The championship stayed open to the final race
Rated X reached the first mark ahead in the deciding race while YoungBlood worked back from a difficult start. Julien’s crew had to recover through the fleet before doing enough to secure the championship, turning the final contest into a genuine test rather than a ceremonial finish.
The result completed a turnaround that began after YoungBlood ended the opening day in fifth place. A reset inside the team produced a steady recovery across the remaining races, leaving the title dependent on composure and clean execution when the pressure was highest.
An international crew converts experience into a title
Julien raced with tactician Carlos Robles, Bernardo Freitas, Moritz Spitzauer and Leonard Takahashi. The group has developed together over several seasons, and the Newport win represents the point at which that accumulated experience finally became a world-championship result.
Robles has followed Julien’s development since the driver entered the class at a young age. That continuity helps explain the team’s ability to absorb an uneven first day, because communication and trust were already established before the championship reached its decisive phase.
A compact catamaran built for intense racing
The M32 is a 9.68-metre carbon catamaran normally sailed by four or five people, keeping it firmly within Leisure Boat Guide’s under-12-metre scope. Its light 510-kilogram platform, mainsail and gennaker are designed to deliver rapid acceleration without adding the complexity of a jib.
World Championship racing uses short, repeated contests that place a premium on starts, mark roundings and fast tactical decisions. A poor twenty-minute race can change the standings quickly, but the same compressed format gives a disciplined team several opportunities to recover during a full day.
The class is already looking toward 2027
Three events in the British Virgin Islands are scheduled to open the next winter season before the fleet returns for another Newport summer. The 2027 M32 World Championship is planned for Miami, giving established teams and new owner-drivers a clear route into the next title cycle.
YoungBlood now enters that cycle as the benchmark rather than the challenger. Newport showed that the team can recover from a difficult position and still close under pressure, a quality that may prove as important as outright speed when its championship defence begins.
Official sources: pressmare.it; m32world.com.