Queen’s sailing is seeing representation on one of the biggest international stages.
From Sept. 25 to Oct. 3, Queen’s sailors Anna Powick, Sci ’29, and Andrew Kenny, ArtSci ’29, represented Canada at the 2026 International University Sports Federation (FISU) World Sailing Championships in Croatia. The competition took place over five days, with the world’s top university sailors, many of which have Olympic aspirations.
Powick and Kenny were also joined by two other Canadian sailors: Richard Rychlik Jr. from the University of Toronto and Elsie Gillis from Dalhousie University.
The Journal sat down with Powick to learn more about how the competition unfolded, as well as her time in Croatia.
“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to go. It was a super cool experience,” Powick said when asked about being invited. “It was awesome to get to sail with everyone.”
Fifteen national teams competed in the FISU World Sailing Championships this year. According to Powick, the teams were comprised of some of the most-talented young sailors in the world.
“The competition there was really good. There was lots of people doing Olympic campaigns, and people who have won world championships,” she said. “It was a really cool experience to be able to compete against that caliber of athletes.”
The event itself took place over five days from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. However, teams arrived earlier to register, train, and explore the city of Split, where the event took place.
“[Split] is a really historical, beautiful city. We had the chance to do some sightseeing, walk around, eat lots of ice cream. That was definitely a highlight,” Powick said. The team had two days of training before the racing started.
Each sailboat that races is manned by a four-person team, working together to try to make the boat go as fast as possible. Powick was the main trimmer on the team, which means that she “was in charge of the bigger sail,” according to her.
The first four days were a qualifying regatta, the main type of competition that sailing uses in which teams try to accumulate as little points as possible by placing well in a number of smaller races. The last day was the championship day for the teams that qualified.
Team Canada did not qualify to championship day, finishing eighth of out fifteen teams. Despite not qualifying, Powick was not upset at all and sees the experience as good for her and Kenny to learn from.
“It was a really good learning experience, just chatting with people and discussing their decisions and how they did something was super beneficial,” Powick said.
The competition is another milestone in an impressive sailing career for both Gaels. Powick is coming off a historic rookie campaign that saw her take home the 2025 Canadian Intercollegiate Sailing Association (CICSA) Rookie of the Year and Female Crew of the Year awards. Kenny has had major success on the international stage by winning the North American J/105 Championship in 2024 and is also one of the captains on the Queen’s Sailing team.
READ MORE: Queen’s Sailing rookie Anna Powick wins multiple national awards
“Shout out Andrew Kenny,” Powick said. “It’s really cool to be able to bring both our experiences and knowledge back to Queen’s to help make our team better.”
Queen’s Sailing will continue its busy fall schedule this upcoming weekend when they head to New York to compete in the International Offshore Regatta from Oct. 11-12. The team will then get ready for when Montreal hosts the CICSA Team Race Nationals from Oct. 24-25.
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