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WET AND WILD: FOIL FRENZY AT THE iQFOiL WORLDS!

2026 iQFOiL World Championship Weymouth-Portland

Windsurf dug deep into the almost empty expense-account savings and somehow managed to scrape together enough cash to cover JC’s expenses for a trip down to Weymouth on Tuesday to photograph the iQFOiL World Championships.

With big-fleet upwind racing on the agenda, the sun supposedly scheduled to make an appearance, the wind cranking up and JC hoping to find himself right in the thick of the action on a media boat, it was always going to be an interesting day. Throw in a choppy sea and 179 of the world’s elite iQFOiL racers and things were about to get very interesting indeed…

Words and Photos: John Carter

Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll…best viewed on a big screen!

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A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

JC: “The last time I headed down to Weymouth for a major international sailing event was way back in 2012 for the London Olympics. I remember being blown away by the sheer scale of the operation and the dedication of the athletes as they battled it out for Olympic medals.

I was out on the water with a whole bunch of top sports photographers from the tabloids and Getty Images, while Canon were even kind enough to give my increasingly dilapidated cameras and lenses a free service.

I was so bowled over by the enormity of the occasion that I headed back later in the week for the medal race, which was even bigger, more intense and arguably one of the most exciting and dramatic events I’d ever photographed.

So, when I heard the iQFOiL Worlds were coming to Weymouth this year, I was determined to make the trip for another chance to photograph some epic world-class racing.

The Worlds are about as big as it gets in the iQFOiL world outside of the Olympics, with the best foilers on the planet going head-to-head in the battle to become World Champion.

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4:30AM START

So, on a suitably miserable Tuesday morning, I set the alarm for 4:30am and began the logistical challenge of getting from the Isle of Wight to Weymouth.

The plan was a 6:02am Red Jet to Southampton, followed by the 7am train to Weymouth, getting me there for around 9am. Tris Best from the OTC was kind enough to pick me up from the station and take me down to the event HQ at Portland.

The rain was relentless for pretty much the entire journey, but the forecast was looking considerably more promising for the afternoon. By 1pm, the rain was supposed to give way to sunny skies and the strong north-westerly winds were expected to fill in.

With racing scheduled to start at 2pm, everything was pointing towards a spectacular afternoon of iQFOiL racing.

As it turned out, the forecast was pretty much spot on.

The sun came out. The wind cranked up. The racing was epic.

There was just one small problem.

I was about to get very, very wet…

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BEHIND THE SCENES

I arrived at the event site around 10am. Ex-PWA racer and now iQFOiL Class Manager Gonzalo Costa Hoevel was kind enough to hook me up with Daniel Smith who was in charge the press etc…after collecting my pass and getting all the official stuff sorted in the press room, there was still plenty of time before racing kicked off.

That gave me the chance to sit in on the various meetings for the boat crews, followed by the skippers’ briefing, where coaches and a selection of athletes were talked through the planned schedule for the day.

Once again, I was struck by just how impressive the organisation behind an event of this scale is. There is a huge amount going on behind the scenes and somehow it all has to come together with military precision once the racing starts.

Providing the conditions played ball, the race committee were hoping to squeeze in four women’s races in Weymouth Bay, outside the harbour walls, followed by four men’s races inside the breakwaters. The men were split into two fleets, meaning eight races in total were planned for the day.

It was still raining and gloomy outside, so everyone was putting their faith in the forecast.

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179 SAILORS AND 70 CREW GET READY!

By 12:30pm, the huge astro-turfed rigging area was buzzing, with all 179 sailors …70 women and 109 men…getting themselves and their equipment ready after collecting their trackers from the race office.

Behind of the rigging area, three enormous rigging tents were packed to the brim with boards, foils and sails. The women were racing on 7.3m sails, while the men were using 8m.

The sky was still looking decidedly grey, but there was a promising patch of blue making its way towards us from the north-west. Things were about to change.

Around 70 crew were working at the iQFOiL Worlds, including 40 water crew, six Jury members, five in the Technical Committee, 12 media staff and five organisation leaders.

By 1pm, the 20 official crew boats and around 60 coach RIBs were making their way onto the water. Every member of the water crew knew exactly what they were doing and every boat driver knew where they needed to be around the race course.

Suddenly, what had looked like a fairly calm harbour was turning into a full-scale exodus out into the two race courses.

And I was about to get a front-row seat.

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FRONT ROW SEAT

I loaded up into a press boat with my driver Heinz, who just happened to be from the Isle of Wight, along with fellow photographer Andrew Moss who was shooting the American team amongst others. By this time, the cloud had finally rolled back, the sun was out in all its glory and the wind had filled in. Weymouth Bay was now awash with whitecaps and looking quite hectic. I am not sure if there had been any training days with these conditions so I’d imagine quite a few sailors were going to get a baptism of fire with the ever changing UK weather.

Luckily, I had packed rain covers for the camera, waterproof trousers, my wellington boots and a big waterproof jacket.

I was going to need them.

We blasted out through Portland Harbour and through the breakwater into Weymouth Bay. The plan was to shoot two women’s races outside in the bay and then head back inside the harbour to shoot the men.

By the time we reached the start line, where a tonne of boats and racers were already assembled, both Andy and I were getting soaked. I was very thankful I had brought all the waterproofs that is for sure!

I knew it might get windy, but it was actually howling and the sea was pretty choppy. The boat was handling the conditions with ease, but there were inevitable splashes as we blasted around the course.

It was already becoming pretty obvious that this wasn’t going to be a nice dry and relaxed day on the water.

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AND THEN THEY WERE OFF

The next few hours seemed to fly by.

From the start of the first sequence, we were fully in the zone, trying to find the best places to shoot without getting in the way of the racing.

Before the first race we spotted Emma Wilson chatting with her coaches and looking pretty relaxed, but the expressions on the faces of many of the girls looked considerably more tense to me. We also spotted Islay Watson doing here last minute race routine before the start. She had nailed an epic first day and was in the top three in the ranking after the first four races.

Then the countdown started. Seventy women began hustling for position on the start line. There was a small group of about ten sailors starting at the far end of the line, but the majority were bunched down by the start boat where we were stationed. As the final seconds ticked away, a wall of red Severne and Patrik sails stretched across the line.

It was all very tense right up until the starting signal.

And they were off.

Straight after the start there was plenty of shouting and screaming as sailors criss-crossed on opposite tacks, but somehow the whole fleet managed to head upwind and the race was on.

A few more splashes later, we were at the gates ready to shoot the race leaders as they rounded and headed back upwind.

We were already pretty soaked, but with the rain cover on the camera, the important bit of kit was at least staying dry.

Emma Wilson eventually clocked up second place after leading at the gates, while Meda Falcioni of Italy took the first bullet of the day.

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FULL THROTTLE

For the second race, we positioned ourselves at the other end of the start line, giving us a spectacular view of the whole fleet charging straight towards us.

What a view.

The sun was shining, the majority of the fleet was heading directly towards our boat and bang on the start horn, they crossed the line and fully accelerated.

The starts were incredibly intense. Somehow, 70 sailors manage to find their way through the chaos without crashing or slowing down. Obviously there are sailing rules that the racers must follow but amidst all that chaos it must be terribly hard to avoid collisions.

The second race was hectic. After shooting the gate roundings, we gunned the RIB towards the finish boat to photograph the leaders crossing the line.

This time it was Shabar Tibi who took the win ahead of Tamar Steinberg in second and Sharon Kantor in third…all three from Israel.

What a result for the Isreal team.

There were plenty of Brits in the women’s fleet, along with sailors from China, Denmark, Spain, America, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands and many more. In total, I believe sailors from 39 countries were in attendance.

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INTO THE MEN’S MAYHEM

For the second half of our mission, we headed back inside the walls of Portland Harbour to check out the men’s racing. The men were split into two fleets and the races were running back-to-back, so there was no time for anyone to relax. In the harbour there was a cruise ship as well as a naval ship which were perfect back drops for some interesting photos.

It didn’t take long before I spotted Johan Soe…aka ‘The Beast’…blasting around the course. He had been winning almost all the PWA foil races last year but has switched his focus to iQFOiL full-time this season.

There were also plenty of other ex-PWA racers in the fleet, including Ethan Westera, Nicolas Goyard, Mateus Isaac and Rytis Jasiunas. And the coaching fleet was almost as impressive. Among the armada of RIB’s, I spotted Steve Allen, Daniel Benedetti and plenty of other ex-racers supporting their riders.

We captured two more frantic men’s races from the start and finish lines before Heinz suggested we head up to the other end of the course and try shooting from the upwind mark.

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THE WASHING MACHINE

By now, the water was getting pretty wild.

I swapped positions with my fellow photographer and Andy was sitting at the back of the RIB on my plastic Peli case. By luck rather than judgement, I somehow managed to stay relatively dry while a few major splashes fully hammered poor Andy. I had brought a towel to try to keep my camera dry while we were in transit, but that had fallen into the back of the boat and was now soaked along with the rest of us.

At this stage, the concept of anything dry had become purely theoretical.

Despite the damp, our spirits were still high. Down at the upwind mark, the action was fast and furious as sailors arrived from all directions. There was a lot of shouting going on, that’s for sure.

And with good reason.

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THE BIG NAMES

All the big names in iQFOiL were out on the water, including Luuc van Opzeeland, Andy Brown, Kiran Badloe, Soe, Goyard and Sam Sills.

There were plenty of names in the mix that I wasn’t familiar with, but one thing was immediately obvious…every sailor was incredibly competitive and giving it absolutely everything.

We shot the spectacular final race from the start, which was amazing…the sun was perfect and our boat was bang in place to capture the racers flying past us. Our final move was to head to the finish to capture the racers battling for the vital points needed to make the Gold Fleet the following day.

By now we had witnessed pretty much everything you could ask for from a day of high-level racing: chaotic starts, spectacular crashes, drama at the marks, close calls on the finish line and plenty of emotion as racers fought for every point they could hustle.

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FOUR HOURS LATER…

Eventually, the last man crossed the finish line and we followed the flotilla of RIBs back into the harbour. Both Andy and I were absolutely drenched. But we were also totally stoked.

We had spent four hours right in the thick of some epic iQFOiL racing and from a photographer’s point of view it had been an incredible afternoon.

Heinz had been an amazing driver, constantly putting us in exactly the right place and giving us the opportunity to get stuck into the action.

What a driver!

Back at the rigging area, most of the racers had already packed up, while the men from the final race were washing down their equipment.

Four hours of intense racing had taken its toll. Every athlete now needed to recover, stretch, eat and get themselves ready to do it all again the following day.

Meanwhile, the media teams were still running around, filming interviews and heading into the editing suites to upload and post the day’s content.

The racing might have stopped, but the event and the work to be done certainly hadn’t. I am sure there were some protests to be handled from the Jury and those media teams would be working long into the night.

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JOB DONE

Despite being soaked to the skin, I had thoroughly enjoyed being out in the thick of the action on such a spectacular day.

The scale of the operation, the quality of the sailors and the sheer speed of the racing made it an incredible event to photograph.

And after starting the day at 4:30am, travelling from the Isle of Wight and spending four hours being repeatedly blasted by seawater, there was only one thing left to do.

Get dry.

Well… as dry as a photographer can get after an afternoon spent chasing 179 foilers around Weymouth Bay. Once again Tris Best was kind enough to offer me a lift back to the train station and by 6pm I was already en route back to Southampton. I managed to miss the 7.45 ferry by two minutes and had to wait another hour and a half until the next time. At least that gave me a chance to select my shots from the day.

I sent Gonzalo a thank you text for organizing the boat etc and his reply was, “Wanna come back on Saturday to shoot the medal races!” Hmmm looks like I am could be going back to shoot the final day of high stakes drama…Bring it on!

There is live stream of the racing to watch from midday from Thursday until Saturday!

More info on the event here: iQFOiL World Championship 2026 | Home | RYA — Royal Yachting Association