Sailing race events are typically held for a single
one design class and usually last more than one day. Regattas may be hosted by a
yacht club, sailing association, town or school as in the case of the UK's National School Sailing Association and
Interscholastic Sailing Association (high school) regattas or
Intercollegiate Sailing Association (college) regattas. The
Barcolana regatta of the yacht club Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano is currently the Guinness world record holder as the "largest sailing race" with 2,689 boats and over 16,000 sailors at the starting line. Currently, The Three Bridge Fiasco, conducted by the Singlehanded Sailing Society of San Francisco Bay with more than 350 competitors is the largest sailboat race in the United States.
Types •
Yacht racing – the sport of competitive
yachting •
Team racing – also known as teams racing, is a popular form of
yacht racing • 2025 ISAF Team Racing World Championship: Hosted 28 May–1 June 2025 by the New York Yacht Club in Newport, using a new 2-v-2 keelboat format. • 2025 29er World Championship: Held 1–8 August 2025 in Porto, Portugal, with over 250 two-person dinghy teams.
Oldest sailing regattas Regatta 1895 • 1775 – Cumberland Cup, organised by the
Royal Thames Yacht Club, UK • 1777 – Lough Ree Regatta, organised by Athlone Yacht Club, Ireland. • 1792 – Whitstable Regatta UK • 1822 –
Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta,
Dartmouth, UK • 1823 – Port of Plymouth Regatta,
Plymouth, UK • 1826 –
Cowes Week,
Isle of Wight, UK • 1828 – Kingstown Regatta, (now renamed Dún Laoghaire), Ireland • 1828 – Royal Harwich Regatta,
Harwich, UK • 1834 – Lough Derg Regatta, at Killaloe, Williamstown and Drumineer, Ireland. • 1837 –
Sydney Australia Day Regatta, held every year since 1837, the longest running without a break • 1838 –
Royal Hobart Regatta, Australia • 1840 –
Auckland Anniversary Regatta, New Zealand • 1844 – Royal Geelong Regatta / Audi Victoria Week,
Royal Geelong Yacht Club, Australia • 1845 –
New York Yacht Club Regatta, United States • 1849 –
Pass Christian Regatta Club on July 21, 1849; twelve boats participated. First regatta on the U.S. Gulf Coast • 1849 – Sandy Bay Australia Day Regatta Australia • 1850 –
Race to the Coast,
Southern Yacht Club Regatta. Oldest continuously running regatta in the Western Hemisphere United States • 1851 –
America's Cup, usually competed for in the country of the current defender/holder • 1851 – Port Esperance Regatta, Australia • 1856 – Chester Race Week, Nova Scotia, Canada • 1857 – Gorey Regatta, Jersey, Channel Islands • 1879 –
Kontxako Bandera,
San Sebastián, Basque Country • 1882 –
Kiel Week,
Kiel, Germany • 1885 – Appledore & Instow Regatta, North Devon, UK • 1886 – Torbay Royal Regatta,
Torbay, UK • 1894 –
Britannia Boating Club,
Ottawa, Canada • 1934 – The
Kékszalag/Blue Ribbon, Europe's oldest Round-the-Lake Regatta held annually on
Lake Balaton, Hungary.
Current sailing regattas •
Aegean Rally,
Aegean Sea,
Greece •
America's Cup, hosted by prior winner • The Athlone Yacht Club Regatta on Lough Ree, Ireland •
Appledore & Instow Regatta – founded in 1885, tracing its origins back to 1831, is held annually on the River Torridge between the Villages of Appledore & Instow North Devon, UK. •
Auckland Anniversary Regatta held annually on the
Waitemata Harbour to celebrate
Auckland Anniversary Day •
Balmain Regatta held annually on
Sydney Harbour, Australia •
Barcolana Autumn Cup Regatta, one of the largest single start sailing regattas in the world, held annually on the second Sunday of October in
Trieste, Italy • Bass Week,
Bassenthwaite Lake,
Cumbria •
Bay Week,
Put-in-Bay, Ohio •
Block Island Race Week,
Rhode Island • The
Kékszalag/Blue Ribbon, Europe's oldest Round-the-Lake Regatta held annually on
Lake Balaton, Hungary. •
Canada's Cup, held periodically on the Great Lakes. •
Canadian Olympic-training Regatta, Kingston (CORK) held annually in August in
Kingston, Ontario Canada. • Carriacou Regatta Festival, Hillsborough, Carriacou, Grenada. W.I. - First weekend in August each year. •
CASON Grand Prize Solo Regatta,
Lake Balaton, Hungary, held annually in September. •
Charleston Race Week,
Charleston, South Carolina, held each April for three days, with races staged both in Charleston Harbor and offshore. • Chester Race Week, Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada, 15 keelboat fleets race for 4 full days on 5 courses in mid-August on Mahone Bay •
Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, held annually in July, starting in Chicago on Lake Michigan and ending at Mackinac Island on Lake Huron. • Columbus Day Regatta, Miami, Florida, annually in October. •
Chichester-Cowes Challenge, held annually at the end of June on the
Solent, and welcomes only classic wooden boats, mainly built in the 1920s–1930s. • The
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race •
Cork Week, Cork, Ireland. Hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club bi-annually. •
Cowes Week, Royal Yacht Squadron, England •
Dún Laoghaire Regatta, Ireland, combined Dún Laoghaire Yacht Clubs, held Biannually. •
Færderseilasen, Royal Norwegian Yacht Club (KNS), from
Oslo to
Horten via Færder lighthouse. • The
Fastnet Race •
Figawi Race,
Hyannis, Massachusetts •
Fowey Royal Regatta,
Fowey Cornwall annually in August • Hangon Regatta, an annual event in the city of
Hanko,
Finland, infamous for attracting large groups of partying youths with a tangential interest in the sailing itself •
Harvest Moon Regatta,
Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook Texas hosts cruisers regatta during full moon in October each year from Galveston to Port Aransas •
Kamer 2 Sailing Marathon,
Kaag,
Netherlands, annually in September •
Key West Race Week,
Key West, Florida • Kékszalag, Balatonfüred, Hungary annually in July •
Kiel Week,
Kiel/Germany - the largest sailing event in the world •
Lake Ontario 300,
Port Credit, Ontario - the longest fresh-water sailboat race in the world, held annually in July •
Larchmont Race Week,
Larchmont Yacht Club, New York •
Lighthouse Regatta, Lake Hefner hosted by the Oklahoma City Boat Club •
Long Beach Race Week,
Long Beach, California •
Louis Vuitton Trophy, a world series of regattas, multiple locations •
Lysekil Women's Match, Lysekil, Sweden, annually in August • Mardi Gras Race Week,
New Orleans Yacht Club, large One Design regatta held on
Lake Pontchartrain •
MidsummerSail, annual sailing regatta from the southernmost to the northernmost point of the Baltic Sea •
Monsoon regatta Monsoon Regatta India •
Mrduja Regatta, an annual regatta held in the city of
Split, Croatia •
National Offshore One Design (NOOD) • New World Regatta, held every year between the ports of Koper, Slovenia and Baltimore, Maryland. •
Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race, Mighigan •
Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta, held annually at the end of August over three days on the
River Dart. •
Race to the Coast,
Southern Yacht Club,
New Orleans, Louisiana to
Gulfport, Mississippi •
Regatta Vava'u held annually in Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga in September • Rotary Club of Sydney Cove Charity Regatta held annually since 1995 on the second Friday of November at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia •
Round Texel,
Texel, Netherlands, annually in June •
Sail Melbourne, Held annually on Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay •
Sawadee.com Regatta Samui, Thailand, Annually on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand in June •
Sint Maarten Classic Yacht Regatta,
Sint Maarten, held last weekend of March •
Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta,
Sint Maarten, annually in March •
Sugar Bowl Regatta,
New Orleans Yacht Club,
New Orleans, Louisiana •
Tall Ships Race •
Tjörn Runt,
Tjörn, Sweden, annually in August •
Travemünde Week,
Travemünde, Germany, annually in July • United Sailing Week, Croatia. The biggest sailing regatta and yachting event in Croatia. 50 boats in 4 classes and 500 participants. • The
Velux 5 Oceans Race – a round-the-world, staged,
single-handed yacht race; originally known as the 'BOC Challenge', and then the 'Around Alone' • The
Vendee Globe – a round-the-world, non-stop,
single-handed yacht race •
Vintage Yachting Games, each time in another country first in
2008, Medemblik, The Netherlands since then every four years.
2012 Lake Como Italy •
Voiles de Saint-Tropez,
Saint-Tropez, France, annually in October • The
Volvo Ocean Race • Washington's Birthday Regatta, at the
Barnacle Historic State Park,
Coconut Grove,
Florida, annually in February •
West Highland Yachting Week,
Oban, W Coast Scotland • Whale of a Sail, Carlyle Sailing Association, Carlyle, IL •
Whiskeytown Regatta, Whiskeytown Lake—Redding, CA •
Youngstown Levels,
Youngstown, New York •
Chichester Biarritz Challenge,
Chichester, England, to
Biarritz, France, annually in April.
School sailing regattas •
Mallory Cup, United States high school sailing national championships. • Nixor College, the first college in Pakistan to launch a 'RAFT' regatta for team building. •
Royal College Colombo and
S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia, Oldest Regatta in Sri Lanka. (
Royal Thomian Regatta) •
Sywoc, the Student Yachting World Cup organized by the students of the
École Polytechnique. • The NSSA National Youth Regatta is the largest dinghy sailing regatta and the largest youth sailing regatta in the UK. Due to its size the NYR visits a new location each year alternating between coastal and inland venues. Previous years venues include Bridlington (North Yorkshire), Datchet Sailing Club (West London) Plymouth (Devon), Redcar (North East England), Deal (Kent), Grafham Water (Cambridgeshire), Weymouth (Dorset) to name just a few.
University / college sailing regattas •
Charleston Open,
College of Charleston • Fisher Hall Regatta,
University of Notre Dame •
Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships, various locations •
Kennedy Cup,
US Naval Academy •
The Roth Regatta, Roth Pond,
State University of New York at Stony Brook • The Regent Regatta, Regent Pond,
Regent University • The CoEP Regatta, Mula River,
College of Engineering, Pune - Held annually in March (since 1928), one of the oldest and most celebrated regattas in India • Mustang Open Regatta, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ==Motorboat racing==