CIC Med Channel Race 2026 - A second edition to reinforce Class40 ambition in the Mediterranean

CIC Med Channel Race 2025 © Jean-Marie Liot / CIC Med Channel Race 2025

Launched in January 2025, the first edition of the CIC MED CHANNEL RACE set sail from Marseille on April 27. Based on the concept of its big sister in Normandy, a 1,000-mile course between Marseille, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands was offered to Class40 skippers on the Mediterranean circuit.

12 crews took part in an event which saw the victory of the Franco-Italian duo Ian Lipinski / Alberto Bona on their CREDIT MUTUEL in 4 days 23 hours and 21', after a neck-and-neck battle with the Mediterranean skipper Mikaël Mergui accompanied by Keni Piperol on CENTRAKOR; 53' separated them only at the finish. The founding partners, the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence and the CIC, title partner, with the support of the CNTL club, carried this new ambition on an innovative concept of offshore racing in the Mediterranean. FR3 MEDITERRANÉE and the La PROVENCE group echoed this first edition with extensive coverage on their spaces. Continuing the momentum of the 2025 race, the 2026 edition will feature the same concept from April 29 to May 10, starting on Sunday, May 3 and finishing at the legendary Mucem dock.

A look back at a strong first edition

The CIC MED CHANNEL RACE 2025 adopted the fundamentals of its Normandy predecessor: an exclusive, annual, double-handed Class40 event, a demanding 1,000-nautical-mile (1,852 km) course that takes the skippers from Marseille for a week of racing, departing from the Var Islands, to Calvi in Corsica, and Sardinia, with a stopover around the island of Palma de Mallorca before returning to Marseille; a mix of coastal and offshore races, and, as the initial edition demonstrated, with weather scenarios that can vary greatly. The Mediterranean showed all its charms in 2025 on this magnificent course and all its difficulties, between calms and sudden gusts of wind. Many still remember this small island in the Maddalena archipelago in Sardinia - the Spargi Island - a mark of course to tack and with difficulty for some faced with calms. Conversely, the descent towards the Balearic Islands gave rise to downwind slides in the breeze flirting with 20 knots of speed. And the media success was there: a live FR3 MEDITERRANÉE departure of one hour at the start, a daily report broadcast on all FR3 Côte d'Azur, Corsica and Languedoc-Roussillon stations for 12 days, strong involvement of the regional press leader La PROVENCE, and nearly half a million views on social networks in a few days of racing.

The Class40 seeks development in the Mediterranean

It's worth remembering that the Class40 is currently one of the two major series of monohull offshore racing yachts nationally and internationally (along with the 60-footers in the Vendée Globe). In two weeks, 42 Class40s will set sail in Le Havre for the Transat Café l'Or, and at the same time, the series is conducting an eight-month, six-leg Class40 round-the-world race, the GLOBE40. While offshore racing fleets traditionally originate from Brittany and the English Channel, the Mediterranean also offers a superb playground and development ground, with all the values it embodies in major ocean races: sharing with the public, resilience in competitions, and sustainable development (for which the Class40 is a pioneer). The CIC MED CHANNEL RACE also aims to integrate into the Class40 circuit alongside other Mediterranean events such as the PAPREC 600 SAINT TROPEZ, the PORQUEROLLE'S RACE, and the MASSILIA CUP OFFSHORE. The door is also wide open to welcome crews from other Mediterranean countries, such as Italy, with its active Class40 fleet and very serious competitors, and Spain. The goal is also to attract sailors from major cruiser-racing events and the numerous handicap races in the area, seeking new sporting thrills, and to inspire them to make the leap to the Class40.

The scope of the second edition: strengthen, develop, and share

The CIC MED CHANNEL RACE will be hosted at the iconic Mucem basin and the J4 esplanade, facing the sea and in this highly frequented public venue. If logistical constraints in 2025 prevented the village from remaining open beyond the departure phase, this will not be the case in 2026. A meeting place for the public and a reception area for skippers and partners will be open from Wednesday, April 29th (Friday, May 1st for the general public) until the departure on Sunday, May 3rd in the southern harbor of Marseille; and during the return phase on Saturday, May 9th and Sunday, May 10th for the awards ceremony. 250 children were welcomed this year; the plan is to share the skippers' lives and introduce even more schoolchildren and associations to ocean racing, in collaboration with the Metropolis and the City of Marseille. Major events are also being considered. The corporate dimension will also be developed, whether for reception events or monitoring the departure at sea.

Quotes

Patrice Cauvet, Managing Director of CIC Lyonnaise de Banque: "It is a great pleasure to welcome the CIC MED CHANNEL RACE to our region for the second time, this unique sailing race with the Mediterranean as its playground. For CIC Lyonnaise de Banque, this is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate and strengthen our commitment to our region, Marseille, and to promote sporting and maritime excellence. The CIC MED CHANNEL RACE is an event that embodies the values of self-improvement, solidarity, and commitment, so dear to sailing and sport in general."

Manfred Ramspacher, manager of SIRIUS EVENEMENTS: "This year in 2025 in a very short time - 3 months - we were able, thanks to the trust of the Metropole and the CIC, to launch a completely new event with the solid foundations of 15 years of experience in Normandy. It was a lot of work but in the end a beautiful story was put together in this setting of Marseille that I found with great pleasure. Today the whole team is eagerly awaiting this second edition to consolidate the whole project and meet again in this magical setting of the Mucem and the southern harbor. For the competitors, Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearics will once again be on the program, a beautiful alchemy of competition and travel."

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