K1 Class Review - Record Participation and Innovative Racing Define the 2025 Season
by Ian Duke 31 Oct 12:54 GMT
K1 Southern Championship at Castle Cove © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
The K1 class enjoyed a landmark 2025 regatta season, marked by significant growth in participation and the successful introduction of new, inclusive competitive formats. With a focus on rewarding consistency and encouraging wider fleet engagement, the class looks stronger than ever.
Travellers Series: Growth and New Regional Champions
The K1 Travellers Series successfully completed 11 scheduled events, a strong calendar for the year. The series proved immensely popular, recording 184 competitor results across the 11 meetings—a massive 40% increase over the 131 results logged in 2024. The number of competitors sailing in the open meeting series grew by 24%, from 54 to 67 helms.
A major highlight was the K1 National Championships, which saw a record turnout of 37 entries, representing a 42% increase over the 26 entrants in 2024. The demographic breakdown at the Nationals showed healthy representation across all age brackets, proving the K1 is for all ages:
- Juniors (under 60): 9 entries
- Masters (60-65): 14 entries
- Seniors (65-70): 7 entries
- Veterans (70+): 7 entries
New Championship Structure
To promote wider regional excellence, the Travellers Series introduced a four-tiered championship structure for the first time: National, Northern, Southern, and Midland champions. A rule change ensuring prizes cascaded down successfully resulted in four distinct overall first-place winners being celebrated, with the maximum number of prizes won by any one person capped at two.
A huge congratulations goes to all our regional winners, and particularly to Richard Sims, our National Travellers Champion, who was presented with the 2025 event banner as well as his prizes.
| Pos | National | Northern | Southern | Midland |
|---|
| First | Richard Sims | Ian Duke | Jeremy Hudson | Leighton King |
| Second | Jeremy Hudson | Chris Swallow | Geoff King | Jeremy Shinton |
| Third | Ian Duke | Doug McCusker | Chris Swallow | Geoff King |
Beat Your Predicted Place (BYPP): Fairer Competition
Perhaps the most innovative change of the season was the introduction of the Beat Your Predicted Place (BYPP) competition. BYPP acts as a form of personal handicap, designed to reward competitors who sail well against their own established benchmark performance, ensuring recognition isn't limited to the top finishers.
The new system was a resounding success. Used to award prizes at 10 events (Storm Amy intervened at Loch Lomond), it immediately achieved its goal of spreading success across the fleet, boasting 25 different top three winners in its debut year. The class committee is already looking to further refine the rules in 2026 to make it even more inclusive.
Crucially, the BYPP prize winners—who can be found anywhere in the fleet—are often genuinely surprised and delighted when their achievement is announced at prize-giving. This contrasts with age-related prizes, ensuring that genuine improvement and outstanding regatta performance are recognized on a level playing field across all entrants.
Prizes, Recycling, and The RNLI
We are lucky that our unique and high-quality prizes are made by enthusiastic K1 sailor Geoff King at Dragonfly Trophies. For those who run out of display space, the Class Association operates a recycle scheme, making a contribution of £8 to the RNLI for each recycled trophy.
Sponsors and Supporters
A huge thank you to Ovington Boats and Ripe Craftinsure for Sponsoring our 2025 and to Norths Sails for supporting us. Long may your sponsorship and support continue into the future.
Looking Forward to 2026
A full programme of events is close to being concluded for 2026, building on the year's success:
- The National Championships at Royal Torbay YC (18th - 20th September)
- The Inland Championships at Burton SC (16th - 17th May)
- First participation in the Ovington Inlands at Grafham (21st - 22nd March)
- The class is also close to agreeing on its First European Regatta on Lake Como in June and its Second K1 Rally in May.
See the class website or Facebook group for more information.