Dylan Fletcher is riding high after Emirates GBR victory at the Rolex SailGP Championship’s 2026 Season opener in Perth.
Coming after they were crowned Rolex SailGP 2025 Season Champions in Abu Dhabi last November, and the addition of Stuart Bithell as Wing Trimmer, there was bound to be pressure to maintain that high level of performance into the new 2026 season.
And they delivered in spades . . . Next up is the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Auckland on 14 and 15 February, the second of 13 SailGP events this season.
For Dylan this will be a busy year as he will combine the SailGP circuit with the 38th America’s Cup (AC38), following his confirmation of a second America’s Cup stint as co-helm for Sir Ben Ainslie’s British America’s Cup Team ‘GB1’ in the 38th America’s Cup Match in Naples in 2027.
In the 37th America’s Cup Match in Barcelona Fletcher was co-helm with Ainslie when they become the first British team to win the America’s Cup Challenger Series, and the first in 60 years to reach the actual America’s Cup Match.
The AC38 Cup Match is not until July 2027, but GB1, the rebuilt AC75 that the British Team will use for that event, will be launched later this year and will then undergo a lot of on-water testing and development.
Plus a number of preliminary events in the smaller AC40 yachts, with the precise programme for the AC40 and AC75 events yet to be confirmed.
At AC37 the British suffered a 7-2 defeat to the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand.
They now have to find new speed from the same hull via new foil and rig developments, not only to nullify the existing Kiwi advantage, but also the undoubted improvements they will bring to Naples in 2027.
All of this means that Dylan and the GB1 team will be involved in a lot of America’s Cup sailing in addition to their Rolex SailGP Championship circuit commitments.
And such is the rapid take-up of the SailGP Championship and its world-wide circuit that Fletcher will be spending a lot of time traveling to SailGP events, as well as bringing the revamped AC75 up to a competitive level, in a very short development window.
The British America’s Cup team is not the only one that has this split in crew concentration. How they handle it and how the inevitable growing pressure effects their performance on the water, could be a key factor in making Naples 2027 the success the Brits have waited so long for.
