- Type
- Inshore
- Scoring
- IRC · ORC
- Boats
- Rated yachts
- Usually
- May
- Next
- May 2027 (usual month; dates not announced)
- Organiser
- Varna Municipality with Yacht Club LZ Yachting 1991 and Ultramarine Sports Sailing Club
- Waters
- Black Sea
- First held
- —
Where and when
Race dates
Usually in May
Race days 2026
Wind and waves at the venue: monthly climate 2021–2025 and the last edition's race days (ERA5 and marine reanalysis, Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0).
Six seasons
| Year | Winner (handicap, corrected) | Line honours (first home, elapsed) | Boats | Wind and sea | Toughness | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 202622 May 2026 – 25 May 2026 | Not published | — | — | N 6.5 kn, gusts 26waves up to 0.6 m | 24 | — |
| 202523 May 2025 – 26 May 2025 | Not published | — | — | N 4.5 kn, gusts 22.7waves up to 0.72 m | 22 | — |
| 202423 May 2024 – 26 May 2024 | Not published | — | — | NE 7 kn, gusts 29.5waves up to 1.16 m | 29 | — |
| 20238 Jun 2023 – 11 Jun 2023 | Not published | — | — | NE 5 kn, gusts 21.4waves up to 0.72 m | 22 | — |
| 2022Held | Not published | — | 40 | — | — | — |
| 2021Not confirmed | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Line honours go to the first boat home, on elapsed time. Overall winner is the best on handicap (IRC or ORC corrected time), so they are often different boats. Wind is the daily mean at the start venue over the racing days; gusts and waves are the highest of those days. Open-Meteo historical weather (ERA5) and marine APIs, CC BY 4.0; venue point only, not the full course.
Race metrics
Toughness
Compare all races- Wind 7/305.8 kn mean
- Gusts 8.3/1524.9 kn
- Sea 4/200.8 m waves
- Distance 0/25not published
- Duration 5/104 days
How the score works
Our own index, not an official rating. Five inputs, each scaled to its share of 100: mean wind (up to 25 kn → 30 points), strongest gust (45 kn → 15), highest waves (4 m → 20), course length on a log scale (700 nm → 25) and days of racing (7 days → 10). Wind and waves are ERA5 reanalysis at Varna (Open-Meteo) on the race days, so an offshore course can see more than the venue does. A missing input counts as zero and is marked. Roughest edition we hold: 2024 (29).
Weather calendar · Varna
Month by month at the venue, 2021–2026 (ERA5 and marine reanalysis). Race months in orange.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean windkn | 6.9 | 6.6 | 6.1 | 5.9 | 5.4 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.8 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 6.1 | 6.6 |
| Windy days% ≥ 20 kn | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Wavesm, daily max | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| From | W | NW | NW | NW | NE | NE | E | NE | NE | NW | NW | NW |
Typical wind at Varna
Mean knots by month, 2021–2025. Race months in full colour.
Where the wind comes from
Share of days by direction in May.
Fact sheet
For press, partners and sponsors: the race in a dozen lines, from published sources. Copy it whole; please keep the source line.
- Race
- Varna Channel Cup
- Kind
- inshore sailing race from Varna, Bulgaria
- Editions on record
- 5 since 2021
- Typical fleet
- 40 boats (40 in the latest edition)
- Organiser
- Varna Municipality with Yacht Club LZ Yachting 1991 and Ultramarine Sports Sailing Club
- Next edition
- usually May 2027
Results as published by the organiser Weather: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0 Dates as announced
Sources
- bta.bg — BTA 14 May 2026: 12th edition 22–25 May, ORC/IRC, races in the channel under Asparuhov Bridge
- bnrnews.bg — BNR: Varna Channel Cup '26
- bulsaf.bg — BULSAF official calendar: Varna Channel Cup 22–25 May 2026, Varna, ORC/IRC, organiser Ultramarine SKV