The Sunfish Worlds is coming home! Held for the first time at the St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) in 1970, this one-design international regatta will be back in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2026 when the St. Croix Yacht Club (SCYC), on neighboring St. Croix, hosts this event.
“There was a lot of publicity at the 50th anniversary in 2021 that the first Sunfish Worlds was in St. Thomas. While STYC no longer sails Sunfish, St. Croix does have an active fleet. We submitted our bid for 2024 and were accepted for 2026,” says Juliet San Martin, the SCYC regatta chair who with fellow organizers traveled to the 2022 Sunfish North Americans at Hyannis Yacht Club, in MA, USA to train for the organizational side of the Worlds, which is expected to host nearly 80 boats on the start line off St. Croix.
Discussion by the Class of returning the Sunfish Worlds to the U.S. Virgin Islands was very supportive because of St. Croix-based Peter Stanton’s nine-time participation in this event, says San Martin. Stanton finished fourth overall in 2006, 2009, and 2021. He also won a Bronze Medal in the Sunfish at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2018.
The 2026 Sunfish Worlds in St. Croix will be a 6-day event with racing in and outside of the Christiansted harbor. www.sunfishclass.org, www.stcroixyc.com
