505 World Championship 2026 – Hayling Island Sailing Club

Hayling Island Sailing Club will host the 505 World Championship, opening the regatta with a UK Nationals/Pre Worlds event this Friday 3 July.

The 2026 World Championship will start Monday 6 July with over 90 crews entered from nine countries.

The last time the Championship was held at HISC was in 2006 when home club members Mark Upton-Brown and Ian Mitchell won the title.

Mitchell will be sailing with Roger Gilbert this time, and will be looking to add the Worlds to their recent European title. Last British winners were Ian Pinnell and Carl Gibbon in 2008 in Palermo. Pinnell is sailing with Robert Woelfel this year.

Other home favourites include Paul Brotherton and James Fawcett, winners of the recent Euro Cup event at Lake Garda, and current UK Champions Mike Sims and Carl Gibbon.

And returning to the class is four times World Champion Peter Colclough, more than thirty years after his last World Championship win.

The front of the fleet is set to be ultra-competitive with top Australian team Peter Nicholas and Luke Payne looking to regain the title they last won in Sweden two years ago.

Up against them will be the best German team Jan-Philipp Hofmann and Felix Björn Brockerhoff who have come so close to winning their first World Championship and have been the form team across Europe for the past few years.

Multiple World Champions Mike Holt and Carl Smit, along with the legendary Howie Hamlin and Andy Zinn will be leading the challenge from the USA.