NO OFFSEASON: 
WASZP AND USFOIL BUILD TOWARD A BIG WINTER

Fall Clinics, US Nationals in Hawaii, Rapid HUB Growth and a Bigger Jensen Beach Winter Base Keep North American Foiling Moving

The summer championship season may be behind us, but the North American WASZP calendar is far from finished.

The next several months bring together local clinics, youth development, one of the most memorable championship venues in the world and, just over the horizon, an expanded Winter Base program in Jensen Beach that will launch the 2027 season.

At the same time, USFoil is rapidly building the infrastructure underneath that calendar, with new HUBs, the launch of its development Tracker and, as of September 29th, its first USFoil Endorsed Dinghy Foiling Coach and first USFoil Certified Dinghy Foiler.

For sailors already racing WASZPs, there are plenty of opportunities to keep training. For sailors looking to make the jump into foiling, this fall may be one of the best times yet to get involved.

Fall Clinics Continue Around the Country

The WASZP clinic program continues through the fall, giving sailors opportunities to train with experienced coaches, improve their foiling skills and get additional time on the water before winter.

Upcoming RaceHub training includes a clinic at Norfolk Yacht & Country Club on October 4th and a two day training weekend at Richmond Yacht Club on October 17th and 18th.

These events are part of a larger effort to make organized coaching available more consistently around the country. Some sailors arrive looking for race specific improvement. Others are still working through takeoffs, sustained flight, maneuvers and the fundamentals of sailing a foiling dinghy efficiently.

That mix is important. The North American program is increasingly being built around a progression in which sailors can enter through a local clinic or USFoil HUB, develop with structured coaching and then move into regional and national WASZP competition when they are ready.

Sailors can find the latest U.S. clinics and events on WASZP RaceHub.

The USFoil Pathway Starts Producing Results

While the racing calendar continues to expand, some of the most significant growth is happening behind the scenes.

USFoil launched its new development Tracker in September to create a common pathway for sailors and coaches across the rapidly growing HUB network.

The platform follows sailor development through Dinghy Foiling Certification Levels 1, 2 and 3 while separately managing the USFoil Dinghy Foiling Coach Endorsement pathway. It brings sailing skills, coaching sign offs, fitness standards and development history together in one place.

Less than two weeks after launch, the system reached two important milestones.

As of September 29th, USFoil has its first USFoil Endorsed Dinghy Foiling Coach and its first USFoil Certified Dinghy Foiler.

Those may be the first two names through the system, but they represent something much larger.

For the first time, a sailor entering the sport at one USFoil HUB can begin working through a common skills framework, travel to another HUB or Class clinic, work with another qualified coach and continue the same development record rather than starting over.

Coaches now have their own defined pathway as well, with endorsement standards tied to current outside coaching credentials and formal accountability for sailor sign offs.

The Tracker is intended to make that progression visible:

Learn to foil. Build skills. Earn certification. Begin racing. Join a development or Race Team. Progress toward national and international competition.

The technology matters because the network around it is growing quickly.

USFoil HUB Growth Accelerates

USFoil began with a relatively simple objective: build sustainable local places where sailors could access boats, qualified coaching and regular opportunities to foil without every family having to create its own program from scratch.

That network is now expanding rapidly.

Current USFoil HUB locations stretch from Northern California to Texas, Florida, Virginia and Maryland, including Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation, Richmond Yacht Club, Corpus Christi Yacht Club, Lakewood Yacht Club, the US Sailing Center of Martin County in Jensen Beach, Norfolk Yacht & Country Club and Severn Sailing Association.

And more programs are in development.

The model is intentionally local.

A successful HUB is not simply a location where USFoil drops off boats. The objective is to help the host organization develop its own sailors, coaches and regular programming so dinghy foiling becomes part of the club rather than an occasional visiting clinic.

USFoil supports that process with equipment access, coach development, training resources and connections into the broader WASZP pathway.

The recent growth in places like Corpus Christi and Lakewood shows what that model can become: local boats, local coaching, regular clinics and a direct connection into larger WASZP Class events.

The combination of the HUB network and Tracker is particularly important.

One creates local access. The other gives sailors and coaches a common structure that can follow them as they move between local training, Class clinics, school competition, Youth Development Teams and national events.

The goal is not simply to create more WASZP sailors.

It is to create an infrastructure where somebody can take a first flight close to home and see a clear route forward if they decide they want to keep going.

U.S. Nationals Return to Hawaii

The 2026 domestic championship season will finish somewhere special.

The WASZP U.S. National Championships return to Kaneohe Yacht Club on Oahu, Hawaii, from November 27th through 29th.

Kaneohe Bay combines warm water, trade winds and one of the most spectacular sailing settings anywhere in the country. The WASZP fleet will return over Thanksgiving weekend for three days of national championship racing.

For sailors wanting more than just the regatta, the trip can also become a full training block.

A pre Nationals clinic is scheduled at Kaneohe Yacht Club from November 23rd through 25th, allowing competitors to spend three days training on the championship waters before taking Thanksgiving Day off and beginning racing Friday.

That creates an unusual opportunity: three days of coached preparation followed immediately by three days of national level racing.

Limited used WASZPs are also expected to be available for charter, making Hawaii more accessible to sailors who cannot practically transport their own boats across the Pacific.

View the 2026 U.S. Nationals on WASZP RaceHub.

Then the Fleet Heads Back to Jensen Beach

Once Hawaii concludes, attention turns quickly toward 2027 and the return of the WASZP Winter Base at the US Sailing Center in Jensen Beach, Florida.

Jensen Beach has become much more than a venue for an occasional winter clinic. The goal for 2027 is to create a genuine seasonal base where sailors can keep boats on site and return throughout the winter for organized coaching, training and racing.

Winter Base membership and boat storage are expected to allow sailors to leave their WASZPs in Florida rather than tow them back and forth for every event.

For sailors living in colder parts of the United States and Canada, that changes the equation significantly. Leave the boat in Jensen Beach, fly in for a training weekend or championship, and fly home while the boat remains ready for the next block.

America One Racing, USFoil and WeCANFoil are all expected to be part of the broader winter program, connecting high performance coaching with the rapidly expanding North American development network.

Midwinters Becomes a Major Championship Weekend

The first major target of the 2027 season will be the WASZP Midwinters weekend in January.

A dedicated training day is planned for Friday, January 15th, followed by championship racing from January 16th through 18th.

But Midwinters will be more than a traditional early season regatta.

The Jensen Beach weekend is being built around several groups within the Class, with the WASZP Midwinters joined by the Masters North American Championship and High School and College Region 2 competition.

That combination should create one of the broadest WASZP gatherings of the winter, bringing youth sailors, college athletes, open competitors and Masters sailors together at the same venue.

A New Focus on Masters Racing

The Masters North American Championship is an especially important addition.

Masters participation has been growing steadily within the WASZP community, and 2027 will provide a major new international objective with the first International WASZP Masters Championship scheduled as part of the WASZP Games program in Lake Garda, Italy.

Jensen Beach gives North American Masters sailors a championship of their own at the very beginning of that season.

Rather than arriving at Lake Garda as a collection of individual sailors, the goal is to begin building a connected North American Masters fleet months earlier: training together, racing together and preparing together for the first international title.

For adult sailors who may have looked at the WASZP primarily as a youth or professional development boat, that is also an important message.

It isn't.

The WASZP increasingly offers multiple pathways within the same Class. A junior can begin through a USFoil HUB. A High School or College sailor can represent a school. A developing athlete can pursue the Race Team pathway. An open sailor can race the full championship calendar. And Masters sailors can now build toward dedicated North American and international championships.

A Winter Base With a Purpose

That is ultimately what makes the 2027 Jensen Beach program different.

Winter Base is not simply about escaping cold weather and getting more days on the water. It is becoming the starting point for an increasingly connected season.

Sailors can train in January, race Midwinters and the Masters North American Championship, leave their boats in Florida, return for additional training and then build toward the U.S. Nationals later in the spring.

For new sailors, the expanding USFoil HUB network and clinic schedule provide an entry point. For established racers, the national calendar provides increasingly serious competition. For Masters sailors, there is now a championship pathway extending all the way to Lake Garda.

And before any of that begins, there is still plenty of sailing left in 2026.

From fall clinics to Thanksgiving week in Hawaii, the WASZP swarm isn't heading into the offseason.

It is simply moving on to the next venue.

Begin your journey to Dinghy Foiling Sailor or Coach Certification.  JOIN THE SWARM!