Balearic sailors set course for the 2026 iQFOiL World Championship

The international event will take place from the 4th to the 12th of September on the south coast of England and will feature four sailors from Club Nàutic s’Arenal and Club Nàutic Sa Ràpita.

Weymouth-Portland will become one of the major venues on the international sailing calendar this September with the staging of the 2026 iQFOiL World Championship, which will bring together 185 sailors from 41 countries in the waters off the south coast of England.

The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy will host the competition, organised by the Royal Yachting Association together with the International iQFOiL Class Association. The official programme will run until the 12th of September, combining equipment inspections and competitor registration during the opening days with the subsequent racing programme.

Pre-event activity will begin with equipment checks, while the opening ceremony will take place on 5 September. One day later, on Sunday 6th of September, competitors will have a training session before the start of official racing. The qualifying series will begin on Monday 7th of September and continue throughout the week, leading up to the decisive final day on Saturday 12th of September, reserved for the last races and the finals.

The programme includes up to 20 races in the qualifying series, with a usual maximum of four races per day for each fleet or group, although the organisers may increase this to five if necessary to complete the different stages of the championship.

Among the large international fleet will also be four sailors representing clubs from the Balearic Islands. Club Nàutic s’Arenal will be represented by Andrea Torres, Bernat Tomás and Bárbara Winau, while Nacho Baltasar will compete for Club Nàutic Sa Ràpita.

The World Championship format will combine different racing disciplines depending on weather conditions: course racing, sprint races and marathon racing. After the qualifying series, the top ten sailors will advance to the final stage, structured into quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

Weymouth-Portland also offers a race area that is particularly well known within international sailing. Sheltered by the Isle of Portland and open to the English Channel, the venue typically experiences winds of between 9 and 15 knots at this time of year, together with currents and the particular characteristics of the local sailing area.

Over nine days, the 2026 iQFOiL World Championship will therefore bring together a strong representation of the international elite of the class in a competition where consistency, speed and the ability to adapt to changing conditions will be key to reaching the decisive stages.