505 World Championship
The competitors in the 2026 505 World Championships, sponsored by WIP,Ovington Boats and Allen Brothers, were not surprised to wake up on the final morning to find the weather hot and sunny, with a strong northeast breeze blowing across Chichester Harbour. However, the wind in the eastern reaches of the Solent throughout the morning was unpredictable, particularly as a forecast shift to the southeast was anticipated.
Today the fleet was minus Jan-Philipp Hofmann and Felix Brockerhoff who could have a leisurely day off since they had sealed the title of World Champions with their performances over the first 8 races. Instead, the focus was on the battle for second place between the GBR team of Paul Brotherton and James Fawcett and Howie Hamlin and Andy Zinn of the USA. This also had a twist in the tale, or which more later.
After a half hour delay to allow the wind direction and pressure to settle, the fleet was led away into an east-southeasterly breeze averaging 9 knots by the Pathfinder, USA 9228, sailed by Brian Haines and Ted Conrads. As on previous days picking the shifts correctly was a challenge but Hamlin/Zinn proved that they are better than most at this and rounded the first mark just ahead of Brotherton/Fawcett.
However, the British pair picked the better gybing angles coming downwind and got past the Americans by the leeward gate. Behind these two contenders a battle was also developing between AJ Conrads and Jon Bell in USA 9284 and the German pair of Tim and Finn Böger. This leading group remain in close contact up the second beat, and again down the second downwind leg when the varying pressure led to boats having to decide between going low and reaching up for speed, with most of the leading group changing between the two options on multiple occasions.
At the finish, Brotherton/Fawcett held on to the lead, followed home by Tim/Finn Böger, AJ Conrads/Jon Bell and Hamlin/Zinn.
After an adjustment to the axis of the course to reflect the wind swinging further to the south, as had been forecast, the final race of the series was started without delay. The Pathfinder was GBR 8935, Craig Burlton and Richard Anderton. AJ Conrads/Jon Bell continued their tremendous form from the previous race to round the first mark with a lead of almost 100 metres over the Australian team of Peter Nicholas and Luke Payne.
With the breeze continuing to build to around 12 knots, these two built a significant lead over the rest of the fleet on the downhill leg, with a gap of nearly a minute between the Australians in second place and the next boat, Brotherton/Fawcett. The wind had backed sufficiently by the end of the run to warrant resetting the windward mark back towards the east. This did not faze AJ Conrad/Jon Bell at all but Brotherton/Fawcett made inroads into lead of Nicholas/Payne and just pipped in front of the Australians at the windward mark.
On the run to the finish the wind stayed sufficiently robust to make reaching and gybing the fasted way of getting down the 1.4 nm to the finish, with each challenge from a boat behind gybing on what could be an inside line being met by a covering gybe by the boat in front. AJ Conrad/Jon Bell held off all the challenges from Brotherton/ Fawcett, and crossed the finish line about 40 seconds ahead of the British pair.
However, there was a sting in the tail for Brotherton/Fawcett. Following a port/starboard incident on the first leg, Hamlin /Zinn lodged a protest against them. After the Jury had considered the evidence presented at the hearing back onshore, Brotherton/Fawcett were disqualified, meaning they dropped from second to third in the overall standings.
This had been a truly memorable event with almost perfect sailing conditions over the whole period of the World Championship and preceding UK Nationals. Hayling Island Sailing Club also demonstrated that its race organisation and management is second to none with not only all the facilities required but both the professional and volunteer expertise to make everything work.
Event: int505.org/2026-505-world-championships-hayling
Overall Results:
Top Mixed Crew: AJ Conrads + Jon Bell – USA
Top Female Crew: Nicola Birkner + Angela Stenger – GER
Top Under 26 Crew: Samuel Goult + Alexander Brown – GBR
Top Classic Boat: Alexander Ham + Warwick Ham – RSA
Top Original Boat: Phil Brown + Gareth Thomas – GBR