World Sailing Open Team Racing World Championships

The championships were originally held every two years with the first edition held in West Kirby, Great Britain in 1995. Great Britain won and so became the first nation to record its name on the ISAF Team Racing World Trophy, donated to ISAF by the West Kirby Sailing Club. The appearance of West Kirby as the first championship host club reflects the club's pivotal role in promoting team racing – fostered by the activities of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society.

The championships were run every two years from 1995 until the 2011 edition in Schull, after which there was a four year hiatus. The next championships were run in 2015 in Rutland. This was the last championship to be run using the 3v3 format.

In 2024 World Sailing announced that the Team Racing World Championship would return with a new 2v2 format in keelboats. The 2025 event took place 28 May to 1 June at the New York Yacht Club in Newport, RI, United States, supported by US Sailing. The 2026 event will be held 12 to 16 August at the Gamla Stan’s Yacht Sällskap, Stockholm, Sweden, and supported by the City of Stockholm and the Swedish Sailing Federation.^[2][3][4] The bidding process for the 2027 and 2028 championships was announced in 2025 with a deadline of 1 February 2026 and a decision to be made in March 2026.^[5]

Team racing world championships are held for the Optimist and International 14 classes as part of their respective class world championships. The International 420 class previously held two editions of a standalone team racing world championship, in 2015 and 2016.