Guillermo Parodi’s crew led from start to finish at the fourth and final event of the year, while Bianca Mendelsohn put a second IE team on the podium.
CASCAIS (Portugal). IE University closed the MBA Sailing League season in style. The league is the annual sailing series that pits Europe’s leading business schools against each other. The boat helmed by alumnus Guillermo Parodi won the IE Regatta 2026, held from 17 to 20 September in the waters off Cascais. It was a commanding performance: Parodi led from the opening races and sealed the title in the ninth of ten.
Organised by the IE Sailing Club with the support of Clube Naval de Cascais, the event brought together 150 sailors, students and alumni alike, from some of Europe’s most prestigious business schools: SDA Bocconi, HEC Paris, Saïd Business School (Oxford), London Business School, Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), INSEAD, WHU – Otto Beisheim, Polimi GSoM and the host, IE University. Racing took place in two divisions: 11 teams competed in the League division on SailCascais’s fleet of J70s, and eight crews sailed in the Sport division on Terra Incógnita’s Grand Surprise yachts.
A northerly welcome
Thursday was set aside for free practice in ideal conditions. A northerly breeze of around 20 knots allowed crews to fine-tune their rigs and try out different strategies on the race course.
On Friday, in a 15-knot northerly, the race committee completed six races in the League division. Parodi’s team took control from the outset and ended the day ahead of the rest of the fleet.
Mendelsohn’s surprise
On Saturday the wind shifted to the west and eased, but four more races were still sailed. Parodi went out to defend his lead and delivered: a first, a third and two fourths were enough to wrap up the title with one race to spare. HEC took a race win, but the star of the day was the team led by MBA student Bianca Mendelsohn. IE’s second team won two races and snatched third place on the podium from Elio Rosapepe’s Bocconi, the defending champions, by just two points.
The Rotterdam School of Management team, helmed by Aymeric Gillard, finished runner-up, confirming the consistency it has shown all season. The battle at the front between RSM, Bocconi, HEC and the IE teams was fiercely contested, much to the delight of the guests watching from the VIP boats.
A nail-biting finish in the Sport division
In the Sport division, open to sailors of all levels and raced on the Grand Surprise yachts, six races were sailed and the title came down to the narrowest of margins. The mixed WHU/Oxford team took the win, closely followed by the IE Alumni and London Business School teams. Three boats separated by three points, with the race wins shared out perfectly: two apiece for each of the podium finishers.
Ashore, the participation trophy went to Oxford. The English university was represented on five of the 19 boats, including the Sport division winner, and brought almost as many students and alumni to Cascais as the host school itself.
Two golds in one season
With this victory, the IE Sailing Club claims its second win of the 2026 league. It had already taken gold in April at the Global MBA Trophy in Athens, the first event of the calendar.
The result confirms the maturity of a club that will celebrate two decades of history in 2027. Maggie Constantino, President of the IE Sailing Club, underlined this at the prize-giving ceremony: “Our commitment to developing new talent, to generational diversity and to gender equality has produced teams that bring together students and alumni of different ages, nationalities and levels of sailing experience, and in which that variety, far from being an obstacle, has become our greatest strength.”
Final results – League division (J70, 10 races, 1 discard)
| Pos | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | Total | Net |
| 1 | IE 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | (4) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 22 | 18 |
| 2 | RSM | (4) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 26 | 22 |
| 3 | IE 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | (6) | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 33 | 27 |
| 4 | BOCCONI | 3 | 3 | (7) | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 36 | 29 |
| 5 | HEC | (9) | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 49 | 40 |
| 6 | OXFORD 2 | 6 | 9 | 6 | (10) | 7 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 71 | 61 |
| 7 | INSEAD | 5 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | (11) | 7 | 74 | 63 |
| 8 | OXFORD 1 | 7 | 7 | 9 | (11) | 11 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 79 | 68 |
| 9 | LBS | 10 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 6 | (11) | 8 | 11 | 84 | 73 |
| 10 | POLIMI | 8 | 10 | DNF(12) | 9 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 80 | 70 |
| 11 | WHU/BOCCONI | DNF(12) | 11 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 84 | 73 |
Final results – Sport division (Grand Surprise, 6 races, 1 discard)
| Pos. | Team (helm) | Points |
| 1 | WHU / Oxford | 9 |
| 2 | IE Alumni | 11 |
| 3 | London Business School | 12 |
| 4 | Rotterdam School of Management | 18 |
| 5 | Oxford 1 | 22 |
| 6 | Oxford 2 | 26 |
| 7 | SDA Bocconi | 27 |
| 8 | IE Students 26 | 36 |