Switzerland has its first ever J/70 SAILING Champions League champion. Club Nautique de Versoix fought through a nail-biting Final Four on Kiel's inner fjord to claim the 2026 title.
It capped the 13th season of the keelboat league format, raced in matched one-design J/70s, and this one went down to the wire. Early racing threw up tricky, shifting breeze funnelling between the cruise ships moored in Kiel's harbour basin, conditions that rewarded light-wind specialists able to keep their boats moving through the lulls.
No one crew had things their own way. France's APCC Nantes looked sharp early before a string of errors dropped them back. By halfway, Germany's Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, Finland's Åländska Segelsällskapet and Norway's Kongelig Norsk Seilforening were locked together on 16 points apiece.
CN Versoix took the overall qualifying lead at the end of day two, level on points with Norway's Tønsberg Seilforening heading into Sunday. From there, the scrap for the four Final Four berths got tighter still. CN Versoix held onto top spot, while NRV, APCC Nantes and KNS all finished qualifying on exactly 30 points, a genuine three-way tie for the remaining places. Switzerland's Segelclub Stäfa and Poland's HRM Racing missed out by a single point, on 31.
Kiel turned on uncharacteristically warm, sunny weather for the Final Four showdown. First to two race wins would take the trophy. Victor Casas's CN Versoix carried a bonus win into the decider as qualifying winners, but it counted for little once racing began.
Erik Hveding's KNS, 2015 champions, won race one. Mats Schonebeck's NRV, champions in 2022, answered with a smart upwind call to take race two. That left all three contenders level, a single win apart, with everything on the line.
CN Versoix held their nerve in the decider. Skipper Victor Casas, with Romuald Hauser, Romain Defferrard and Benjamin Delaloye aboard, led from the front to take the race and the title. KNS, with Hveding, Anders Klippenberg, Marie Lothe and Martin Halseide, took silver. NRV were third, APCC Nantes fourth.
"We have seen incredibly close and high-class sailing throughout this entire season," said Anke Nowak, CEO of the SAILING Champions League. "Congratulations to Club Nautique de Versoix. They delivered an outstanding performance under immense pressure and truly deserve to take the title to Switzerland for the first time."
As reigning champions, CN Versoix have already booked a wildcard for 2027, the first confirmed finalist for next season.