The Snipe World Championship gathers momentum with more than 70 registered boats

The Club Marítimo de Mahón already has 76 boats registered from 19 countries for an event that will bring together five absolute world champions and the current European champions.

The Club Marítimo de Mahón will host, from September 19th to 26th, the Snipe Class World Championship, a competition that will turn Menorca into the main meeting point for the world elite of this historic class. With the second registration period still to be closed, the championship already has 76 confirmed boats from 19 countries, an international participation that far exceeds the number of nations represented at the last World Championship held in Buenos Aires in 2024, where 85 boats from 12 countries competed.

The organizers’ forecast is to reach around 90 boats once the reallocation of places carried out by SCIRA (Snipe Class International Racing Association) is completed.

However, for the manager of the Club Marítimo de Mahón, Nacho Marra, the most relevant figure is not the number of entries, but the extraordinary level of the fleet. “What really matters is not so much the number of participants as the sporting quality. Mahón will bring together some of the best sailors in the history of the class and also the best of the present moment,” he said.

Among the entries are five absolute world champions who together account for six world titles: Argentina’s Julio Alsogaray, reigning world champion after winning in 2024; Spain’s Alfredo González, champion in 2022; Brazil’s Alexandre Paradeda, champion in 2001; Cuba’s Nélido Manso, champion in 1999; and American Augie Diaz, two-time world champion in 2003 and 2005.

The list of favorites is completed by American Justin Callahan, current junior world champion, as well as the reigning European champions, Spaniards Jordi Triay and Lluís Mas. Sailors from the Club Marítimo de Mahón are preparing intensively for this event, where they will have the advantage of competing at home. They will be joined by numerous continental champions and winners of the class’s main international competitions.

Spain will currently have eleven qualified boats, although the redistribution of places will allow national representation to increase to a maximum of fourteen teams.

The World Championship will officially begin on September 19th with mandatory boat measurements. After the training day scheduled for the 21st, the scoring races will take place between September 22nd and 26th, with a maximum of two races per day.

One of the aspects still to be decided by the organizers is the final starting format, as participation close to 90 boats opens the possibility of splitting the fleet into groups or, as in the last World Championship, holding a spectacular single start with all participants on the same line.

As a major technological innovation, the championship will introduce an electronic starting control system that will allow each crew to immediately know if they have crossed the line early, speeding up the races and reducing general recalls and disqualifications for being over the line.

Beyond the competition itself, the Club Marítimo de Mahón is preparing a large logistical operation to host an exceptionally large fleet. Additional spaces will be made available in collaboration with the City Council of Maó and the Balearic Ports Authority, integrating the boats into the port environment so that the World Championship will also be a spectacle on land.