The Kiel Yacht Club is launching a new race: the 400 Islands Race. The sailing regatta is set to be 700 nautical miles long and will be the first four to five-day Baltic Sea challenge for its participants next year. The starting signal for the premiere will be given on 13 June 2026.
Baltic Sea marathon for crews: the new 400 Islands Race
A race for 400 islands? A race around 400 islands! That sounds like a great sailing test and a promising sailing festival. The initiators from the Kiel Yacht Club are hoping for both. The course takes its challengers from and to Kiel around almost all the Danish islands in the Baltic Sea. The start and finish line will be in front of the historic KYC clubhouse in Kiel-Düsternbrook. There, the sailing-enthusiastic Kiel public can watch and cheer along.
The race leads from the North German Sailing City northwards through the Little Belt, up to Læsø, then south-eastwards through the Sound and past Copenhagen and Malmö. The route continues around Bornholm and Christiansø and back to Kiel. Depending on the weather, it may also be possible to sail anti-clockwise. The initiators have planned for yachts of around 10 to 20 metres in length, sailing with a full crew.
Seven days before the start of Kiel Week, the sailors are due to set off from Kiel. Four days later, the fastest yachts should see Kiel again; slower boats could take around six days. According to the organisers, all participants should be back on time before the start of Kiel Week on 20 June.
400 Islands Race: well chosen time slot
The date for the new 400 Islands Race also fits in well with the dates of existing long-distance regattas: the Baltic 500, a double-handed race and not a crew race anyway, but potentially attractive for a small, overlapping group of sailors, will once again take place over Ascension Day from 14 May. Round Skagen from Helgoland to Kiel starts at the end of May and the Swedish Gotland Round starts at the end of June. The longest Baltic Sea regatta, MidsommerSail 2026, will start on 21 June and is very close to the new Baltic Sea marathon from Kiel. However, should there be sailors or boats who want to target both races - even that would not be impossible with tight planning.
"With the 400 Islands Race, the Kiel Yacht Club is completing its programme of offshore regattas. This has long been a wish that is now finally being realised," said KYC Chairman Dr Hauke Berndt. Not without pride, he added: "Our dedicated team is thus setting a new milestone in terms of sea regattas." The new regatta has what it takes to become a bucket list regatta in the north.
It remains to be seen whether one or two measurement systems will be used. The decision is to be made by the end of the year after the annual meetings of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) and the World Sailing Association. Both international associations will meet at the beginning of November in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.
Overdue format for the southern Baltic Sea
The people behind the 400 Islands Race are Sven Christensen and Hans-Eckhardt von der Mosel. Christensen is himself a successful regatta sailor and managing director of the club's own sponsoring agency Point of Sailing Marketing GmbH. "Ecki" von der Mosel is known in the scene as the inventor of the successful BlueRibbonCup and numerous other sea regattas.
Both are committed to the sport of sailing and its international networking, and in the long term would also like to see increasing international participation in the Baltic Sea long-distance race. On behalf of the Kieler Yacht-Club, both are strongly promoting the new 400 Islands Race so that it is well received as a new event in the yachting scene. In preliminary discussions with owners and crews, they have already received a positive response.
"A format like this in the southern part of the Baltic Sea has been a long time coming," said von der Mosel, explaining his motivation for the new race. However, he did not want to be tempted to make any predictions about the number of entries just yet. "We will open the registration portal soon and then we will quickly see the response," he added optimistically. The first expressions of interest from the scene have already been received. It will be interesting to see the response when the registration portal opens.
Final at the start of Kiel Week
The new race already has another bonus point: the award ceremony can be celebrated in an XL setting on the stage in Kiel-Schilksee on the opening day of Kiel Week, before the Kiel Week programme continues seamlessly for all crews hungry for sailing.
