The Olympic classes will face a a full Sailing Grand Slam series in 2026 following a pilot season in 2025.
The Sailing Grand Slam (SGS) circuit – basically a revamped World Cup Series – has published the 2026 Notice of Race (NOR) for its full series of five Olympic-class events, but it is not clear what scoring format will be used to decide the medals at each event.
The scoring of the medal series for each event will be defined in the Sailing Instructions, available ten days before the start of the event.
This delay in the medal series formats for the classes is down to the continued testing of variations to provide a format that conforms to the IOC apparent wish to avoid the final result being confirmed before the final race.
This of course is possible under traditional sailing scoring, and also under the present ten boat medal race format used by the dinghy classes in the Olympics.
World Sailing Council agreed a Format Working Group report – Details Here – last December which proposed . . .
That for the dinghy classes:
• The final day will consist of two, single-point races for 10 boats.
• Nett scores from the Opening Series will carry forward into the final day.
• Scores will be adjusted to ensure no competitor will enter the final day with a gap greater than 9 points to the competitor ahead or behind them.
• No competitor ranked 4th through 10th at the end of the Opening Series, will be more than 18 points behind third.
That is expected to be the format proposed by SGS in 2026.
Although the 49er class has proposed a variation: That the 49er World Championship 2026 schedule 2 races with the top 10 boats for the final day of racing, and to use a multiplier of 2.25 prior to those races, truncated so all scores are rounded to an integer for ease of final day communication . . . Read more here.
While the board classes are expected to use:
- Quarter Final (five competitors, one race), followed by
- Semi Final (five competitors, one race), followed by
- Final (4 competitors – first to two wins)
But until the Sailing Instructions are finally issued – which should be for the Princess Sofia Regatta, Mallorca in late March – nothing is certain.
The SGS also runs a competitor Ranking system which will combine results from all five Grand Slam events with each Olympic class World Championship.
Based on that ranking, SGS is working towards the option of a season-ending Sailing Grand Slam Final, in which the world’s top athletes per discipline could be invited to compete for overall series honours and prize money.
Sailing Grand Slam Events 2026
SGS 1 – Mar 27 to 4 Apr – Princess Sofia Regatta, Mallorca ESP
SGS 2 – Apr 18 to 23 Apr – Semaine Olympique Francaise de Voile, Hyeres FRA
SGS3 – May 30 to 7 June – Dutch Water Week, Almere, Ijmeer NED
SGS 4 – Jun 20 to 28 – Kieler Week, Kiel-Schilksee GER
SGS 5 – Jul 12 to 19 – Long Beach Olympic Classes, Long Beach USA
Olympic Class Worlds 2026
May 9 to 16 – Formula Kite Worlds, Viana do Castelo, POR
May 12 to 17 – 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 Worlds, Quiberon FRA
Jul 14 to 19 – World Sailing Champs Test Event, Gdynia POL
Aug 10 to 17 – 470 Worlds, Enoshima JPN
Aug 23 to 30 – ILCA 7 Worlds, Dun Laoghaire IRL
Sep 4 to 12 – iQFOiL Worlds, WPNSA GBR
Sep 5 to 12 – ILCA 6 Worlds, Dun Laoghaire IRL
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