Behind the initiative is oil billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist and his sailing team Artemis, which will represent Sweden in Sail GP from 2026. It's about so-called arena sailing, competitions near land with grandstands all around. Percy compares it to city races in Formula 1 - but on open water.
More overtaking, crashes and very high speed. It's like a dogfight in Formula 1, he says.
The competition is created for spectators in a different way compared to other sailing competitions.
"Becomes like club team football"
Sail GP is currently in its fifth season and with the Swedish team's entry, 13 boats will gather from as many nations. Each boat must have at least three sailors from the country they represent and the prize pool in the championship is up to 120 million kronor. The competition attracts several of the world's best sailors, says Percy.
It becomes a bit like club team football. The level of the teams is often higher than the national teams because all the stars gather.
Which Swedes will be on Artemis' boat, Percy does not want to say, but he takes the opportunity to praise Swedish sailing.
Praise
Sweden is very lucky to have so many good sailors, especially on the women's side. Sweden has an advantage in the combination of entrepreneurship and sports, which is extra relevant in a technical sport like sailing, he says.
Percy has himself competed both with and against Swedish sailors. Most known from a Swedish perspective is he from the Olympic Games in London 2012, where he took silver behind Fredrik Lööf and Max Salminen.
I remember that I was very happy for Freddie's (Fredrik Lööf) sake, but I was quite busy at the time being frustrated, says Percy.
Sail GP has three remaining events in the 2025 season.
The sailing team Artemis was founded in 2006 by the Swedish oil billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist, who is the main owner of the oil trading company Gunvor. The company has been criticized for its Russian connections.
"We have no special connection to Russia, even if the media wants to make it so. It's one or two, three percent of our business," Törnqvist said to TT in 2023.
Artemis has represented Sweden and the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS) in the challenger series for the men's America's Cup twice, 2013 and 2017.
Last year, the Swedish boat reached the semifinals in the very first America's Cup for female sailors.
The SailGP Championship was founded in 2018 and is a championship between boats from 13 different countries competing for a prize pool of up to 120 million kronor.
At least three in the crew must be from the country that the team comes from and at least one on board must be a woman.
The championship stretches - season 2026 - over 13 different events, where each event contains 6-7 races. The boats, which are identical, can reach speeds of around 100 km/h.
Two Swedes participated in the competition in 2025: Julius Hallström in the Danish boat and Julia Gross in the Italian boat.
