Tønsberg Seilforening has claimed the 2026 Norwegian J/70 Sailing League season title, but it took a tiebreaker and a genuinely chaotic finale in Stavanger to settle it.
The last regatta of the season was sailed in classic Stavanger conditions: rain, sun, hail and plenty of wind, all in the same weekend. Stavanger Sailing Club hosted, with RC/PRO manager Nilsson getting through eighteen races despite the often fresh breeze.
On the water in Stavanger, it was the Moss Seilforening team of Mathis Mollatt, Erik Snerlebakken, Vidar Emanuelsen Seju and Kim-Eigard Hines who took the regatta win on 17 points. Soon Seilforening, sailing with Jonas Sorlie, Erik Hot Engebakken, Erik Woo Noren and Hanne Birkeland, were second on 21 points. NTNUI Seiling, skippered by August Hanevik with Andreas Hjellestad Hella, Conrad Muller and Lasse Dickhausen, rounded out the podium on 22.
Fourth and fifth were split by tiebreaker, both teams tied on 23 points. Stavanger Seilforening took fourth, Tønsberg Seilforening fifth.
But the regatta result wasn't the main story.
The 2026 season ran across four regattas, in Moss, Åsgårdstrand, Arendal and the Stavanger finale. Going in, Tønsberg and Stavanger were locked on 13 points apiece for the overall series lead. It was, as the fleet well knew, winner-takes-all between the two.
What followed was almost farcical in its symmetry. Stavanger's boat, sailed by Olai Hagland, Markus Hagen, Gabriel Scherer and Christian Horn Moller, beat Tønsberg's crew of Jostein Fredrick Aker, Jacob Andresen, Magnus Behrens and Jørgen Smith-Meyer in the regatta itself, finishing fourth to Tønsberg's fifth. That head-to-head came down to the very last race, in which the two teams tied yet again.
So the season title turned on the tiebreaker. Tønsberg's regatta scoreline of 1-1-6-5 beat out Stavanger's 4-3-2-4, and the overall crown went to Tønsberg.
Soon Seilforening, skippered by Jonas Sorlie, took the season bronze on a 6-11-1-2 card for 20 points.