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We are nearing the end of duties now. For myself, I’ve put the scoring systems away (the team are having a lie down!) and I am working hard to close the Championship accounts, …and already we are helping re-use the Worlds legacy knowledge to support Jim and the boys running the DF65 Nationals this weekend coming. Good luck to the East Kent Members at Barton’s Point !
In the rear view mirror, you get to appreciate how much we have learned putting many months of hard work behind us. In the coming days and weeks we shall look to reflect and digest – and place some of our knowledge on this website to help other Clubs run their events. In coming weeks, we are thinking of reporting to you on:-
the Robot Race-Buoys Age has finally arrived. What’s the Business Case?
the Amazing IOM2026 dedicated Website
Parallel Scoring : how to plan you’ll actually reach the last day… with flawless and audited results
Live-streaming and What we Learned
Making the Commentators’ life slightly easier : hand held tech commentary aids
The Hugely Important Role of Volunteers, How to Pull It All Together
What Drives Cost to run a Championship at this scale
How to Plan and Execute a Regatta at this Scale
Those Amazing Worlds Trophies provided by Robot Yachts – What it takes to Design and Make Trophies like that (if I can talk Tony and James into telling us!)
AI and writing Press reports quickly !! (Yes – a lot of what you read was AI generated !! Frighteningly good.)
Flags, banners, special flags and …. Flagpoles!
Campsite Management and building an enduring Club Asset
Scrutineering and Workflow
WhatsApp : Totally Central to Organising and Running a 2026 Championship
Special Technologies that can lend a hand : Satellite Comms, Waterproof Tablets, Portable Credit Card Readers, Buoybots, RTK, Application of AI – and more
Just how much do 84 competitors and 40 volunteers drink in a hot week?
Auditable International and Domestic Banking … not as trivial as you’d think
Do we learn anything for the Future of Our Sport
If there is anything else you’d like to hear about, simply let his know via the Contacts page of this website.
We are somewhat spoiled for choice, don’t you think??
We have three major builders dominating the fleet with around a quarter of the fleet a piece. Hugely mixed results and they are all terrific! 2026 was a brilliant year for one of the strong contingent of V12s to win – a poignant note to mark Ian Vickers’ departure from life.
And how old is the BritPOP! design now?? Amazing – and the 2026 GBR National Champion sailed one of the first three to be built! How terrific is that!! 12% of this fleet in 2026 :).
Plus, I have a feeling that the K2R is one of the first K2’s built.
Then if the original IOM Charter was to encourage new designs, just look at that! Proteus and the other unique designs were almost 20% of the fleet.
A special note about Craig Richard’s Proteus. As a project, it seems like it has only been going 5 minutes and already three boats entered into the Worlds. In fact, Craig sailed his Proteus to two 1st Places during the 18 race worlds. Brilliant, really brilliant !! For those of us at Datchet who have lived through the Proteus story – especially David and Nigel, it’s quite something – for Craig and for 3D printing technology. We shall be hearing more and more of Proteus, I’m sure.
Superb – An embarrassment of riches. A golden era is upon us !?!
Apologies for being quieter than we should be “post Worlds”!! There’s a lot to tell, obviously.
Still a huge amount of post-event work crashing through …. I popped in to remove a few flag poles on Wednesday and DWSC told me to leave them there! Thank you to our wonderful competitors for not taking their flag home as a souvenir!!
How nice are those people at Thames Water. Despite the drought. they kept the water level high for the Worlds!! Now – two to three metres came out at roughly 1 metre per night.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 