2026 World Championship, Calasetta, Sardinia

The World Championship Doesn’t Build Character. It Reveals It.

The 2026 O’pen Skiff World Championship at Calasetta, hosted by LNI Sulcis, brought together 106 boats in the Under-17 fleet and 60 in the Under-13. Fourteen nations. More than 160 sailors. Fifteen knots and steep Mediterranean chop through the first half of the week, followed by a lighter, more tactical second half where judgement mattered as much as speed.

A World Championship is a different kind of racecourse. The fleet is deeper, the starts are tighter, and the tolerance for error is close to zero. Every poor decision is punished immediately. Every good one has to be earned twice, because the sailor next to you is just as fast.

As coaches, we came here with clear objectives. Gold Fleet qualifications where possible. Sailors who could compete at the front of their fleets. More importantly, we wanted to see who could adapt when the championship inevitably stopped going to plan. World Championships have a way of exposing strengths and weaknesses more honestly than any other event. By the end of the week, every one of our sailors had learnt something that will make them better.

For Team O’pen Skiff India, this was not another entry on the calendar. It was the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.

A note for anyone reading the official results alongside this: Zahaan Hemrajani and Shayaan Jashnani train full-time in Mumbai with 24Seven Sailing and race as part of O’pen Skiff India, but hold US passports and therefore appear under USA sail numbers. Ella Lung races under the Canadian flag and trains with our group whenever she is with us.

Under-17

Zahaan — Top 10 in the World, on a Borrowed Boat

Zahaan finished 5th in his category and 8th in the Open category in the Fleet of 106, a top-ten finish at a World Championship and the best result this programme has produced at this event. While this is the best finish at a World Championship as a group outside of India for any Junior Class Boat at a World Championship in any class for Team India. It has been a bitter sweet experience. While the final results are historic, going on the basis of the first day, he should not have finished the week at all.

He arrived from Bronze at Warnemünde. Days before racing, his hull took damage that turned out to be beyond repair for racing. On the opening day he sailed with close to twenty litres of water inside the boat. Anyone who has sailed an O’pen Skiff knows what that does: acceleration disappears, the boat stops planing early, balance changes, and every manoeuvre costs more than it should. In fifteen knots and steep chop, that is not a handicap you simply sail around. It is a handicap you survive.

The scoreline records exactly what it cost him. His first three races read 28, 36 and 30.

Then Adam Liszkiewicz, coach of the Polish team, handed us a used boat and simply told us to get on with it. That gesture deserves to be recorded. Our sport is fiercely competitive on the water and remarkably generous off it, and this week we experienced the very best of that spirit.

From race four onwards, on a boat that could finally perform properly, Zahaan scored 6, 2, 6, 4, 15, 25, 1, 2, 9, 14 and 17. A race win at a World Championship. Two second places. A sustained run of top-ten performances against the strongest fleet this class has assembled.

Here is the number that matters most. With only two discards allowed, he could drop the 36 and the 25. The 28 and the 30 from the damaged boat stayed on his scoreline all week.

He still finished eighth in the world.

There are races you remember because you win them. There are championships you remember because you refused to let them beat you.

Deeyan — Announcing Himself

This is Deeyan’s first season in the Under-17 fleet, and that jump is a significant one. He missed Gold Fleet qualification on a tie-breaker, which is probably the cruellest way to lose anything.

What he did next is why he is part of this squad.

His first six races read 24, UFD, 28, 24, 19 and 19. His final seven read 5, 12, 19, 1, 12, 5 and 5.

That is not simply a run of good results. That is a sailor who worked out the fleet, the racecourse and, perhaps most importantly, himself during the course of a single championship.

Race ten belonged to him: his first international race victory, in a fleet of 53 sailors at a World Championship.

He finished third in the Silver Fleet, just 24 points from winning it despite carrying a UFD on his scorecard.

Somewhere between race six and race seven, he stopped trying to survive the fleet and started racing it.

Confidence usually arrives the moment a sailor discovers they belong. Deeyan found that moment in Calasetta.

Syna — Turning Training Into Racing

Syna has been one of our most consistent performers in training for the last two seasons. The challenge has always been converting that consistency into World Championship racing.

This week she closed a large part of that gap.

Her first seven races were solid without reflecting her true level: 19, 27, 39, 36, 25, 26 and 37.

Then something changed.

Her final six races read 8, 3, 6, 26, 7 and 27, including four single-digit finishes in the closing stages of a World Championship.

She finished ninth in the Silver Fleet, but the result alone does not tell the story. A sailor who has world class speed and who finishes a championship with scores of 3, 6 and 7 has moved her level during the event itself, and that is one of the most valuable things that can happen at this stage of an athlete’s development.

Before we left Sardinia, Syna summed up her own week perfectly.

“The next time, I want to start a championship the way I finished this one.”

That is exactly the right lesson to take home.

Rehaan — The Sailor Who Races Forward

Rehaan arrived at this championship with confidence after winning Silver at Eurocup 3 in Warnemünde, and justified it immediately by qualifying comfortably for the Gold Fleet.

His opening six races read 17, 15, 18, 23, 20 and 19. Against the strongest fleet in the class, that is evidence that he belongs at the front end of World Championship racing.

The second part of the week did not go his way. He retired from one race after receiving two pumping penalties, followed later by a Black Flag. With only two discards available in a fourteen-race series, that arithmetic is unforgiving.

He finished 46th in Gold.

What impressed us most came afterwards and reflected sincerely.

With nothing left to gain in the overall standings, he went back onto the racecourse and posted an 18th in the final race. Many sailors mentally check out when a championship slips away. Rehaan did the opposite.

The speed is proven. The medal performances are already there.

Now it is about turning good weeks into great ones. He has wowed to do it next year.

Kaavya — Fearless Progress

This was effectively Kaavya’s second international regatta, and it showed early. Her opening five races were 45, 51, 48, 50 and 52.

Experience cannot be rushed.

Courage can.

Race by race she became better at reading the racecourse, recognising opportunities and building the bigger tactical picture instead of simply reacting to the boats around her.

Her final race was her best: 22nd, comfortably inside the top half of the Silver Fleet.

That finish matters less than what produced it.

She left Calasetta looking far more like an international sailor than the one who arrived.

Ella — A Reminder of Her abilities

Ella races under the Canadian flag and trains with our group whenever she is with us. Interrupted preparation meant this championship was always going to be difficult.

Her opening races reflected that.

As the week progressed, however, her speed returned. The second half of the championship included finishes of 26th, 33rd, 22nd and 15th, and she ended the week 35th in Silver.

The speed has never been the question.

The challenge now is producing it from race one instead of race nine.

Under-13

Kumar — Tenth in the World at Eleven

At just eleven years old, Kumar finished 10th overall in a 60-boat Under-13 World Championship fleet and was comfortably India’s leading Under-13 sailor.

He posted a 4th, a 5th, two 6ths, a 7th and an 8th during the week. Six top-ten finishes at a World Championship against sailors up to two years older and carrying considerably more international experience.

That alone is an outstanding achievement.

The exciting part, for those of us who see him train every day, is believing there is still considerably more to come.

This is not his ceiling.

It is simply another step towards it.

Ynsh — Racing With His Head

Ynsh finished 14th of 60 in the Under-13 fleet, and his championship was perhaps the most fascinating to watch from the coach boat.

In the stronger breeze during the first half of the week he showed excellent pace. When the wind dropped and the speed advantage disappeared, he adapted instead of forcing the issue.

He sailed cleaner lanes. Took fewer unnecessary risks. Allowed the race to come to him rather than chasing it.

The scoreline tells the story. Twelve of his fourteen races finished between 9th and 27th, with ten of those 17th or better.

That consistency in a 60-boat World Championship fleet is exceptional for a sailor of his age.

He may not always be the fastest sailor in the squad.

He is currently one of the smartest racers in it.

Those habits will serve him well for years to come.

Shayaan — Consistency Is Becoming a Strength

Shayaan finished 28th of 60, and the biggest change in his sailing this season has been consistency.

He is no longer dependent on one or two outstanding races to define an event.

His 8th in race five showed the level he is capable of when fully focused, while the rest of the week demonstrated a much higher baseline than we saw twelve months ago.

He also carried a scoring penalty in race eleven, turning an 18th into a 28th. World Championships have a habit of teaching lessons quickly, and understanding the rules is every bit as much a part of racing as boat speed or boat handling.

The next challenge is simple.

Make the best races the expectation, not the exception.

The People Behind the Results

None of this happens from the coach boat alone.

Umesh Naiksatam led the campaign as Head Coach and guided the Under-17 programme through a week that included equipment failures, borrowed boats and two completely different weather patterns. He has been the backbone bringing in a methodical approach to managing the sailors and the event.

Jigar Shah and Piyush Chavan coached the Under-13 squad, where the sailors are younger, the coaching days are longer and the demands are relentless.

Our sincere thanks also go to Adam Liszkiewicz and the Polish team, whose generosity transformed what could have been a campaign-ending equipment failure into an eighth-place finish at a World Championship.

To LNI Sulcis and the organising authority for delivering an outstanding championship.

And finally, to every parent who supported months of training, travel and sacrifice to make this journey possible.

What Comes Next

This championship is a checkpoint, not a destination.

The final Eurocup of the season arrives in September, providing one more opportunity to convert the lessons from Calasetta into results while they remain fresh. Season 2026–27 begins soon after, and our training plan is already shaped by what this championship taught us: better decision-making across an entire series, greater physical capacity deep into championships, and complete confidence with the rules under pressure.

Results matter. We are here to win, and we have never hidden from that expectation.

But when this coaching group looks back on Calasetta, the number we are most likely to remember will not be the 8th, the 10th or the 3rd.

It will be the 28 and the 30 that remained on one sailor’s scorecard all week, and the fact that he still finished eighth in the world.

The results sheet will eventually be archived.

The lessons from this championship will not.