Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Returns to St. Petersburg, Melges 24 Midwinters
The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series returns to St. Petersburg, Florida, February 13–15, 2026, hosted by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. This highly anticipated event serves as the Melges 24 Midwinters, launches the 2026 North American Sailing Series, and continues the momentum of the Melges 24 Southeast Racing Series.
Renowned for world-class race management, deep and diverse fleets, and exceptional shoreside experiences, St. Petersburg once again sets the stage for one of the most important early-season regattas in North American sailing. With multiple one-design midwinter championships, a premier ORC fleet, distance racing, and high-performance youth competition, the event promises three days of top-tier racing and camaraderie.
Below is a message from Dave Reed, newly appointed Director of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series, who shares his vision for the series and what sailors can expect when the fleet gathers in St. Pete this February.
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Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series friends,
Greetings from Sailing World HQ in Newport, Rhode Island. Our Winter 2026 issue—No. 608, of Volume 64 (that’s 608 issues over 64 years)—is off to the printer and the frostbite racing is in full swing. As much as I do enjoy racing through ice-capped mooring balls every weekend, there’s one thing I look forward to much more—St. Petersburg in February, which can’t come soon enough.
It’s coming up fast, and before we get there I wanted to take a moment to first thank you for spearheading your class efforts and assisting with the building the fleet for St. Pete. With the outstanding support of the St. Petersburg YC waterfront and club team we have another exciting regatta lined up for February.
Before we get to some details I also wanted to introduce myself as the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series’ new director. I’ve been with Sailing World since 1994 and started my career with the regatta series when it was an amazing national tour of nine events, which spanned from Newport to San Fran, to Texas to Toronto. All of which is to say that I’ve been around the series for a long time and I’m excited to have the opportunity to lead it through our 37th season. With your help and the support of so many over the years we’ve created America’s best and only national series, and we intend to keep it that way and keep making it better.
Thankfully, we have Priscilla Scollin, our ace Race Manager, who crafts the magic behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly on site, from logistics to registration and payments, to scoring, to the parties and the bounty of Helly Hansen awards and gear that’s presented when the racing’s done.
St. Pete is shaping up to be another amazing gathering with as many as 10 one-design class midwinter championships. We also have a top-shelf ORC fleet, a growing fleet of our distance racing friends from West Florida PHRF, and the high-performance youth of the 29ers, and possibly Nacra 15s, with teams sailing for berths on the national youth team. Exciting stuff. We also have plans to take our nightly socials up a notch or two, but more to come on that.
As for now, we’re about two months out from the regatta, so we’ll be ramping up communications and promotions across Sailing World’s channels (email, sailingworld.com, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp). So, please let us know how we can best help you with your outreach to class members and how we can ensure everyone’s experience from registration to pack up is smooth and enjoyable. Our direct contact information is below in case you need it, and attached are a few graphics for your socials to start building the excitement.
Registration is live, so let’s go race!
https://www.sailingworld.com/regatta-series-st-petersburg/
Thank you and let us know if you’d like to connect by phone or virtual meeting anytime for questions/concerns and ideas.
Cheers and Happy Holidays from Dave, Priscilla and your Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Team. We’ll see you in 2026 and thank you for racing with us.
Regatta e-mail hotline: regattas@sailingworld.com
Dave Reed @ dave.reed@sailingworld.com
Priscilla Scollin @ Priscilla.scollin@firecrown.com
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Several Melges 24s are already signed up to race in St. Pete’s.
The early entry deadline is January 25, 2026.
Register Online today!