Major regattas: Cowes Week, Key West and more.

Cowes Week

Cowes Week, on the Solent off the Isle of Wight, was founded in August 1826, when seven cutters raced off Cowes Castle. Its organizers call it the world's largest and most famous Corinthian sailing regatta. It is run by Cowes Week Ltd with about 200 volunteers drawn from nine yacht clubs, and its handicap racing uses the IRC rating system.

2026 bicentenary: the 200th-anniversary edition ran from 1 to 7 August 2026, with entries invited across more than 37 classes. We did not collect 2026 class results or overall prize winners, so we do not list them here.

The same waters host the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race, which leaves from Cowes every two years. See offshore races.

Key West: Race Week and the Southernmost Regatta

Key West Race Week was founded by Yachting magazine in 1987 and held in the third week of January. Premiere Racing ran it for 21 years, and 2015 was its last edition under Premiere. Premiere gave personal and professional reasons for stepping away, and also pointed to a weak business model after the 2009 recession cost the event about 100 entries.

January racing in Key West returned with the Southernmost Regatta. Its 2024 event was the fourth edition, presented as the successor to a January regatta that ran for about 30 years before ending in 2017.

The sources do not agree on when the original regatta ended. 2015 was Premiere Racing's last year, but the 2024 article says the earlier regatta ended in 2017. That suggests other organizers ran it in 2016 and 2017, but we could not confirm this.

2026: the Southernmost Regatta ran in January 2026. In the J/111 class, Bravo (Andrew and Sedgwick Ward) won after ten races.

Rolex Big Boat Series (San Francisco)

The Rolex Big Boat Series is hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. The 2025 event, its 61st edition, ran from 11 to 14 September 2025 with 65 boats in six classes and also served as the ORC Pacific Coast Championships. It mixed one-design classes (Express 37, J/105 and J/88) with ORC handicap divisions; see handicap systems.

Rolex Middle Sea Race (Malta)

The Middle Sea Race is an offshore race held each October. Established in 1968 and run by the Royal Malta Yacht Club, it is a 606-nautical-mile course around Sicily, starting and finishing in Malta. In 2025 (the 46th race), Balthasar (Maxi 72, Louis Balcaen) won overall and Black Jack 100 took line honours. The 47th race was scheduled to start from Grand Harbour, Valletta, on 17 October 2026; as of October 2026 we do not have its results. Full details are on our offshore races page.

Championships: class, national and youth

Beyond the named regattas, the racing calendar includes championships:

• Class world championships. About 120 class associations are members of World Sailing, and each is entitled to hold a World Championship.
• US national championships. US Sailing hosts 14 National Championships across racing disciplines. Its 2026 youth championships include the US Youth Match Racing Championship, the US Junior Women's Doublehanded and Singlehanded Championships, the US Youth Triplehanded Championship and the US Youth Championship.
• College nationals. The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association holds national championships in Open Dinghy, Match Race, Single Handed, Women's Dinghy, Team Race and Women's Team Race.
• Australia. Australian Sailing's events include Youth Championships, Sail Melbourne, Sail Sydney, match racing and the Australian Para Sailing Championships.
• United Kingdom. The RYA runs youth and junior championships and the British Keelboat League.

Entering a regatta

Each regatta sets its own entry requirements in its Notice of Race, including which classes it runs and which rating certificate a handicap boat needs. US Sailing advises PHRF sailors to check it for the specific local fleet certificate required. Some events also require an endorsed IRC certificate. See racing rules for how event documents fit with the rulebook.