Vegvisir Racers Found Their Way Again

Once again, Vegvisir Race proved that the event is here to stay. With a 15% increase in the number of entries, the Shorthand concept of challenging courses combined with a strong social programme on shore stood up to both torrential rain and storm-force conditions and ended as a great success.

The 2026 edition reminded both sailors and organisers that completing Vegvisir Race is supposed to be an achievement. And there were plenty of achievements this year.

Most of all, 2026 will be remembered for the wind. Strong conditions kept several sailors ashore, while others sought shelter in Nyborg or in harbours of refuge around the two courses. Vegvisir Race has never been intended to be an easy sail. The idea is to challenge sailors across boat handling, navigation, tactics and endurance.

In 2026, they needed most of the toolbox. The races were completed so quickly, however, that endurance was tested more like hard interval training close to 100% effort than a long-distance endurance run at 60-70%.

Despite the very windy days, there were no accidents, no injuries, no broken masts and no major damage of any kind. A few sails, however, will be paying a visit to the sailmaker before the next race.

Vegvisir Race has two taglines. One is Find Your Way. The other is Sailing & Socializing. This year, the event lived up to both.

Sailing & Socializing

Sailing & Socializing started on Wednesday evening with a talk by a very lively Christian Liebergreen, one of only two Danes to have sailed solo around the world non-stop.

Before taking on that challenge, Christian spent two years as a Sirius patrol soldier. Today, he is a helicopter rescue operator. He certainly had something to say about choosing a rather different way of living your life.

He delivered it in a very down-to-earth and relatable way. Afterwards, the traditional gathering in the tent continued, with the threatening weather situation providing plenty to talk about.

Vegvisir Race is never quite the same from one year to the next. One reason is that the courses change every year. You never sail exactly the same race twice.

In principle, the longer Red Course is approximately 200 nautical miles, while the shorter Green Course is around 100 nautical miles.

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The first attempt at singlehanded racing

This year was also supposed to see the first edition of an entirely new singlehanded concept, starting Thursday morning at 10:00.

The idea is to sail the long Red Course singlehanded. To make this possible from a safety perspective, the rules included a maximum of 36 hours of non-stop sailing followed by a mandatory 6-hour continuous rest period, either at a buoy, at anchor or in harbour.

The rest period could also be used tactically, allowing sailors to seek shelter or wait out periods of either too much or too little wind. The 6 hours would be deducted from the final sailing time.

Long story short: There were 6 entries for the 200 solo race. Three sailors attended the skipper meeting on Wednesday evening. The following morning there were 2 participants at 07:00, 1 participant at 07:30, and the final sailor withdrew at 08:15.

“Naturally, I am disappointed that we did not get to see this new format unfold this year, because I am convinced it has great potential. We will offer it again next year. At the same time, I respect the fact that the sailors felt the conditions were simply too extreme and decided to pull the plug. That is also what Vegvisir Race is about: looking inward and finding out who you are and where your limits are.”

That is how organiser Morten Brandt sums it up. Vegvisir Race is organised in cooperation with Nyborg Sejlforening and Nyborg Municipality.

Red Course

There were still plenty of sailors and boats in the harbour ready to take on the Red Course on Thursday and the Green Course on Friday.

From the organisers' perspective, the key consideration was avoiding a situation where the fleet would have to beat up Svendborgsund in too much wind. The sailing direction was therefore set clockwise, which originally meant a long upwind leg to a mark in German waters in Flensburg Fjord.

After numerous routing iterations and consultations with route planner Jure Jermann from 4Ocean, the decision was made to drop the Flensburg mark, cutting 20 nautical miles from the course, and instead have the boats enter Svendborgsund after passing Ærø.

Before that, the sailors had raced from Nyborg around Romsø, past Agersø, around Femø and Vejrø and south of Langeland.

The first boat home was the trimaran Ra, a Seaon 9.6 from Thurø, sailed by Jacob Haaber and Thomas Palm Hansen. They were back in Nyborg at approximately 16:28 on Friday.

The first monohull home was Khaos, sailed by local sailors Kim Haugaard and Jonas Sørensen. The boat is built in aluminium by Kim Haugaard, who was also involved in developing the Kimoca 35, the design he calls it.

Khaos performed impressively and was sailed very competently by the two local sailors. They won their Medium category, for boats from 30 to 35 feet, but also beat boats in the Large category, covering 35 to 40 feet.

Another impressive performance on the Red Course came from German sailors Juliane Hausmann and Zoe Coers, who won Multihull Small aboard a Dragonfly 28 performance trimaran.

They reported logging 19.4 knots on the way to Femø, late Thursday evening in the stormy darkness. They finished at approximately 18:30 after just under 25 hours at sea.

Green Course

There were many course options on the table for the Green Course. The final decision was made Friday morning.

The course ran from Nyborg to Agersø, north along Zealand, across the shipping route to Romsø and back to the finish.

In total, it was 66 nautical miles. And despite forecasts of up to 28 knots of wind, several sailors measured wind speeds in the 30s.

Many of the starters therefore decided to retire, leaving just 10 boats to complete the course.

All of them deserve credit. And particularly the fastest boat on the course.

German sailor Patrik Heinrichs returned to Nyborg aboard his Esse 850 Jinx after just 9 hours and 38 minutes.

It was an impressive performance in itself. Heinrichs was sailing singlehanded, yet kept all the doublehanded boats behind him. And he did it aboard a boat measuring just 8.5 metres, essentially a design created for sailing on the Swiss lakes.

Another notable performance came from Anders Heine Hansen and Michael Stampe, who won the Medium category and simultaneously set The Speed to Beat for the Medium category on the Green Course.

Sailing & Socializing continues ashore

As mentioned, everyone made it back without injuries or serious damage to boats or equipment. Under the conditions, that was an achievement in itself.

So there was plenty of reason to celebrate on Saturday evening.

And celebrate they did.

The afterparty once again lived up to the Sailing & Socializing part of Vegvisir Race. The atmosphere was excellent, with competitors and friends talking across nationalities, boat classes and the usual divisions of the race track.

There were also several young sailors taking advantage of the highly favourable programme that allows young sailors to enter for €1 during the Early Bird period.

2027: The anniversary edition

In 2027, Vegvisir Race will celebrate its anniversary. The race was first held back in 2017 in Nykøbing Falster. Since 2021, the event has been based in Nyborg, in the heart of Denmark.

It has already been announced that the 2027 edition will be something special, with the organisers planning to turn up the dial both on the challenging sailing and on the social programme ashore.

Vegvisir Race. Find Your Way.

You can find results, photos, video and all other information from Vegvisir Race Nyborg 2026 at vegvisirrace.com

The new record holders

Green Course

Medium (30.01-35.00 ft)

Winner and new record holder: Grand Delice, Beneteau First 36.7. Anders Heine Hansen and Michael Stampe.

Sailed distance: 70.08 nautical milesThe Speed to Beat (average speed): 6.511 knots

Red Course

Small (25.01-30.00 ft)

Winner and new record holder: Kleine Brise, 30er JK Mod, Markus Schöner and Niklas Ganssauge.

Sailed distance: 184.17 nautical milesThe Speed to Beat (average speed): 7.044 knots

Medium (30.01-35.00 ft)

Winner and new record holder: Khaos, Kimoca 35. Kim Haugaard and Jonas Sørensen.

Sailed distance: 190.1 NMThe Speed to Beat (average speed): 7.764 knots

Large (35.01-40.00 ft)

Frostboksen, Frost 38, Michael Møllmann and Klaus Rønn Madsen.

Sailed distance: 189.23 nautical milesThe Speed to Beat (average speed): 7.699 knots

The numbers

114 entries

Green Course

38 declared ready to start on the Green Course

10 finished20 DNF8 DNS

Red Course

53 declared ready to start30 finished12 DNF11 DNS