American Magic welcomed sailors and partners from around the world yesterday to the American Magic High Performance Center (AMHPC) in Pensacola for the official Opening Ceremony of the 2026 International WASZP Games.
Why this matters: The ceremony brought together athletes representing a rapidly expanding global WASZP fleet as North America hosted the class’s premier international event for the first time. The gathering celebrated both the continued growth of the WASZP class and Pensacola’s emergence as one of the world’s leading venues for high-performance foiling.
A Community That Opens Its Arms
American Magic COO Tyson Lamond set the tone, praising the city and its people.
- “There’s no community that opened their arms as much as Pensacola,” Lamond said. “This community genuinely cares, genuinely supports each other, and genuinely wants to help each other to the next level.”
Lamond singled out the Pensacola Yacht Club, noting the organization’s commitment to youth development as something American Magic had never encountered before.
- “We have never, ever been in a community with a local yacht club that is so passionate about the youth coming through and developing our sport,” he said. “We are so thankful to be a small part of the sailing community here.”
Mayor Reeves: ‘The Best Sailing Destination in the United States’
Mayor D.C. Reeves reflected on the years of phone calls, engineering, contracting, and community investment that made the AMHPC and events like the WASZP Games possible.
- “All of that work was thinking about events like this,” Reeves said. “For us to be able to plant our flag and have that flag validated by having some of the best sailors, the best training, the best young sailors in the world enjoying our community—it’s really an honor.”
Reeves also echoed Lamond’s praise for the Yacht Club, calling it indispensable to Pensacola’s sailing identity.
- “It’s one thing to have this organization and this building and this port, but events like this would not be possible without the Yacht Club,” he said.
American One Racing: ‘Nothing Compares to the World Coming from Pensacola’
Leandro Spina, Executive Director of American One Racing, described a mission built around finding and elevating the sport’s best young talent. But it was Pensacola’s culture, he said, that truly stands apart.
- “I’ve been doing this for a long time, so many classes, so many countries,” Spina told the crowd. “I can tell you that nothing compares to the world coming from Pensacola. You get to a rental car counter, any coffee shop, everybody’s excited about us being here, and you don’t find it anywhere else in the world.”
Spina made clear that despite the 2028 Olympics returning to U.S. soil in Long Beach, Pensacola remains the program’s true home base.
- “We call Pensacola our home,” he said.
Eight Years in the Making
Pensacola Yacht Club co-chair Tom Pace traced the event’s roots back to a chance visit three years ago, when Canadian sailor Tyler Bjorn brought a group of kids south to train during a cold northern winter.
“They were only going to be here for a week, and then a month, and then two, and then three,” Pace said. “That started WASZP being here.”
From that informal beginning grew an ambition to bring the class’s world championship to Pensacola. The moment wasn’t lost on Pace, who recalled American Magic’s first visit to the city eight years ago for a youth nationals event.
“Eight years later, we’re in this amazing facility doing this again — 12 countries represented and the first-ever foiling world championship in North America,” he said.
The Boat That Keeps Kids in Sailing
WASZP designer and founder Andrew McDougall offered a rare window into the philosophy behind the boat — a design built not for maximum performance or technological complexity, but for accessibility and joy.
- “Everything I’d done before was all about performance — how can we get that last little bit, how can we spend more money making this boat go 1% faster?” McDougall said. “This was trying to put everything I’d ever learned into one package that was one design, was accessible, wasn’t too expensive, and was safe.”
McDougall pointed to a single goal he wrote in a diary back in 2009 as the original spark for the project.
- “The only goal I’ve ever written down was: design a boat that keeps kids in sailing,” he said. “And I think we’re on the way.”
Nearly 50% of all WASZP sales are now to sailors under 21 — up from roughly 15% just five years ago.
Pensacola Cements Its Place on the World Stage
The 2026 International WASZP Games run March 24–28 and are expected to deliver one of the largest fleets of foiling dinghies ever assembled in the Americas. The event follows the AMHPC’s recent designation as the official North American training base for SailGP teams under a multi-season agreement beginning this year, further anchoring Pensacola’s reputation as America’s home of high-performance sailing.