Enormous show of interest in the J80 World Championship

by Carlos Pich on 3 Jul 2009 The enormous show of interest in the J80 World Championship 2009 which will take place on the 4th to the 11th of July in Santander has been confirmed by a massive inscription.

The closing date for entry was on the 1st of June and the Royal Santander Yacht Club (R.C.M.S) has decided not to extend this date as the number of inscriptions has been much higher than anticipated.

There will be 127 boats, and over 500 racers competing for the world title in Cantabrian waters. There will be an important foreign participation of 48 boats representing 9 countries to be joined by 79 boats from all over Spain.

The largest foreign fleet will be from France with 30 boats, Great Britain with seven boats, Germany has entered three boats, Sweden and Estonia with two boats and USA, Belgium, Holland and Italy will each have a representative.

The Spanish fleet will come from nearly all the Coastal areas of Spain. From Canary Islands there will be three teams, Balearic Island’s 2, Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa 13, Cataluña with 3, Galicia 10, Murcia 4 and Valencia 1. The largest number of competitors will be form Santander with 33 boats which will complete the 'Spanish armada'.

The gathering of so many one-design boats in one event marc’s a triumph in European and world sailing. It confirms the great interest in regattas where the boats compete in real time (as apposed to handicapping systems). As a point of reference, in the 2008 edition of the worlds held in Kiel (Germany) there was 65 boats just about half the boats to the imminent edition. Words coming from Jeff Johnstone, president of J-Boats, North American ship builders of one design J80:

The Santander site was proposed by the Spanish J/80 Class Association, due to the beautiful sailing venue it offers, great sailing conditions, and being home to a large and competitive J/80 fleet. The International J/80 Class unanimously approved the bid, and it will mark the first time in the J/80’s 15 year history of having a major international championship in Spain.

The Spanish J/80 class has been the world’s fastest growing J/80 class over the past three years, and has produced back-to-back world championship titles. Until the Spanish sailors won the 2007 worlds in France and 2008 Worlds in Germany, every previous World Championship had been won by a team from the host country. I know that there will be several top ranked teams from other countries coming to Santander to try to win back the crown! The president of J80 boats ads: 'I would only say that the 2009 event in Santander will be one of the top one-design events of the year'.

http://www.j80worlds2009santander.org