Kiel 29er Worlds Set Sail With 2026 Championship Opening

2nd July 2026

Afloat.ie Team

Final Preparations — Competitors tune rigs and complete final boat checks at Kiel-Schilksee ahead of the opening of the 2026 29er World Championship Credit: Sascha Klahn

The 2026 29er World Championship gets underway in Kiel on Friday as the world's top youth skiff sailors gather at the Kiel-Schilksee Olympic Sailing Centre for nine days of competition. Although the opening ceremony takes place on Friday evening, registration, boat measurement and preparation are already in full swing, with teams arriving from around the world.

The official opening follows the competitors' briefing at 6 pm, marking the start of racing that is scheduled to run until 9 July. Sailors spent Thursday completing registration and equipment inspections while also taking part in a programme of educational and social activities.

Measurement Matters: Competitors complete sail measurement and final equipment checks during registration ahead of the opening races at the 2026 29er World Championship in Kiel. Photo: Sascha Klahn

A sustainability seminar led by Chloe Goodman of Sailors for the Sea encouraged competitors to reduce their environmental impact, while a Kidzink workshop challenged young sailors to develop ideas to combat harmful algal blooms.

Up to four races per fleet are scheduled each day, weather permitting, with a maximum of 18 races across the championship.

Away from the water, competitors, coaches and families will have access to media workshops, rules sessions, beach clean-ups, Olympic sailor question-and-answer sessions, regatta dinners, a flea market and a range of social activities throughout the week. This year's championship also features an open race for the podium in the Open fleet after none of the 2025 medallists returned to defend their titles.

The Women's fleet will see Italy's Bianca Marchesini and Lucia Finato, along with Denmark's Emmeli Gramkov and Sofie Andersen, return after winning silver and bronze, respectively, in 2025.

The Mixed fleet includes reigning world champion Pietro Rizzi, who returns with a new crew, Emilia Salvatore, while Argentina's Martín Díaz Tamayo is also back with a different helm after last year's silver-medal performance.

With defending champions absent in several classes and a strong international fleet assembled, Kiel is set for an unpredictable week of racing.

Published in 29er, Women in Sailing, Youth Sailing

Published in 29er

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

About the 29er Skiff Dinghy

The 29er is a one-design double-handed, single trapeze skiff for youth sailors.

There is an active class in Ireland, just one of the 38-countries from across all continents now racing the high-performance skiff.

The 29er is one of the latest dinghy classes to arrive in Ireland and has a 50/50 split between boys and girls.

The class like to describe the boat as "The most popular skiff for sailors who want to go fast!".

Derived from the Olympic class 49er class and designed by Julian Bethwaite the 29er was first produced in 1998.

Two sailors sail the 29er, one on trapeze.

The class is targeted at youth sailors aiming at sailing the larger 49er which is an Olympic class.

The 6.25-metre high rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the workload of the crew, making manoeuvres more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches.

The 15.00 m2 spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and manoeuvres in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The 74kg weight hull is constructed of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout.

The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon.

The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fibreglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weights, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.