Sebastian Kempe sailed into Canada last weekend and left as its national champion.

Kempe beat 33 other sailors in the 2026 ILCA Canadian Championships in Ontario, finishing outside the top four just once in seven races.

His net total of 15 points was 4.5 points fewer than Canadian national Liam Bruce, with Jacob Townsend finishing third on 24 points.

While Kempe has his eyes on bigger prizes later in the summer, describing this as “a smaller event”, the opportunity to grab victory is something he is pleased to have seized.

“It was only a two-day event, but I always want to win,” Kempe said. “I feel good about winning but this is not a result that I will look back on and base my career around, but it’s a lot better to win than it would have been to lose.”

In winning the event, Kempe beat Bruce and fifth-placed James Juhasz, who both travelled to Bermuda recently to take part in a training camp and Kempe was thrilled to have beaten his friends in their own waters.

It’s one thing to have them in Bermuda and have the local knowledge at home but it’s definitely another thing to go into their backyard and try to beat them,” Kempe said.

“I was happy with how it all turned out, the guys are all good sports. I enjoy competing with them and I hope they enjoy competing with me, which is why we train together so well.”

Apart from a twelfth-place finish in race four, Kempe feels the regatta went smoothly and helped boost confidence for some big events on the horizon.

“I was using this event as a warm-up for the summer, so I’m happy that it was a success,” he said.

“Hopefully that’s going to show that there are good things to come and my performance was good in pretty tricky conditions, which is promising.

“I wasn’t super knowledgeable about this venue but I’m feeling good about my decision-making on the water. It’s really just about getting reps in and that was why I was here.

“It’s been a good week for getting lots of reps in on the starting line and in racing. Winning is just a bonus.”

Kempe has a big month ahead with the North American Championships taking place in the Los Angeles Olympics Games venue a couple of weeks before the chance to win a medal for Bermuda at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Dominican Republic.

“With my next event taking place in Los Angeles, there will be a lot of guys heading there to get reps in the Olympic venue,” Kempe said.

“That is actually shaping up to be a pretty high-level event with a lot of top competitors.

“After that, I'll fly to the Dominican Republic but there are not too many opportunities to go down much earlier than we are because of the nature of the Games.

“I know that some of the guys have competed there before but some guys are like me who haven’t, and it’s just going to be what it is.

“But If this recent event has taught me anything, it’s that I can be adaptable on a new venue.”

Kempe spent last week surrounded by Canadians at a time when that country has made it into the last 16 at the World Cup and spent Sunday afternoon watching their victory against South Africa.

“We watched the Canada game yesterday and it was wonderful to watch it with the people that are from the country,” he said.

“Hopefully one day I will get to watch Bermuda make it to the World Cup.”