Construction has begun on Southsea seafront on huge stands for the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix which takes place in Portsmouth on 25-26 July.
This will be a full 13 team event and the British team are now tied for second overall on the Circuit with Spain’s Los Gallos, behind overall leader Tom Slingsby and the Bonds Flying Roos.
Last year Peter Burling and the New Zealand Black Foils clinched the Portsmouth Sail Grand Prix, with Ben Ainslie’s British team second.
This season, as reigning SailGP champions, Ainslie’s Emirates GBR Team will arrive for the Portsmouth Sail Grand Prix with expectation, scrutiny and unfinished business.
Emirates GBR are no longer the hunters – they’re the reigning champions everyone wants to beat. This will be a full 13 team event and the British team are now tied for second overall on the 2026 Circuit with Spain’s Los Gallos, behind Tom Slingsby and the Bonds Flying Roos.
The title defence hasn’t followed the smooth trajectory Emirates GBR would have hoped for. Frustrating weekends in Rio de Janeiro and Halifax have left the team chasing the front-runners at the halfway point of the season, but Fletcher insists the bigger picture hasn’t changed.
“We’re not happy with where we are,” he says. “But we also feel like we’ve had some amazing results and we’ve really been chipping away.”
This season has seen some dramatic racing incidents, with the expanded team numbers and small racing circuits leading to several collisions and some crew injuries. The New Zealand Black Foils only returned to the circuit for the Canada event in June after the Auckland crash in early February wrote-off their hull.
Brazil, Spain, Italy and the USA have also suffered incidents. SailGP CEO Russell Coutts recently took to social media to accuse journalists of attempting to discredit SailGP in favour of the America’s Cup, and defended the league’s reaching starts.
The America’s Cup has reacted to the remarkable success of the SailGP rolling-circuit format with changes to future Cup series to make it less exclusive, more frequent and easier for new teams to get involved. As first mover with its accessible format SailGP looks to have the advantage.
Ben Ainslie is already across both events with his GB1 America’s Cup team running alongside the Emirates GBR SailGP Team, with many crew members involved in both teams.
The 2026 Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix takes place in Portsmouth on July 25-26, with entertainment from pop sensations Jess Glynne and Craig David.
The target for the teams is SailGP’s winner-takes-all Grand Final that features the top three teams at the end of the season.