SailGP - The Cats That Fairly Fly - In Freo This Summer!

What a coup! SailGP, the global Rolex Sail Grand Prix Championship will find its way to Bathers Beach, Fremantle in January 2026.

Event organisers have just released a preview of the 2026 season calendar, with Perth and Freo as the first stop in the 2026 11- month competition.

Courtesy SailGP

SailGP is one of the world’s most fast-paced and prestigious sailing events, featuring 50-foot one-design catamarans raced at mind blowing speeds of over 100 kilometres per hour in close proximity to the shoreline.

Teams from 12 nations race these high-performance F50 foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grand prix around the world. The reigning champion is Diego Botin’s Spain SailGP Team, which won the 2023-24 SailGP championship.

The next race in the current season is in New York USA, on 8-9 June 2025.

The competition began in 2018 and events now take place in major cities around the world and in January 2026, Freo – once home to the America’s Cup event – will be added to the list – woohoo!

This will be a fabulous opportunity to witness this world-class, mind-blowing, adrenaline-fuelled boat racing, up close. Fremantle is known around the world as a brilliant sailing destination and sailing is a sport that’s close to the hearts of many roundabout our Port city.

The event will attract thousands of international tourists to WA and will generate enormous global media coverage, showcasing Freo and Perth. Credit goes to Tourism WA for attracting the event to Freo and to our local legends from America’s Cup days, John Longley and Skip Lissiman, who’ve been lobbying for Fremantle’s inclusion through the Warren Jones Foundation.

If the huge crowds that flocked to Sydney Harbour earlier this year for SailGP is anything to go by, then we are in for a fabulous time at Manjaree/Bathers Beach and the South Mole, next January.

Courtesy SailGP

The 2025 SailGP/Sydney attracted a record 21.1 million viewers worldwide, and SailGP boasts more than four million followers on socials.

The event will run over a two-day weekend in January and the following two years, 2027 and 2028 as part of a three-year deal. There will be a minimum of three 15-minute fleet races on the first day and, on the second day, two fleet races and a match race final between the three leading teams.

Collisions are discouraged. Boats that collide during an event accumulate contact and damage points, which result in point deductions. Each boat has a driver (or helm), who steers the boat; a flight controller, whose primary responsibility is to keep the boat airborne as much as possible; a wing trimmer, who controls the wing’s shape for optimum speed; grinders operate the winch handles to trim the wing sheet; and a tactician (strategist) who monitors the wind, assists with manoeuvres and watches the fleet.

Prize money across the 2026 SailGP Championship amounts to USD $12.8 million!

Fremantle Ports CEO Jodie Ransom said ‘the port was very excited to play its role in supporting such a high-profile international sporting event, with the Inner Harbour and Victoria Quay set to facilitate key parts of the event operations.’

There will be purpose-built grandstands on South Mole with a range of ticketed options on land and sea. SailGP will announce the dates in due course.

Watch this space for more information or visit SailGP here.

* By Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey our Shipping and Sailing Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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