Andy Davis is new World No. 1 for 20th anniversary release of the OK Dinghy World Ranking
by Robert Deaves 28 Nov 14:52 GMT
New World No. 1, Andy Davis, GBR © Robert Deaves
Twenty years ago the first ever OK Dinghy World Ranking list was released. It had just 287 sailors listed. Now, 20 years later, the 58th OK Dinghy World Ranking list has 664 sailors listed.
Over those 20 years some 1,754 sailors have been included on the World Ranking List, and this week we celebrate not only the 20th anniversary, but also the sailors who have risen to the challenge, got onto the ranking list, made it into the exclusive group of top-10ers, and the even smaller group who have made it to World No 1.
Scroll forward two decades from 2005 and the landscape is very different. 2005 was a time that is considered by many to be a turning point in the class's fortunes. The World Ranking List was the first initiative that led to increased media attention, and eventually the 2013 Roadmap that began a period of huge growth in the class.
So, it is quite fitting, that for this final release of 2025 there is a new World No.1. Britain's Andy Davis becomes only the 12th OK Dinghy World No.1 of all time, after a couple of years loitering in the top 10, and joins an elite group of champions that have defined the class for 20 years.
The first World No.1 back in 2005 was none other than Britain's Nick Craig, who sits in second place, just three points behind Davis, while Sweden's Patric Mure drops from first to third.
While Davis and Craig are the only Brits to reach the top spot, Sweden has had four No. 1s. In addition to Mure, Fredrik Lööf, Niklas Edler and Thomas Hansson-Mild all held the No.1 spot. From Denmark, Jørgen Lindhardtsen, Bo Petersen and Jørgen Svendsen all reached No. 1, while from down under there is Greg Wilcox and Karl Purdie from New Zealand and Roger Blasse, from Australia.
This final release of 2025 includes 11 events across eight countries. Andrew Mills won the largest OK Dinghy worlds of all time, from 212 entries, on Lake Garda in September, from Nick Craig and Niklas Edler.
Tim Petetin again won the French Nationals from Jean Michel Roux and Pierre Arringi. He then finished second in the Autumn Trophy in Bandol from Ben Flower with Britain's David Bourne in third. The Nordics were won by Steen Christensen from Stefan Myralf and Søren Ulslev. Christensen also won the Danish Nationals from Bo Petersen and Jens Eckardt. Stefan de Vries dominated the Dutch Nationals to win from Germany's Cord Prignitz and Jan-Dietmar Dellas.
Andre Budzien won a shortened German Nationals from Ulli Kurfeld and Sönke Behrens, while Michiel Jamar won the Belgian Nationals from Steven Jamar and Frédéric Geboers and Michal Strumnik won the Polish Nationals from Marek Bernat and Pawel Pawlaczyk. Two events in Bulgaria are also included. The Spring event was won by Georgii Paches from Stefan Raev and Radoslav Raev. Radoslav Raev the won the Autumn event from Simoen Grabchev and Stanislav Popchev.
After the largest OK Dinghy event of all time this year, 2026 promises to be big, even if not as big. Already more than 100 sailors have expressed interest in the World Championship in Skovshoved, Denmark in June. The European Championship in September in Bruinisse, The Netherlands, is also likely to be a big event. And plans are being made to relaunch the Euro League, which was mothballed when the pandemic arrived. The future continues to look just OK.
Top 20 from 664 sailors: (see the full list here)
The data
With two decades of data from the World Ranking List, it might be interesting to produce some statistics on sailors, events, nations and participation. So we did just that.
1. Growth of the list
The first release on 5 December 2025 had just 287 sailors on it from 10 countries. The current list has 664 sailors from 24 countries. The largest list was in April 2024 with 797 sailors. Over the 20 years there have been a total of 1,754 sailors appearing on the World Ranking List.
2. Most numerous country
With Denmark and Germany having the largest OK Dinghy fleets the data here is hardly a surprise.
We can also look at how the numbers developed. Over these 20 years Denmark has grown from one of the smaller nations to having one of the biggest participations.
3. Top 10 Nations
We also looked at the top 10 for all 58 releases (just for fun and numbers are fun). While again, Denmark led the list, New Zealand is a close second, proving distance is no excuse.
4. Top sailors
Though dependent on the ranking events at any one time, it might be useful to look at the highest scores of all time Only 11 sailors scored more than 1,000 points, while 50 scored more than 800 points. The rest of the list can be found on the OKDIA website.
5. 'Best' sailor
Finally we looked at the 'best sailor' using all top 10 ranked positions. In 20 years only 65 sailors from nine countries made the top 10 at any stage. Giving points from 10 to 1 for every inclusion in the top 10 for all 58 lists produces the following table. Being a ranking list of ranked sailors, it clearly favours those who have done the most events, though perhaps you could also say it illustrates those who have given the greatest commitment to the class over the last 20 years. The same names feature again, though in a different order.
The clear leader both on points and the number of times they featured in the top 10 is the 2022 World Champion, Greg Wilcox, who appeared in the top 10 on an astonishing 53 of the 58 ranking lists. He has almost twice the points and inclusions of second placed and six-time world champion, Nick Craig. The 2009 world champion Thomas Hansson-Mild rounds out the top three, with the top 10 including a large number of world and European championship winners. The rest of the list can be found on the OKDIA website.
Here's to the next 20 years.