New format for Team Racing Worlds

The World Sailing Open Team Racing World Championships make their return to the international sailing calendar in 2025 after a ten-year hiatus. The first Team Racing World Championships were held in West Kirby, Great Britain, in 1995 and was held every two to three years.

For 20 years, the format of the Team Racing World Championships was the traditional 3×3 held in dinghies. Since the last event, a new keelboat 2×2 format – where two boats race against two other boats – has been developed which is exciting to watch as a spectator. The team with the last boat to finish loses the race.

“The rise of team racing events around the world have shown the desire for more varied competitions and the appetite for sailing,” said David Graham, World Sailing CEO. “With the new keelboat 2×2 format, we hope to attract many more sailors of all ages and nations to this exciting discipline of sailing.”

The 2025 event will take place May 28 May to June 1 at the New York Yacht Club in Newport, RI. The 2026 event will be held in August at the Gamla Stan’s Yacht Sällskap in Stockholm, Sweden.

Each event will feature up to a maximum of 16 teams. Each team will consist of two boats and a total of six to eight people. Each team shall have a minimum of two women and two men per boat. Racing will consist of a series of qualifying round robins, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals.

The first new edition of the Open Team Racing World Championship in the USA will use Sonars and benefit from New York Yacht Club’s experience in hosting the Women’s 2v2, Morgan Cup, Hinman Masters, and NYYC Grandmasters. Internationally, NYYC hosted the Team Race Worlds in 2005 and more recently helped launch the Global Team Race Regatta with the first and third editions in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

The Team Racing Ranking List piloted in 2023 is being implemented by World Sailing and will play an important role in the qualification process of teams to the World Championships.