Three Piers 2026 – Polish F18 Cup Final in Sopot

From F18 Poland – Pictures: 📸 Maja Wierzbicka-Mróz & @wierzbickamrozz

Presentation

On 12–13 September 2026, Sopot hosted the Three Piers Regatta (Trzy Mola), which also marked the final event of the 2026 Polish F18 Cup.

A fleet of 12 Formula 18 teams lined up for the weekend, including crews from Lithuania, adding an international flavour to the final F18 event of the Polish season.

The racing

Two days of racing on the Bay of Gdańsk brought predominantly light-wind conditions. It was a weekend where outright speed was less important and strategy, experience and the ability to read the racecourse made the difference.

Saturday – sunshine, light breeze and the Three Piers long-distance race

Saturday welcomed the sailors with sunshine and a relatively steady 6–9 knot breeze.

The F18 fleet completed two up-and-down races before moving on to one of the highlights of the weekend – the Three Piers long-distance race.

The course connected three well-known landmarks along the Polish Baltic coast:

Sopot Pier – Brzeźno Pier – Orłowo Pier.

For the long-distance race, Formula 18, A-Cat and Hobie Cat 16 boats all raced together, with the overall results calculated using the Texel Rating System.

Three Piers Long-Distance Race – Texel results

🥇 Jacek Noetzel
🥈 Arkadiusz Piernicki / Jerzy Białek
🥉 Krzysztof Bassak / Piotr Siciński

With a light breeze across a long course, choosing the right route became crucial. Reading the water, finding the best pressure and reacting quickly to even small changes in wind strength could make a significant difference.

Sunday – a day for the strategists

Sunday brought a very different picture. The sunshine disappeared behind full cloud cover and the breeze dropped to a marginal and increasingly unstable 5–6 knots.

These conditions turned the racing into a tactical challenge.

Pure boatspeed alone was no longer enough. Experience, patience, concentration and constant observation of the racecourse became the key factors. Choosing the right side of the course, timing a tack correctly or finding a narrow band of stronger pressure could gain several places – while one wrong decision could just as quickly lose them.

It was one of those days when F18 racing is won not only through speed, but through making the right decisions at the right moment.

Three Piers 2026 – F18 results

After two days of racing, Kuba Bączek and Ania Bączek took the overall victory in the Formula 18 fleet.

🥇 Kuba Bączek / Ania Bączek
🥈 Andrzej Dzienisz / Karol Dołęga
🥉 Krzysztof Bassak / Piotr Siciński

2026 Polish F18 Cup decided in Sopot

The Three Piers Regatta was also the final round of the 2026 Polish F18 Cup, bringing the season-long series to a close.

With points collected across a series of regattas throughout the season, the final weekend in Sopot decided the overall standings.

2026 Polish F18 Cup – Overall

🥇 Kuba Bączek / Ania Bączek
🥈 Krzysztof Bassak / Piotr Siciński
🥉 Arkadiusz Piernicki / Jerzy Białek

Kuba and Ania Bączek finished the season with a double victory – winning both the Three Piers Regatta in the F18 fleet and the overall 2026 Polish F18 Cup.

The weekend in Sopot provided a fitting conclusion to the Polish F18 Cup season. An international fleet, the unique long-distance race connecting three piers along the Bay of Gdańsk and challenging light-wind conditions produced two days of highly tactical racing.

Three Piers once again showed that Formula 18 is not only about outright speed. When the breeze gets light, experience, strategy and the ability to read the water come to the forefront – and in Sopot, those skills made all the difference.