more unstable.
“We had these big rain clouds coming through and pouring on the course, and obviously, that plays with the wind a lot, the direction and the pressure,” said Robertson.
The Italian crew had ground to make up after a seventh in Sunday’s opening race, but they dug in to take a third in the final race of the weekend, a second podium to bookend the event. Two third places point to real pace, but a couple of costly races left Italy 12th in Sassnitz and 11th in the season standings. Australia’s Flying Roos took the Sassnitz title, their fifth event win of the season.
“We’ve made some huge steps forward in terms of how we’re sailing the boat, how we’re manoeuvring the boat,” added Robertson. “We talk about it in levels, and we feel like our level one is now signed off and we can start looking at all the level two manoeuvres.”
“Today was epic racing – right on the top end, very dynamic and very shifty,” said CEO Jimmy Spithill after racing on Saturday. “I thought our speed and boat handling made a good step, but we struggled to get off the start line. We need to take a step in our starting if we want to be on the podium at the end of the weekend.”
In less than two weeks, the 13 F50s head to Valencia on 5-6 September for the tenth event of the season, marking the first time the Spanish city has hosted a Sail Grand Prix.
“We still have a lot to work on, particularly our starts, and we need to put a lot of focus into that to make sure we get off the line in good shape,” said Robertson. “We’re confident that we can put everything together and take another step forward in Valencia.”
Red Bull Italy SailGP Team
Red Bull Italy SailGP Team represents a new generation of high-performance sailing: fast, fearless, and forward-looking. Making its debut in the 2024–25 SailGP season, the team aims to push boundaries, inspire, and redefine the sport by uniting Italy’s finest sailing talent with international expertise. At the helm is Phil Roberson, SailGP Champion and one of the sport’s most dynamic athletes. Alongside him, sailing legend Jimmy Spithill leads as CEO and co-owner, bringing unmatched experience and vision. The ownership group, led by Assia Grazioli Venier and Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, combines entrepreneurial innovation and global perspective in a bold new chapter for Italian sailing
SailGP
SailGP is widely regarded as the most thrilling racing on water, redefining the boundaries of modern sailing. The Rolex SailGP Championship is a global annual league that visits iconic cities around the world. Twelve national teams – featuring some of the best athletes in the sport – compete on identical 50-foot foiling catamarans capable of exceeding 100 km/h and literally sailing faster than the wind.
SailGP combines sport and entertainment through its “stadium racing” format, with courses set close to shore to deliver a unique, high-adrenaline experience just meters from the action.
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