Porquerolles to Host 2027 IRC European Championship

28th September 2026

Afloat.ie Team

Dubliner Pete Smyth’s Ker 46 Searcher 2 racing at Porquerolles this past summer Credit: Gilles Martin-Raget/YCP

The Yacht Club de Porquerolles on France’s Côte d’Azur will host the 2027 IRC European Championship, taking place from 3 to 9 May as part of the Porquerolle’s Race.

Sébastien Le Ber, president of the Yacht Club de Porquerolles said: “After having organised the 12m JI World Championship, hosting the 2027 IRC European Championship is another great challenge for us. We are truly delighted to see our events grow and to give them an increasingly international dimension.”

Aurélie Lhuillier, director of the Yacht Club de Porquerolles, also sees this as an opportunity to highlight the region.

“We are very proud that the Yacht Club de France Racing Division has chosen Porquerolles to host the 2027 IRC European Championship. It is a great recognition of our commitment to organising regattas,” he said.

“We are pleased to contribute to the international profile of IRC sailing in Europe and to showcase an exceptional region, with Porquerolles, Hyères and the Bay of Hyères, which offer an exceptional setting for racing. We are committed to making this championship a great event.”

Published in RORC IRC Europeans

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IRC Europeans Championships

Alternating between the North and the South of Europe (the Channel and the Mediterranean Sea), the IRC European Championship is a flagship event of the IRC season and typically aims to bring together more than 60 boats.

IRC is a World Sailing-recognised rating system and the principal yacht measurement system for the rating of racing yachts worldwide.

The event is open to all IRC-rated boats. Typically, it will consist of a minimum of four coastal or tactical races (coefficient 1) and a long coastal race (coefficient 2).

Following the inaugural championship as part of Cork Week in 2016, the event sailed in Marseille in 2017, Cowes in 2018, and San Remo in 2019; the event sailed in Hyères, France in 2021 before moving to Brekens, Holland, in 2022 and in Cannes, France last June.

The IRC rating rule is administered jointly by the RORC Rating Office in Lymington, UK and UNCL Centre de Calcul, Pôle Course du Yacht Club de France, in Paris, France.