J/70 World Championship: The first female world champion - Laura Grondin wins gold
The decision was only made on the last day: 71 crews from 16 countries had lined up in the Argentinian world championship area of Buenos Aires to determine their champions. Laura Grondin had already said at the beginning of the week in an interview with the class association: "I'm here to win. Someone once asked me if my goal was to beat the other women. I said: 'I want to beat them all! That's exactly how it is."
Ten races, ten different winners
But it was not easy. Proof of the high standard of the competition was provided by the ten races, which were won by a different team each time. Not one team managed more than one race win. A look at the crew lists was also promising: Olympic medallists, Olympic participants, former J/70 world champions, America's Cup legends, SailGP athletes, TP52 champions and a whole host of strong Corinthian players made up the strong and very diverse fleet.
The qualified teams travelled from Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Chile, China, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay and the United States. With Kai-Uwe Hollweg (SKWB), Magnus Simon, Tom Heinrich and Albert Gerstmair, there was also an ambitious German quartet at the start, but they had to settle for 44th place in the final ranking at this summit meeting.
Laura Grondin competed for the title with her tactician and SailGP helmsman Taylor Canfield, the now successful Australian title defender Edward Hackney, coach Robby Bisi and husband Rick Grondin. She introduced each crew member in detail at the victory ceremony and thanked Taylor Canfield "for believing in me for five years and teaching me everything".
Taylor Canfield: Last in the SailGP, first in the J/70 World Championship
Canfield was therefore much more successful as J/70 coach than he was as helmsman of the US team in this not entirely happy SailGP season. After a series of crahes and setbacks, the Americans will certainly finish the season in last place and possibly even with minus points. They still have to get rid of four of them at the finale in Abu Dhabi at the end of November to get out of the red.
The World Championship title won by Taylor Canfield last weekend may have been just the thing to soothe his wounds. The J/70 World Championship was only decided in the final race. TP52 world champion Guille Parada, who had steered the British "Gladiator" to world championship victory and was responsible for the tactics on the TP52 steered by owner Tony Langley himself this year, and his Argentinian team were unable to catapult past Laura Grondin, who finished fourth.
Olympic stars Lijia Xu and Giulia Conti in J/70 action
With 88 net points, Laura Grondin and her crew on "Dark Energy" beat the Parada team on "Nildo" (92 points). World Championship bronze went to the Brazilians around Bruno Bethlem on "Areté" (94 points). Besides Grondin, there weren't many female helmsmen at the start, but there were some very exciting ones: Womens America's Cup winner Giulia Conti sailed Mauro Reversi's Italian team on "Jourve" - the Azzurri sailed to 16th place.
Two-time Olympic medallist Lijia Xu, who was born in Shanghai, finished 59th with her team. 38-year-old 2012 Olympic champion in the Laser Radial studied journalism and is also a regular commentator at major sailing events.
Two-time J/70 world champion Peter Duncan also went on the attack again before Buenos Aires, but this year he was unable to finish higher than tenth in the first J/70 World Championship to be held in South America with a top crew. Click here for the results of the J/70 World Championship 2025.
J/70 world champion hopes for more women
A delighted Laura Grondin said after the final: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be the first woman to win this title. And I hope that many more will follow. I hope that this is just the beginning. There were five female helmsmen at this event, which is remarkable - but we still need more."
To all the women who competed on a boat: I take my hat off to you. Keep up the good work!" Laura Grondin
The new world champions in the Corinthian division from Chile provided a particularly beautiful family story at this J/70 World Championship: Andrés Ducasse sailed with his four sons to the Corinthian World Championship crown in 21st place. The fifth son coached. "As the father of these children, I am grateful to God, grateful for sailing and grateful to have taught my children to sail and to have seen them become such excellent sailors. Above all, I thank my sons for the opportunity to compete alongside them," said the proud father Ducasse. "We have competed in five world championships and many South American championships, and this one was the best organised of them all."
