Las Palmas Sets the Course for ORC’s Next Chapter
As the 2026 Annual General Meeting gets underway on Gran Canaria, committees are reviewing a busy season, welcoming new tools and choosing where the world’s offshore fleets will race in 2027 and 2028.
When the first committees sat down at the NH Imperial Playa Hotel on Saturday, the agenda carried a clear theme: ORC is growing, and the tools around the rating system are growing with it. With members, observers and staff in the room and online, the 2026 AGM has so far been a week of reporting back, looking ahead and, increasingly, showing what is next.
New tools take the stage
The Management Committee, chaired by ORC Chairman Bruno Finzi, and the Promotion & Development Committee, led by Thomas Nilsson and Willem Ellemeet, opened proceedings with a review of the projects first presented at the 2025 AGM. Alberto Pindozzi showed a prototype of the new ORC Scorer, while Matteo Zuppini presented a mock-up of the next-generation Sailor Services platform, with Panayotis Papapostolou working behind the scenes.
RaceFlow, in use by race organisers since May, was presented by Zoran Grubiša and Andy Claughton, who described a platform that has kept improving since launch. And from Italy came the numbers behind ORC Light: Gennaro Aveta reported that the 2026 trial, run with UVAI and FIV, has resulted in 900 certificates being issued to boats that might otherwise never have raced.
ORC’s own reach was part of the story too. Facebook and Instagram generated more than 5.64 million content views and around 135,500 interactions this year, all organic, with championship coverage once again delivering the strongest results, Piret Salmistu reported.
A season in review
On Sunday, the Offshore Classes & Events Committee turned to the water. Chaired by Bruno Finzi, it looked back at a 2026 that took ORC from Altea and Scheveningen, hosts of the Double-Handed European and World Championships, to Sorrento, where the ORC Worlds and Tre Golfi Sailing Week earned Gold-level recognition for sustainability. Klaipėda’s ORC Europeans went one better, receiving the highest-level Platinum Clean Regatta certification. In North America, Matt Gallagher reported on the Sportboat Championship at Charleston Race Week and the ORC North American Championship at the Rolex Big Boat Series in San Francisco.
Where the fleet is heading
After presentations from the candidate organisers, the committee put forward its recommendations for the coming years, to be confirmed by the Congress AGM on 4 November:
- Double-Handed Worlds 2027: Portorož, Slovenia
- Sportboat Europeans 2027: Preveza, Greece
- ORC Worlds 2028: Valencia, Spain, in late June or early July
- ORC Europeans 2028: Marstrand, Sweden, 4–12 August
- Double-Handed Worlds 2028: Hanko, Finland, 10–16 July
- North American Championship 2028: Annapolis, USA
Closer to hand, 2027 is already taking shape. The ORC Europeans in Málaga and the Garmin ORC Worlds in Copenhagen both have their Notices of Race out and entries open, with Copenhagen’s newly built clubhouse due to be ready in the spring. In Fort Lauderdale, 21 boats have already entered the North American Championship, and the Double-Handed Europeans at Gotland Runt will publish their Notice of Race on 1 December.
Meanwhile, the Measurement Committee worked through a long list of technical submissions, from hull and freeboard measurement to sails, water ballast and crew extension.
What comes next
Monday brings the Rating Officers Committee in the morning and the Race Management Committee in the afternoon, before the Gala Dinner at the Santa Catalina Hotel. On Tuesday, ORC staff prepare for the Congress, while the ORC Forum: Tools, Ideas and Priorities gives those on site a full day of presentations and round table discussions. The Congress AGM follows on Wednesday.
More information, including the full list of submissions, is available at orc.org/agm-2026-palmas.
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