2026 F18 World Championship at Jervoise Bay Sailing Club Statistics

By Steve Stroebel, Int. F18 Class Vice-President

Table

Summary

Following are the participation statistics from the 2026 F18 World Championship held at the Jervoise Bay Sailing Club, Coogee, Australia, from January 30 to Feb 3, 2026, with 75 boats and 150 competitors representing 12 countries from 5 continents.

This was an excellent turn-out for the remote location with the Australia fleet fielding 60 boats. The European representation, though second largest continent, was disappointing with only seven boats (two boats from HUN, and one each from DEN, GBR, GER, NED, SWE, plus one Polish crew). North America was well represented with 5 USA boats and one Canadian. Thailand was the closest international representation with Argentina also not as far away.

  • 46% of the competitors were sailing in an F18 Worlds for the first time up from 32% and 27% the previous two years.  This is reflective of the remoteness of Australia and that the previous Worlds in Australia were 19 years ago at Yepoon in 2007.
  • Developed new charts to show the Age Distribution by decade comparing the last four Worlds:
    • Good increase in competitors in 14-25 age range compared with three prior Worlds.Weakest age range is 36-45 though it did improve in Australia.
    • Participation drops significantly at age 66 and over.
  • We surveyed the use of GPS devices for the second time and found use was similar with 2025 Worlds:
    • 80% of the top ten boats had a GPS device with 7 of them using Vakaros
    • 75% of the Top 20 boats had a GPS device on board
    • 53% of the total fleet had a GPS device on board
  • All four boat builders represented in the top 6 boats – you can do well racing any of these designs!
    • All the top 10 boats were built between 2020-26 but three top 20 boats were 10-13 years.
    • 20 (36%) of boats placing lower than 20th were built 2022-2026 which shows that a new boat does not get you into the top 20 – experience and practice are the more important factors.
  • 11 different sailmakers were represented in the fleet:
    • 95% of mainsails were 5 sailmakers (Performance, NextGen, Goodall, 1D & Brewin).
      • All five of these sailmakers placed in the top ten: NextGen with 1st and 7th place and 1D with 2nd, 3rd and 9th place. 
    • 89% of gennakers were 5 sailmakers (Performance, NextGen, Goodall, 1D & Brewer).
      • Same five gennaker sailmakers were represented in the top 10 as for mainsails.
    • You can also do well using any of these sails!
  • The top three country delegations with the most depth based on number of boats in the top 20 and finishes were:
    • Australia      15 boats & top 8 places
    • USA              2 boats with 9th and 11th place
    • Argentina    1 boat with 10th place finish
  • This was the first World Championship since decksweepers were introduced nine years ago in 2017 with no conventional mainsails.
  • And Australia increases their championship total to eight with new champions Brett Burvill and Max Puttman now equal to The Netherland’s eight World championships titles.

Back to top

Participation

Though a lot of data is shown below, there are many other important factors to achieve good performance at a World Championships that are not reflected in this data. These factors include racing experience, time on the water, good teamwork, good tactics, mental acuity, boat preparation, and many other factors.

  • Europe was the 2nd best represented continent (after Australia) with 15 competitors.
  • North America was the 3rd best represented continent with 11 competitors.
  • Over 40% of the people were first time competitors at an F18 Worlds which was a large percent because it is not easy for Australians to attend a Worlds and the last Worlds in Australia was in 2007 – nineteen years ago.
  • The percentage who also competed at the Worlds in Netherlands last year was low due to the remoteness of this location but a surprisingly high 41% had competed at a previous Worlds before last year.
  • For those teams who also competed in last year’s Worlds in The Netherlands, I compared each team’s results to determine who improved the most:
    • 1st Most Improved AUS 552 Gavin Parker and Daniel Brown from 39th to 7th place
    • 2nd Most Improved DEN 77 Thomas Bojland and Charlotte Engelsen from 51st to 31st place

Back to top

Competitors distribution

  • There has been a small increase in women competitors for the past two Worlds.  There was only one all woman team competing. Within the AUS fleet 14% of the people were female and among the international teams that traveled to Australia only 7% were women.
  • Median Age = age when ½ of competitors are older and ½ are younger
  • The helm age distribution is almost identical to the previous three Worlds.
  • The crew median age decreased by 4 years which shows there are younger crew which is a good sign for the class.
  • We had two helms at 68 years of age from Australia which correlates with previous year’s data.
  • The oldest crew at 80 years was Richard Brewin from Australia though he was not able to sail all the races.  The second oldest crew was Marius van Dam from NED at 70 years placing 15th with his son as the helm.
  • Youngest helm (14 years) was Luis Abbot sailing on AUS 850 placing 24th overall and 2nd in the Youth Division.
  • Youngest crew (14 years) was Liam Fowler sailing on AUS 1677.

Here is the same data shown graphically normalized to percent of fleet. If the age groups less than 66 are equally balanced they would be about 20% so you can tell for which age groups we are strongest.

  • Shows increasing trend with helms in 14-25 age group over past 3 years
  • Concerning that the 26-35 helm group was smaller in Australia
  • Shows age 66 as when helms drop from sailing F18s
  • Good increase in crews in 14-25 range in Australia.
  • Shows declining trend in 26-35 range which is a key age group.
  • The weakest age group is 36-45 though there was an improvement in 2026.
  • The strongest age group is 46-55.

For most of the following data we show results for the top 10 boats (13% of fleet) and top 20 boats (27% of fleet).

  • Based on median age, the Top Ten crews are 2 years older than the rest of the Fleet which could indicate that more experience counts.
  • Based on median age, crews are 20 years younger than the helms.

Back to top

Special Awards

  • The top two competitive categories are:
    • “Family” with a 4th place finish and three boats in the top 20. This category consisted of:
      • 3 father/sons
      • 3 father/daughters
      • 2 brothersdemonstrating that F18 racing is a family affair!
    • “Youth Team” which is under age 26 with a median of 27.
  • Since we change our definition of youth teams starting with the 2025 Worlds, I have included the data for U26 and U23. For 2023-24, youth team is defined as under 23 years old. Starting in 2025 is defined as under 26 years old.
  • The masters group declined from 20% of the fleet in Netherlands to 9% in Australia.
  • In Australia we had the best youth participation of the past four years with 23% of the participants under 26 years old.
  • Mixed teams were lower than Netherlands Worlds but about same as Spain and Germany worlds.

Back to top

GPS devices

The class rule change that allowed GPS devices on F18s was effective January 2024 and this is the second year that we asked competitors about the devices they carried for the competition.  Here is the breakdown for the GPS devices by finish:

  • Vakaros has the largest market share with 19 boats (25% of fleet) using their device which is exactly the same 25% of fleet which used Vakaros in 2025 so there has been no growth in usage.
  • 70% of the top ten boats were using Vakaros which dropped down to 50% for the top 20 boats.

Back to top

Boat Models & Age

  • 4 different boat builders represented in the fleet only missing one currently active F18 builder.
  • 4 different boat builders in the top 6 boats – you can do well racing any of these designs!
  • Nacra Evolutions were the most popular boat at 33% of the fleet whereas the most popular boat at the Netherland’s Worlds was Goodall Akurra with 29% of the fleet.
  • Windrush Edge had a very good showing with 24% of the fleet due to the Windrush factory located only a short distance from the venue.
  • 61% (46 boats) of the fleet had boats built since 2020 compared with 46% of the fleet at the Worlds last year.
  • The oldest boat that was in the top 10 was a 2020 Exploder Scorpion that placed 2nd which demonstrates that you don’t need the newest boat to get onto the podium.
  • The oldest boat that was in the top 20 was a 2013 Windrush Edge that placed 14th.
  • All the top 10 boats were 2020 or newer.
  • Median age for the Australia Worlds was higher because many club sailors who normally would not race in a Worlds joined.
  • Number of boats same year as Worlds was low because of the January date when the other events were in July.
  • New boats are defined as build year same as Worlds and one year earlier per hull ID number.  I used the same definition for the two previous Worlds. Since this Worlds was so early in the year there was not much time for 2026 builds to be present.
  • Windrush had more new boats present than previous Worlds because their home base is Fremantle, Australia.

Back to top

Boat Weight

The next tables include comparison of 2026 Worlds with the three previous Worlds for the boat weight and boat corrector weights.

  • 12 boats (16% of the fleet) weighed below 180 kg so had to carry corrector weights to bring the boat to 180 kg.
    • The corrector weights were weighed by the technical committee during boat inspection.
    • The presense of corrector weights on the dolphin striker was spot checked by the technical committee each racing day.
  • The range of boat weight in the top ten was large ranging from 174.5 to 185.6 kg.
  • 32 boats raced (43% of the fleet) in the boat weight range of 180-181 kg. All boats that were lighter than 180 kg carried weight to bring them to 180 kg.  Five of these boats were in the top 10; ten were in the top 20; 12 of these boats were in the bottom half of the fleet. The average finish place for these boats was 34 – just about mid fleet.
  • There were 11 boats that weighed more than 187 kg and they had build years ranging from 2008 to 2019 with the average year 2013. The best finish for these boats was 43 and the average place was 59. These older and heavier boats are sailed by the less experienced teams. All the brands of boats were included amongst these 11 boats.
  • The third place finisher’s boat weighed 174.5 kg but they carried corrector weights to bring their boat to the minimum 180 kg (red line on the chart).
  • The chart clearly shows all boats over 185 kg except one who finished 9th were in the bottom half of the fleet. This is more likely that newer teams to the class have purchased older and heavier boats rather than the weight of the boat is causing their results.

Back to top

Crew Weight

Here is the data on competitor weight:

  • For this Worlds the teams tended to be ~5 to 7 kg heavier than the previous three Worlds probably because Fremantle has a reputation for stronger winds so teams selected to sail with more team weight.
  • The number of boats carrying crew corrector weight was the lowest of the previous three Worlds. Four teams that were under 150 kg were exempted from carrying corrector weight because their boats were heavy (over 180 kg).
  • For teams that had an approved competitor change, I used the weight of the person who sailed the most days. All competitors approved to be changed were weighed and the compensation weight requirement adjusted, if required.
  • The chart shows the top 10 teams are in a tight band of 150 – 165 kg.

The following charts were developed by Ad Noordzij. The left chart shows the data only for the 2026 Australia worlds and the right chart combines the data from all the Worlds since 2017 for boats with decksweeper mainsails. The chart was normalized to a 100 boat fleet.

  • The most competitive crew weight bracket is / continues to be 155-160 kg.
  • Crews in an attractively large 30 kg crew weight range (140-170 kg) can be expected to be generally competitive.
  • Event participation closely correlates with competitiveness, with teams weighing between 140 and 170 kg making up 89% of the fleet.
  • From the scatter diagram below, one can read that ALL of the top 15% of the finishers (top 30% of the gold fleet) during this 10-year period weighed between 140 kg and 170 kg.  From that ranking point (15%) onward some over 170 kg teams start to appear.  
  • The first team weighing less than 140 kg appears only at about 37% of the top rankings (bottom 25% of the gold fleet) which suggests that the class has not been able to attract competitive teams that weigh less than 140 kg.

Back to top

Under 150 kg teams

Here is data on the teams that weighed under 150 KG and how they performed:

  • At only 11% of the fleet, there was a smaller percentage of teams less than 150 kg than at the prior two Worlds. Due to Fremantle’s reputation to be a windy venue teams probably selected to sail with heavier crews.
  • Three of the teams that were in the range of 145-150 kg performed relatively well with two in the top 20 and a third boat placed 24th.
  • 4 boats had their crew compensation weight eliminated because their boats were greater than 180 kg. The greatest gain was one boat that weighed 8.1 kg above minimum which eliminated the crew’s need to carry 6.75 kg. All these boats placed in the bottom 40% of the fleet.
  • Only 1 boat had some reduction in the compensation weight because their boat was greater than 180 kg.

Back to top

Sails

Mainsails
  • This was the first World Championship since decksweepers were introduced nine years ago in 2017 with no conventional mainsails.
  • 61% of the fleet had new mainsails (2025 & 2026 build year) compared with 41% in Netherlands.
  • There were five different sailmakers in the top ten and four different sailmakers in the top five showing that all the major sailmakers are very competitive.
  • One local Australian sailmaker (Brewin) had only three mainsails at the Worlds with one in the top 10 and another in the top 20.
  • 95% of jibs were same sailmaker as mainsail so did not produce a chart for jibs.
  • For the top ten boats, 80% used the mainsail from their boat builder or associated sailmaker which I call brand loyalty (Nacra/Performance, Scorpion/1D, Windrush/NextGen, Goodall/Goodall). For the entire fleet this ratio was 73% with Scorpions having the most diverse set of sailmakers.
Spinnakers
  • 61% of the fleet had new gennakers (2026 & 2025 build year)
  • 79% of the fleet had gennakers made 2024 or newer
  • In the Top Ten, the oldest gennaker was 2 years old (2024) while in the Top 20 the oldest was 5 years old (2021)
  • The five sailmakers represented in the top 10 were used by 87% of the sailors.
  • 11 different gennaker sailmakers represented in fleet; up from 10 at Netherlands Worlds.
  • Surprisingly the ages of the three sails are very similar.
  • The data indicates that jibs and gennakers are replaced more often than mainsails.

Back to top

World Champions

  • Australia increases their championship total to eight tying with The Netherlands.

Back to top

Worlds Venues

  • Here is by country the distribution of F18 World Championship hosts including the 2026 championship in Australia.  Have your country added to this list by bidding to host a World Championship.

Back to top