Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race returns for 2026 with a new Four Islands course

 

The Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race (AODR) returns on Sunday 9 August 2026, organised by Red Wharf Bay Sailing and Watersports Club at Traeth Bychan on the north-east coast of Anglesey, north Wales.

The race is open to monohull dinghies and non-foiling multihulls across a broad handicap band, from ILCA 6s and GP14s to RS200s and RS400s, Wayfarers, 505s and Dart catamarans. Entry is £30 for single-handers and £35 for double-handers, including hot food at the finish, and the fleet is capped at 50 boats.

Online entry, the Notice of Race and the course are at angleseyoffshore.co.uk

Competitor briefing is at 09:45 with the first start at 10:15; the fastest boats are expected home in three and a half to four hours, with the whole fleet finishing within six hours and prize-giving at the club as soon as practical after racing.

After a year's pause in 2025, the race returns on a redesigned course. Rather than the traditional point-to-point from Beaumaris, the 2026 fleet starts and finishes in the same place — Traeth Bychan — and sails an out-and-back Four Islands course around Puffin, Ynys Dulas, Moelfre and Anglesey, with two long arms stretching north and south.

It runs to a target time rather than a fixed distance, flexing between roughly 9.5 and 16.5 nautical miles to suit the day: a proper endurance test when the breeze is up, without trapping a mixed fleet at sea in light airs. Starting and finishing in one place also means tighter, locally based safety cover and far less shore logistics for visitors.

The aim of the club is to grow from a target 40 boats in 2026 towards 100 by the end of the decade. The minimum age is 14, with under-18s sailing under parental consent.

First sailed in the 1960s and run more than fifty times since, the AODR has long been the north Wales coast's offshore rite of passage — a long, exposed, tide-and-tactics race that rewards seamanship as much as boat speed, and has previously formed part of the Allen Endurance Series. The 2024 running drew 38 starters in champagne conditions, won overall by Jac Bailey and Ben Sinfield in a 29er from Port Dinorwic Sailing Club. Olympians and club sailors have lined up alongside one another over the years.

"The old course was brilliant, but it had become hard to justify with our volunteer base, which is why we paused rather than run it below standard," said Race Manager Paul Halliwell. "The new course holds onto everything that made the AODR worth doing — it's still long, still coastal, still a challenge — and starting and finishing in one place means more sailing and less faff for everyone, visitors especially. We want it to grow."

Full details and entry: angleseyoffshore.co.uk