The 5.5 Metre World Championship and Scandinavian Gold Cup

The 5.5 Metre World Championship and Scandinavian Gold Cup is a keelboat regatta held at Lavrion, on the southeast coast of Attica, hosted by the Yacht Club of Greece. The 2026 edition runs from 1 to 9 October, with the Scandinavian Gold Cup sailed from 1 to 4 October and the World Championship from 5 to 9 October.

The 5.5 Metre is an international keelboat class designed by Charles E. Nicholson in 1949 and raced as an Olympic class at five Summer Games between 1952 and 1968. Its World Championship was first held in Helsinki in 1961. The roll of champions includes Crown Prince Harald of Norway, who won gold in 1974, and his father King Olav V, who took bronze in 1971 and 1976; the Norwegian sailor Kristian Nergaard is the most successful, with eleven titles between 1990 and 2020.

The Scandinavian Gold Cup, first contested in 1919, is a nation race in which each country enters a single boat, and has been sailed in 5.5 Metre yachts since 1953. The host, the Yacht Club of Greece, was founded in 1933 and carried the title Royal Yacht Club of Greece until 1973, under the admiralty of King George II, King Paul and King Constantine II.