IOM World Championship 2026 Officially Opened at Datchet Water Sailing Club
by Mark Jardine 16 May 22:07 BST
15-22 May 2026
Practice race start at Datchet Water ahead of the 2026 IOM Worlds © Mark Jardine
The flags are up, the boats have been measured, the robo-buoys have their gyroscopes humming, the race team is ready and the weather is very British. 84 of the world's best radio sailors have arrived to compete for the 2026 IOM World Championship title at Datchet Water Sailing Club in the UK.
A few spring showers passed through during the practice races on Saturday, but the brisk south westerly kept everyone on their toes with quite a chop on the Queen Mother Reservoir, nestled between Windsor Castle and Heathrow Airport.
Already the discussions are taking place as to which tactics and rigs will prove best in the conditions. Will gaps appear on the line if you approach from high as boats slip sideways in the waves? Will those with fuller sails power through the chop? All will become clear over the next few days.
The clubhouse was packed for the Opening Ceremony, where MYA President, Derek Priestley recounted all the countries visited and friends made thanks to radio sailing, finishing with, "I'm sure we'll all end up with more friends and have a great regatta."
Fred Rocha then gave an emotional tribute to Ian Vickers, runner-up at the last IOM Worlds in 2024, who sadly passed away earlier this month after a battle with cancer. Ian was hugely respected throughout the fleet, as well as being regarded as a friend by all. Tributes are being paid during the event, including a signed sail, book of remembrance, and stories being recounted by the sailors.
Fred then introduced the teams by nation, asking them all to come up and stand with their flag. A remarkable 28 countries are taking part, with many growing international fleets well represented.
The organisers then declared the championship open, followed by Fred leading a minute's round of applause for Ian Vickers, which had everyone standing and many tearful eyes.
In radio sailing the racing his held in heats of 24, which brings up challenges but also rewards sailors for good performance. I spoke to scorer Richard Jones to find out how it worked:
"In my 50 years of sailing this is the only time I've seen heat-based systems with promotion and relegation, which is very engaging for everybody competing, but it's an extra challenge from the scoring point of view. We have all the technology to help us and can run these heat-based structures with promotion and relegation pretty automatically. We do that on two systems at the same time, which gives us redundancy in the setup, in case there are any issues. It has proved itself in the past, when a major software provider went offline for 20 hours we still had a running system thanks to our fallback technology. We also cross-validate the results which acts as an audit of what we're doing."
One sailor who has put a huge amount of time into organising the IOM Worlds is Nigel Barrow, who was also the first reserve on the entry list in case anybody couldn't make the event. Having a full-house is great for the event, but means he won't be competing himself as he described:
"If I had a pound for everyone who said, 'Have you got a place yet?' I'd be extremely rich." quipped Nigel. "Yes, it's a disappointment personally, but a blessing as well."
The media team will be bringing you daily news, photos and videos from the event, with insights into the boats, the sailors, the racing format, and why radio sailing is on the rise.
Read some of Nigel Barrow's articles in the lead up to the event here...