Despite this list including seven events in five countries there are actually no new entries into the top 10 and very little movement. Roger Blasse is the biggest climber from eighth to fourth.

Craig’s return to the top – the fourth time he has returned to No.1 after holding it for three years when the World Ranking was first introduced in 2005 – was helped by a trip to Thailand in February where he placed second at the Thai Masters and won the Thai Nationals and then won the ESP BM Composites Trophy in Palma and the Ovington Inlands in the UK on successive weekends in March.

At the epic Australian Nationals in Freemantle in January 2026 Blasse won from Brett Morris and Davis. In February, Morten Jacobsen won the Thai Masters from Craig and Chris Caldecot. Craig then won the Thai Nationals from Jacobsen and Caldecot a few days later. The class is looking forward to returning to Pattaya next February for the 2027 World Championship, for which 118 sailors have already expressed an interest in attending.

The same weekend, Steve McDowell won the New Zealand Nationals at Wakatere Boating Ckub in Auckland, from Dave Ridley and Ben Morrison. Into March, and Ridley turned the tables to win at Turangi from McDowell and Luke Gower.

The next two events suffered from light winds. However, Craig won both. He first won the BM Composites Trophy in Palma, from Davis and Gavin Poulloin and then the Ovington Inlands at Grafham Water from Roger Tushingham and Neil Goodhead.

The European season gets fully underway in the next few weeks with the Spring Cup in Medemblik on May 1-3, followed by the World Championship in Skovshoved, Denmark, in early June, which so far has 164 entries, a record for Denmark.

All past ranking lists and the top 5 list can be found here:

https://okdia.org/results/world-rankings/

OK Dinghy World Ranking List 60 – April 2026

By Apple, Matt and Morten/ the main OA team.

Looking forward, the Organisers now have the Worlds webpage up and running thanks to Apple, see: https://2027.okworlds.org/. The update includes answers to the typical questions we have received from participants, in particular shipping and accommodation queries.

The web page also includes an expression of interest list with 100+ participants to date, which is very satisfying a full year in advance of the event.  See https://2027.okworlds.org/#expression. The organisers are aware that many more sailors are looking at transport to the event, and would like to encourage all to fill in the expression of interest form.  We believe it will help sailors to hook up to get full containers loads together for the worlds, to help keep transport costs down to the benefit of all.

The host, Royal Varuna YC, has also finalised the schedule for the events leading up to the world championship in 2027.  These events are held at the Worlds venue in Thailand, and are well suited for sailors trying to escape a cold winter or just want the pleasure of sailing in water which typically is 28 degrees centigrade. We hear from Varuna that they would love to see participants in the YC for the full month of February.

The dates to bear in mind when booking flights and boat transport are:

February 5-7: Varuna masters (for sailors 35+ years of age and for OK Dinghy and Ilcas)

February 13-15: Pre-worlds / Thailand Open OK Dinghy nationals

And of course: February 19-26 International OK Dinghy World Championship 2027

We are of course also preparing travels to the 2026 worlds in Skovshoved, Denmark, where three of the main organisers and our Principal Race Officer will attend.

In addition, the Thai organisers are being strongly encouraged to put on a training camp in early December 2026. Every single foreigner who sailed in the two events in January has requested this. When detailed plans have been completed for the training camp, further information will be available on the OK worlds webpage.

Finally, the Thai OK Dinghy Sailors Society ask for equipment donations. We would kindly ask participants to check their storage areas and see if they should have any older alu or early carbon masts or booms available which could be donated to help us grow the fleet in Thailand.  If you do, please bring them along in the containers going to Thailand. We specifically have 5 hulls in need of rigs and would love to see those boats on the water at the worlds, if at all possible. There is also a general shortage of OK masts in Thailand and we would like to keep the older boats going.

Scroll forward two decades from 2005 and the landscape is very different. 2005 was a time that is considered by many to be a turning point in the class’s fortunes. The World Ranking List was the first initiative that led to increased media attention, and eventually the 2013 Roadmap that began a period of huge growth in the class.

So, it is quite fitting, that for this final release of 2025 there is a new World No.1. Britain’s Andy Davis becomes only the 12th OK Dinghy World No.1 of all time, after a couple of years loitering in the top 10, and joins an elite group of champions that have defined the class for 20 years.

The first World No.1 back in 2005 was none other than Britain’s Nick Craig, who sits in second place, just three points behind Davis, while Sweden’s Patric Mure drops from first to third.

While Davis and Craig are the only Brits to reach the top spot, Sweden has had four No. 1s. In addition to Mure, Fredrik Lööf, Niklas Edler and Thomas Hansson-Mild all held the No.1 spot. From Denmark, Jørgen Lindhardtsen, Bo Petersen and Jørgen Svendsen all reached No. 1, while from down under there is Greg Wilcox and Karl Purdie from New Zealand and Roger Blasse, from Australia.

This final release of 2025 includes 11 events across eight countries. Andrew Mills won the largest OK Dinghy worlds of all time, from 212 entries, on Lake Garda in September, from Nick Craig and Niklas Edler.

Tim Petetin again won the French Nationals from Jean Michel Roux and Pierre Arringi. He then finished second in the Autumn Trophy in Bandol from Ben Flower with Britain’s David Bourne in third. The Nordics were won by Steen Christensen from Stefan Myralf and Søren Ulslev. Christensen also won the Danish Nationals from Bo Petersen and Jens Eckardt. Stefan de Vries dominated the Dutch Nationals to win from Germany’s Cord Prignitz and Jan-Dietmar Dellas.

Andre Budzien won a shortened German Nationals from Ulli Kurfeld and Sönke Behrens, while Michiel Jamar won the Belgian Nationals from Steven Jamar and Frédéric Geboers and Michał Strumnik won the Polish Nationals from Marek Bernat and Paweł Pawlaczyk. Two events in Bulgaria are also included. The Spring event was won by Georgii Paches from Stefan Raev and Radoslav Raev. Radoslav Raev the won the Autumn event from Simoen Grabchev and Stanislav Popchev.

After the largest OK Dinghy event of all time this year, 2026 promises to be big, even if not as big. Already more than 100 sailors have expressed interest in the World Championship in Skovshoved, Denmark in June. The European Championship in September in Bruinisse, The Netherlands, is also likely to be a big event. And plans are being made to relaunch the Euro League, which was mothballed when the pandemic arrived. The future continues to look just OK.

Top 20 from 664 sailors (full list at the bottom)

THE DATA

With two decades of data from the World Ranking List, it might be interesting to produce some statistics on sailors, events, nations and participation. So we did just that.

1.Growth of the list

The first release on 5 December 2025 had just 287 sailors on it from 10 countries. The current list has 664 sailors from 24 countries. The largest list was in April 2024 with 797 sailors. Over the 20 years there have been a total of 1,754 sailors appearing on the World Ranking List.

2. Most numerous country

With Denmark and Germany having the largest OK Dinghy fleets the data here is hardly a surprise.

We can also look at how the numbers developed. Over these 20 years Denmark has grown from one of the smaller nations to having one of the biggest participations.

3. Top 10 Nations

We also looked at the top 10 for all 58 releases (just for fun and numbers are fun). While again, Denmark led the list, New Zealand is a close second, proving distance is no excuse.

4. Top sailors

Though dependent on the ranking events at any one time, it might be useful to look at the highest scores of all time Only 11 sailors scored more than 1,000 points, while 50 scored more than 800 points. The rest of the list can be found below.

5. ‘Best’ sailor

Finally we looked at the ‘best sailor’ using all top 10 ranked positions. In 20 years only 65 sailors from nine countries made the top 10 at any stage. Giving points from 10 to 1 for every inclusion in the top 10 for all 58 lists produces the following table. Being a ranking list of ranked sailors, it clearly favours those who have done the most events, though perhaps you could also say it illustrates those who have given the greatest commitment to the class over the last 20 years. The same names feature again, though in a different order.

The clear leader both on points and the number of times they featured in the top 10 is the 2002 World Champion, Greg Wilcox, who appeared in the top 10 on an astonishing 53 of the 58 ranking lists. He has almost twice the points and inclusions of second placed and six-time world champion, Nick Craig. The 2009 world champion Thomas Hansson-Mild rounds out the top three, with the top 10 including a large number of world and European championship winners. The rest of the list can be found below.

Here’s to the next 20 years.

and finally….