Antonia & Georgia Lewin-LaFrance to start 2026 racing season on top of 49erFX World rankings

Canadian sailors Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance © Sailing Energy

A total of 16 Canadian sailors will take part in the 2026 Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, March 30 to April 4.

The Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta is the first of five Olympic classes regattas to be held in 2026 as part of the Grand Slam Series, and will therefore be the first major competition of the season for the 15 Canadian Sailing Team members who will be in action.

Amongst them, Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance from Chester, N.S., will kick off a new racing season following a successful year in 2025 which saw them reach the podium in four of the six competitions in which they took part. They won the gold medal at the 49erFX European Championship, in addition to winning bronze at the French Olympic Week and the Kiel Week events as well as at the 49erFX World Championship.

Following these performances, they are currently on top of the World Sailing rankings in 49erFX.

At the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, a total of 62 boats will be in action in the 49erFX competition, including the three medalists and the eight teams that finished in the top 10 at the 2025 49erFX World Championship.

"We're excited to begin the 2026 season and to get back into competition mode," said Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance. "We've put a lot of work in over the past months, and this event is an important step in preparation for the World Championships in May. Our goal is to keep building momentum and to push towards the front of the fleet."

Other Canadian Sailing Team members in action will be:

• 49er: Thomas Staples and William Staples (Beaconsfield, QC)
• Formula Kite (Women): Emily Bugeja (Vancouver, B.C.)
• ILCA 6: Clara Gravely (Toronto, ON), Victoria Coady (Coquitlam, B.C.), Annie Balasubramanian (Toronto, ON) and Elspeth Simms (Halifax, N.S.)
• ILCA 7: Liam Bruce (Oakville, ON), Ryan Anderson (Halifax, N.S.) and James Juhasz (Oakville, ON)
• iQFoil (Men): Valentino Blewett (Whistler, B.C.)
• Nacra 17: Galen Richardson (Toronto, ON) & Madeline Gillis (Halifax, N.S.)

More than 1,100 sailors will be in action at the 2026 Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, including 93 % of the medalists from last year's various World Championships and 52% of the medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the 10 Olympic classes that are scheduled.

The four other regattas that will be part of the Grand Slam Series this year are French Olympic Week (April 18-25), Dutch Water Week (May 30-June 7), Kiel Week (June 20-28) as well as the Long Beach and San Pedro Olympic Classes Regatta (OCR) (July 13-August 8).