SailGP to return to Auckland in February 2026

SailGP will return to Auckland in February 2026. Photo / SailGP

SailGP will be making waves in Auckland again in 2026.

After being omitted from the first announcement of venues for next season, the league has confirmed it will return to the City of Sails on the weekend of February 14-15 next year.

The event will be the second of 12 on the calendar and is the last on the global foiling league’s initial four-year agreement with New Zealand Major Events to host regattas in New Zealand. The league is now expected to go through a process to explore what is possible in terms of a long-term arrangement in Auckland.

“Auckland was a fabulous venue, and it is a fabulous venue,” SailGP chief executive Sir Russell Coutts told the Herald.

“Our plan is to obviously expand on [this] year and do things even better. Every time you do a new site, you learn things and they’re able to make tweaks.”

Coutts said while the league wasn’t necessarily looking for a multi-year agreement this time around, he believed it would be good for all parties.

“We offered a multi-year agreement, but they wanted a one-year agreement, so it’s fine with us,” Coutts said.

“It allows us flexibility. We’ve certainly got other venues that are eager to have a SailGP event. Of course, we ultimately want to achieve stability, but as we grow, we’re able to do that. If we’re able to do that gradually, that’s absolutely fine with us.”

It will be the second event on the schedule for season six, with the campaign starting in Perth in mid-January and finishing up in Abu Dhabi in late November.

Auckland’s regatta, for which tickets go on sale on October 16, will be sandwiched between the two Australian events, with the other being in Sydney a fortnight after the league’s return to New Zealand.

“It just worked better for each venue,” Coutts explained, rather than hosting back-to-back events in Australia.

“That was venue-driven ... that was their preference for dates. It doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to us, so we were able to fit in with their desire to have the events on those dates.”

Auckland was the penultimate event to be locked in for the 2026 season, with one stop in Europe still to be confirmed.

It will be the first time since the league’s debut season in 2019 that SailGP’s schedule runs inside a calendar year, starting in the Asia-Pacific region in January, moving to the Americas, then into Europe before finishing up in the UAE in November.

The regional groupings not only deliver a more consistent calendar, but also reduce travel distances and improve the league’s operational efficiencies.

“That was one of the objectives we had. If you look at pretty much all of our broadcasters in each of those territories, they’ve all been expressing an interest in developing something like this, where you have these swings for various sections.

“Obviously they cover all of the entire Rolex Championship, [but] having the ability to have an extra focus on their part of the world, wherever that might be, is a good thing as far as the broadcasters are concerned and that’s the plan for 2027 and beyond, too, is a lot of these dates are looking very similar already for 2027.

“A lot of it is about giving partners, giving host venues, giving fans certainty and equally just getting on. There’s going to be more attention for our athletes in 2027 and just getting those calendar dates established soon is important.”

SailGP season six complete schedule

Perth, Australia. January 17-18.

Auckland, New Zealand. February 14-15.

Sydney, Australia. February 28-March 1.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. April 11-12.

Bermuda. May 9-10.

New York, USA. May 30-31.

Halifax, Canada. June 20-21.

Portsmouth, England. July 18-19.

Europe TBC. September or October.

Saint-Tropez, France. September 12-13.

Dubai, UAE. November 21-22.

Abu Dhabi, UAE. November 28-29.

All dates are local time.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.