The ORC World Championship 2026 came to an exciting end on Ascension Day with the final inshore races. The two Up & Downs were held in 15 to 17 knots of westerly wind. In between, gusts of up to 25 knots and waves one and a half to two metres high in changeable weather put the 104 boats in four ORC groups (0, A, B, C) to the test once again. Then the ORC World Champions of the year and the medallists were found.
ORC World Championship: warm welcome, high-calibre sport
Andrew Berdon's American TP52 "Summer Storm" with Ocean Race veteran Stu Bannatyne and tactician Joachim Aschenbrenner won Class 0 after the top three started the final races of the ORC World Championship with a difference of just one point each. With just one slip-up in the Coastal Race on the final day, the crew catapulted to the top of the podium with five race wins like a summer storm.
Champion Berdon enthused: "It's an incredible satisfaction! We received an extremely warm welcome here in Sorrento. I love Italy. The level of competition was truly exceptional. It's been a fantastic week in every respect. We went into the final day after a difficult race the day before, with three boats separated by just one point in the overall standings. We knew we had to sail flawlessly to win the title."
It was exactly the kind of challenge that drives us: a hard-fought competition that came down to the last race against world-class opponents." Andrew Berdon
A TP52 also took silver in Group 0: Mauro Gestri's "Vudu" team relegated Roberto Lacorte's Wallyrocket51 "RocketNikka" to third place. The best boat on the final day was Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's Wallyrocket51 "Django WR". With tactician Vasco Vascotto, who had just sailed to second place in the 52 Super Series opener with Harm Müller-Spreer's "Platoon Aviation", "Django WR" took two wins on the day, but it wasn't quite enough to make it onto the podium.
"Red Bandit" sails to eighth place in the World Cup
Carl-Peter Forster's young crew on the TP52 "Red Bandit" from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club sailed to eighth place in the World Championship. The best Corinthian participants were the crew on David Mizrahi's Swiss "Night Shadow". Click here for the results of the ORC World Championship at the Tre Golfi Sailing Week.
After an almost perfect week, Niklas Zennström's crew on the Carkeek 40+ "Rán" took the gold medal in Class A, successfully defending the title that Team 2025 had won in Tallinn. The feat was achieved despite the crew flying the Swedish flag losing the gennaker in the first race on the final day. Zennström was able to get over it and paid homage to the hosts and the sailing area.
"The ORC World Championship in Sorrento was simply fantastic!" said Niklas Zennström euphorically. His bow: "A beautiful venue, an excellent regatta area, a wonderful city and a really special atmosphere. The weather conditions varied considerably throughout the week, which made the regattas even more interesting and helped to create a great spirit of camaraderie and mutual respect among all the teams."
Eleventh place in the World Championship for "Desna", Classes B and C without GER boats
Giovanni Di Vincenzo's Italian Ker 46 "Lisa R" took silver at the World Championships. Massimo De Campo's Swan 42 CS "Selene - Alifax" won bronze with tactician Tommaso Chieffi. Johannes Wackerhagen's Knierim 49 "Desna" (Kieler Yacht-Club) came eleventh out of 26 Class A boats. In this division, the award for the best Corinthian team went to the US Swan 42 "Lagertha" owned by Kurt Kalberer II of the New York Yacht Club.
There were no German teams at the start in the B (25 boats) and C (38 boats) classes. The B title went to the Argentinian PG390 "Katara" of Julian Somodi with two race wins on the last day. World Championship silver went to the Maltese X-41 "Technonicol" of Georgi Kolesnikov with Estonian match racer and helmsman Mati Sepp. Third place went to Gianclaudio Bassetti's XR41 "WB IX". In Class C, Luigi Buzzi's MAT-11 "Robe da Mat" won ahead of Andrea Castrucci's Cape 31 "Chisum" and the Farr 30 "Sease" of Franco Loro Piana and Giacomo Loro Piana.
Winning an ORC World Championship is something truly extraordinary, the fulfilment of a dream." Julian Somodi
The ORC World Championship 2026 ended with the award ceremony in the regatta village in Marina Piccola. Here, too, after the finale of the high-calibre week, people continued to rave about the Gulf of Naples and the host city of Sorrento. This whetted the appetite of many for the 38th America's Cup, which will be held here in 2027. The ORC World Championship 2027 will take place from 6 to 14 August shortly after Skovshoved/Copenhagen. Many German crews are also making long-term preparations for this, as "eXciteR" owner Jens Kuphal recently told us at the MaiOR regatta.
ORC World Championship: Sorrento will be followed by Copenhagen in 2027
However, the next major ORC championship for crews is coming up faster, in just two months' time: The ORC European Championship 2026 will take place from 7 to 15 August in the Lithuanian sailing area of Klaipėda. The Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia, in collaboration with the Yacht Club Italiano and the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia, guaranteed the quality of the Italian version of the World Championship this year. The Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) was the partner in the World Championship area in the Gulf of Naples.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
