Matisse Pacaud and Lucie de Gennes claimed the 470 Massilia Regatta title in front of their home crowd, holding off a fleet stacked with Olympic and world championship talent across three days of tight racing in Marseille.
Twenty crews lined up for eight races on Mediterranean waters that carry real weight for the class. Marseille, after all, was the Olympic sailing venue for the Paris 2024 Games, giving the fleet a world-class course with genuine Olympic pedigree, and a chance to measure themselves against it without the pressure of a Games campaign.
Pacaud and de Gennes finished on 22 points. Consistency was their weapon, the French pair holding their nerve across the three days to see off the chasing pack.
Second went to Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona, bronze medallists at the 2026 470 World Championship. They edged out Sweden's Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Lindner, Olympic medallists from Paris 2024, by just a single point.
That battle for minor placings summed up the whole regatta, decided by the finest of margins between sailors who have already proven themselves on the biggest stages.
A healthy contingent of young and developing crews lined up alongside the Olympic medallists and world championship podium finishers, gaining racing experience that simply cannot be replicated elsewhere. Events like Massilia give emerging sailors a genuine look at what it takes to compete at the top, racing shoulder to shoulder with the sport's established names rather than watching from the sidelines.
Between the Olympic medallists, the world championship contenders and the next wave coming through, the Massilia Regatta once again showcased the depth of the international 470 fleet on one of sailing's most storied stretches of water.
