Great Progress in 2026 ORC DH Worlds Long Offshore Race

In warm late-spring weather on the North Sea, the three-class fleet racing in the 2026 ORC Double Handed World Championship Long Offshore Race got off to a solid start off the beach in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, and is making good progress towards finishes expected in the late hours tonight. Each class is racing its own course: 216.4 miles for Class A, 216.8 miles for Class B and 192.6 miles for Class C.

Wind conditions have been favourable for the fleet, with a 15-knot south-southwesterly breeze allowing for a fast downwind start yesterday, followed by a short upwind leg and then a reach out to Buoy WP1, 30 miles off the Dutch coast. From there, the six entries in Class A and eight entries in Class B turned left and started a long upwind leg west towards the turning mark at North Shipwash, a few miles off the British coast near Orford, while the 11 entries in Class C headed northwest on a long reach to their turning mark at Smiths Knoll, which Class A rounded after their turn at Shipwash.

This race and the first Short Offshore Race in the event are being scored using ORC’s Weather Routed Scoring (WRS), a method that creates ratings calculated from each boat’s performance profile on its course and the weather and current conditions predicted before the start of the race.

On the TracTrac live leaderboard, 24 hours into the race, the top three positions in Classes A and B are held by Dutch teams. In Class A, Robin Verhoef and John van der Starre’s XR 41 X-ESTEEM, winners of the Short Offshore Race in this class, lead the fleet, followed by Harry Rek and Marietta Koekoek’s Dehler 41 DB BARRACUDA and Frans van Capelle and They van Hout’s J 122E MOANA.

The top three positions in Class B are held by Diederik Forma and Martini Graafmans’s JPK 10.30 JETPACK – winners of the Short Offshore Race in this class – in the lead, followed by Walter Kollmann and Wick Hillege’s J 99 LÄLLEKÖNIG and Matthijs Hardeman and Peter Korver’s Sun Fast 3600 ONE & ONLY.

The top three in Class C represent other European nations, with Lars Bergkvist and Anders Dahlsjo’s Corby 25 ALTISSMUS (SWE) leading, followed by Algirdas Zizys and Aidas Pivoriunas’s Platu 25 BESTIJA (LTU) in second and Gunnar and Leonhard Kruse’s Dehler 36 CWS KRUSEN (GER) currently in third.

The 2026 ORC Double-Handed World Championship is held from May 18-25, hosted by Jachtclub Scheveningen in collaboration with the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) during the North Sea Regatta.