Rolex Swan Cup 2026: A sailing festival with record attendance and perfect conditions

From 13 to 19 September, 170 Swans and a fine selection of Sanlorenzo superyachts the berths in front of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. The fleet ranged from early Sparkman & Stephens designs to the flagship Swan 128. The event thus showcased not only the brand’s sporting breadth, but also six decades of yacht-building history.

The sailing conditions on the Costa Smeralda were once again excellent this year. Whilst on the first two days there was very little wind to fill the yachts’ sails and the race courses had to be shortened, the Mistral on days 3 and 4 provided perfect weather in the La Maddalena archipelago, through which the races were held. Yachts such as the 140-metric-tonne Swan 128 ‘Raijin’ and its sister ship ‘Be Cool’ surfed at over 18 knots along the narrow, rock-strewn 35-nautical-mile coastal course. An impressive sight!

Even before the first regatta got underway on Wednesday, the so-called ‘Dance of the Swans’ provided the picture of the week: The entire fleet sailed together around Isola dei Monaci. Once out on the water, separate programmes were then followed for the measured Swan classes and the ClubSwan one-designs.

Coastal race to round off the season, mark-to-mark course for the one-designs

On Saturday, the final day, a north-easterly wind set in under clear skies, increasing from eight to twelve knots. The rating classes sailed a coastal course from the Gulf of Arzachena along the eastern side of Caprera and past the Isola dei Monaci. The route took them via the Passo delle Bisce to the Secca di Tre Monti and back to the finish line off Porto Cervo.

Meanwhile, the ClubSwan one-designs sailed two up-and-down races between Isola delle Bisce and Isola dei Monaci. The parallel racing of the different fleets was typical of this edition of the Rolex Swan Cup: on the coastal course, large Swan models crossed paths with the compact one-design fleets as they rounded the buoys. The official ORC results document the final round of the measured classes.

Freya tops the Maxi rankings

In the Maxi class, the Swan 90 “Freya” staged a remarkable turnaround. After finishing sixth in the opening race, she went on to win the next three races – including the final race ahead of “Spiip” – and thus secured victory in his class.

In several other categories, too, consistency or a strong finish proved decisive:

Nadir breaks the deadlock in the final race

The closest contest in the one-design classes took place in the ClubSwan 42 class. “Nadir” and “Pez de Abril” were level on points. Even a comparison of their individual results initially failed to break the deadlock: both teams had three first places, two second places and one third place each. It was only “Nadir”’s victory in the final race that tipped the balance.

In the ClubSwan 50 class, Hendrik Brandis’s “Earlybird”, with tactician Francesco “Checco” Bruni, made a clear statement. Five wins from seven races secured overall victory ahead of “Cuordileone” and “Hatari”. Team “42+1” won the ClubSwan 43 class after six consecutive victories, “Cuordileone” the ClubSwan 36. In the ClubSwan 28 class, “Anya Race” clinched the title by just one point ahead of “Black Swan”.

The Rolex Swan Cup remains a sporting competition, but the record turnout in 2026 highlighted, above all, the close bonds within the Swan community. At the closing night, the French sailor Catherine Chabaud the Fabio Gallia Prize. She was honoured for her achievements as the first woman to complete the Vendée Globe and for her commitment to marine conservation.

It has already been confirmed that the biennial regatta is to be held once again in Porto Cervo: the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda has announced that the next Rolex Swan Cup will take place in September 2028. Prior to that, the Nations Trophy is scheduled to take place in Porto Cervo from 2 to 5 June 2027. This means that the Costa Smeralda remains the central meeting place for the various generations of Swan yachts.

Book recommendations

Dream Yachts brings together 18 classic sailing yachts, along with their stories and numerous photographs. This volume is particularly well-suited to the Rolex Swan Cup because of the Legacy fleet: as well as the sporting results, the regatta in Porto Cervo also demonstrated how strongly design, style and the condition of a yacht shape its character over the decades. The book broadens this perspective on the history of great sailing yachts.

Regatta sailing explains the strategy and tactics involved, from preparing for a day of racing through the individual phases of a race to the subsequent analysis. This makes the book a practical complement to the report from Porto Cervo: it is precisely the close finishes in the one-design classes that demonstrate the importance of starts, manoeuvres, an overview of the fleet and consistent analysis.

Which yacht and which class would you most have liked to experience for yourself in this record-breaking fleet off Porto Cervo?