SSL Team EST – By Sailors for Sailors

THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP... IN SAILING

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS | 8-11 June 2026 | Grandson, Switzerland

FINALS | 15 Nov - 13 Dec 2026 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Events

Upcoming

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 1

11:00

08 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

AUT

SLO

EST

Results

Upcoming

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 2

12:30

08 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

AUT

SLO

EST

Results

Upcoming

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 3

14:00

09 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

AUT

SLO

EST

Results

Upcoming

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 4

15:30

09 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

AUT

SLO

EST

Results

Upcoming

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 5

11:00

10 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

AUT

SLO

EST

Results

Upcoming

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 6

12:30

10 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

AUT

SLO

EST

Results

See All Races

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In this second Q&A cycle, we take a closer look at the structure behind team composition, race dynamics, and eligibility within the Star Sailors League. From how national squads are…

Date30.04.2026

The Icebreakers

Crushing all barriers

A tiny country that has a global reach on water and land

Estonia is a small country of only 1,3 million people but in the world of sailing, it is far from tiny and it will be even bigger after the result at SSL Gold Cup. Although Estonia might be best known for its digital society, Estonians truly love their homeland’s nature, for example the Baltic Sea. Undoubtedly, the Baltic Sea has contributed to great results in water sports for the country. The first sailing Olympic medal was won in 1928 in Amsterdam, highlighting the long and victorious history of Estonian sailing. SSL Team Estonia has two Olympic medalists on board, plus several World and European championships’ medal owners. For a country with only 1800 practicing sailors, Estonia has been represented in three sailing classes at the last few Olympic Games – Finn, Laser and RS:X. And as the name of the team states, Estonians are also very keen on ice as three World and six European Champion titles in DN class have been achieved under the blue black-white flag. Here come the Icebreakers!

Statistics

THE COUNTRY

1800 sailors
20 sailing clubs
9 sailing schools
3800 km of sea coast

ACHIEVEMENTS

2 Olympic silver medals
2 Olympic bronze medals

SSL ranking

SSL best ranked woman: Mia Maria Lipsmäe
SSL best ranked man: Mati Sepp
SSL nations ranking: 34

MAIN EVENTS

Olympic Games sailing regatta (1980)
Tornado World Championships (1988)
ORC World Championship 2021
470 European Championships (2002)
Laser European Championships (2010)
Finn World Championships (1994 & 2013)

Team Estonia was the first bold team to travel to Grandson in July 2019 in order to train and test the SSL-47 yacht. Breaking the ice since day 1!

The captain

SSL Team Estonia captain Tõnu Tõniste alongside with his twin brother Toomas can be described as a true legend of Estonian sailing. The brothers’ Olympic silver medal in 470 class from Seoul in 1988 was followed by a bronze from Barcelona four years later. Nowadays, they collect titles with the Melges24, SB20 and J70 boats. As a successful businessman and
former vice president of the Estonian Olympic Committee, Tõnu definitely knows how to lead a team towards the goal.

THE LEADERS

Toomas Tõniste

Two-time Olympic medalist Toomas has been an inseparable sailing partner of Tõnu for 40 years. In recent years, they have won World and European Championchip medals in Melges24, SB20 and J70 boats. Toomas has also followed an outstanding career in politics as the member of Estonian Parliament and Minister of Finance. In SSL Team Estonia, Toomas would function as the jib and gennaker trimmer

Peter Šaraškin

Peter has participated in two Olympic Games in Laser class and achieved the 7th position at World Championships. He also has great experience in X-99 class as the holder of two World Championships’ silver and one bronze medal. Peter is definitely one of the most skilled trimmers of large yachts in Estonia, which makes him an invaluable asset for the team.

Peter Šaraškin

Peter has participated in two Olympic Games in Laser class and achieved the 7th position at World Championships. He also has great experience in ORC and X-99 classes as the holder of five World Championships’ medals in both. Peter is definitely one of the most skilled trimmers of large yachts in Estonia, which makes him an invaluable asset for the team.

Mati Sepp

Mati is the dream helmsman of every team. He is constantly at the top of the world match race rankings which makes him one of the best European match race sailors. Mati has the World Champion title of X-41 and Platu25 class, two silver medals from the match race European Championships and several other champion titles and medals of X-99, X-35, Platu 25 and ORC. In SSL Team Estonia, he plays the role of the helmsman

THE YOUTH FACTOR

Estonian young sailors have shown remarkable results in different sailing classes. SSL Team Estonia candidate Karolin Härm has been crowned as the youth World Champion of Zoom8 twice and Taavi Valter Taveter won the silver medal at the U23 Finn World Championships in 2020. Both of them are over the required age limit of SSL Gold Cup which makes them strong candidates for the final national team.

Confirmed Athletes

Captain | 10

Trimmer | 4

Main Trimmer | 7

Helm | 9

Trimmer | 5

Pit | 3

Floater | TBD

Bow | 1

Mid Bow | 2

TBD | TBD

Grinder | 6

TBD | TBD

Trimmer | 17

TBD | TBD

Potential Team Position

1 BOW Karl Kolk	2 MID-BOW Maiki Saaring
3 PIT Karl-Hannes Tagu	4 GRINDER Taavi Valter Taveter
5 TRIMMER Toomas Tõniste	6 TRIMMER Tammo Otsasoo
7 MAIN TRIMMER Peter Saraskin	8 HELM Mati Sepp
9 TACTICIAN	10 CAPTAIN Tonu Toniste
11 FLOATER Karl Martin Rammo

BOW

Karl Kolk

MID-BOW

Maiki Saaring

PIT

Karl-Hannes Tagu

GRINDER

Taavi Valter Taveter

TRIMMER

Toomas Tõniste

TRIMMER

Tammo Otsasoo

MAIN TRIMMER

Peter Saraskin

HELM

Mati Sepp

TACTICIAN

CAPTAIN

Tonu Toniste

FLOATER

Karl Martin Rammo

SQUAD

Tonu Toniste	Toomas Tõniste
Peter Saraskin	Mati Sepp
Tammo Otsasoo	Karl-Hannes Tagu
Karl Martin Rammo	Karl Kolk Kolk
Maiki Saaring	Deniss Karpak
Ingrid Puusta	Janno Hool
Taavi Valter Taveter	Juuso Roihu
Ago Rebane	Aleksander Kuusik
Henri Tauts	Andres Viisemann
Karolin Härm	Rene Treifeldt
August Luure	Kevin Melvin Aasav