Variety is the spice of life

Robert Deaves
Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:00:19 +0000
News, Press Releases

Only one race was sailed on the second day of the 2026 OK Dinghy World Championship at Skovshoved, Denmark, on Tuesday. Incoming thunderstorms meant an early end to the day after a breezy third race. Wannes van Laer from Belgium is leading the fleet ahead of Niklas Edler, from Sweden, in second while Denmark’s Johan Schubert is third. The race wins went to Edler and Germany’s Stefan Hoffmann. 203 boats from 14 nations are taking part.

The weather certainly took a turn for the worse on Tuesday with dropping temperatures and a lot of rain around, though there was good breeze of 10-18 knots for the third race. Shortly after the finish, the skies darkened and the decision was taken to send the fleet ashore as heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms moved onto the course area.

With the wind further to the west, the current was not helping, so each start had numerous recalls and ended up with black flags. In yellow group, Stefan Hoffmann took the win after taking the lead on the first downwind from van Laer and Schubert. In the blue group, there was also a tough battle at the front with Edler taking the lead several times, to lead into the finish from Canada’s Ben Flower and Pim van Vugt, from The Netherlands

Edler said, “It was a kind of a tricky day. Lots of wind shifts and a lot of rain sometimes. But it was well organised, good starts, and I was lucky to been quite fast around the course and so I have a first. This is the only race today. Then the thunderstorm arrived then we had to abandon the rest of the race.

“But it’s nice to be here in Denmark. It’s quite close to where I was sailing when I was young, just on the other side of the strait. So, I’m really happy to be here. It’s a good venue and a good organisation, and lots of wind.”

Hoffmann added, “We are in Danish summertime here, June, so raining all day, strong westerly winds and I had a good day. I enjoyed it and had good pressure and was fast and could win the race in a tough battle with my former Laser colleague Walles, like we did it 20 years ago, so it was a big fun for me.”

Two more races are scheduled for Wednesday, though only one is needed to conclude the opening series, before the fleet is split into gold and silver groups for the final two days. The 10-race series concluding on Friday.

Results after three races
1 BEL 112 Wannes van LAER 3
2 SWE 71 Niklas EDLER 4
3 DEN 1533 Johan SCHUBERT 5
4 GER 886 Stefan HOFFMANN 6
5 CAN 26 Baabii’O FLOWER 7
6 NED 7 Pim van VUGT 7
7 GBR 6 Charlie CUMBLEY 8
8 GER 18 Jan KURFELD 8
9 GBR 2298 Matthew HOWARD 8
10 DEN 3 Jørgen SVENDSEN 9

Day 2 gallery here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/okdia/albums/72177720334109135

Results here: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/9149908f-7772-48e1-9f34-801b55ef556b#!/