(The Hague, The Netherlands)- The Hague Offshore Sailing World Championship is in final preparation for the fleet of 90 yachts from 15 nations to start the event. The fleet represents a diverse cross section of teams from around the world comprised of seasoned champions, newcomers and older production cruiser/racers, as well as brand new custom racing designs being sailed by professional crews and Corinthian amateurs.
“It’s this rich diversity that makes this a truly World Championship that appeals to all offshore sailors,” said Bruno Finzi, a member of the International Jury for the event and Chairman of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC). For the first time, both ORC’s rating system and IRC, the system used by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and its French counterpart UNCL, will be used for scoring in this event. As a result, all entries were required to be measured to have certificates from both systems. Use of these systems allows for boats of different types to race against each other under handicap in a week-long format of both offshore and inshore racing.
The first offshore race starts on Sunday, July 15th. The length of this race will vary depending on the weather, but the first teams are expected to finish on Monday 16 July.
On Tuesday 17 July, either offshore racing will resume, or the start of windward/leeward course racing will begin on two designated course areas off the beach at Scheveningen, with inshore racing to continue daily through Friday 20 July. A total of nine races are scheduled, two offshore and seven inshore. The teams with the lowest combined scores using ORC and IRC ratings in each of three classes (A, B, C) will be crowned the new 2018 World Champions, with prizes also awarded to teams with all Corinthian (amateur) crew.
Sailing in the twenty-seven boat Class B are primarily custom and semi-custom production boats. Joining that fray will be a standard J/111 RED HERRING, sailed by Gerwin Janssen from The Netherlands- hopefully, his “home field” advantage will helpful through the course of nine races.
Class C has fifty-three boats from twelve nations across Europe; it’s by far the largest class in the event and starting so many big boats on one starting line will prove to be a formidable task! Some speculate the line will be from 1/4 to 1/3 nm in length! Like the other classes, there are a number of new and current custom boats racing against standard production boats. Leading the charge for the five J/Teams will be the current IRC European Champion- Fred Bouvier & Didier LeMoal’s J/112E J-LANCE 12. Also, participating from Ireland is a past United Kingdom IRC Class Champion- the J/35 BENGAL MAGIC sailed by Jim Chalmers. Finally, there are three J/109s hoping to get their shot at some silver as well; including MAJIC (Arnout Joorritsma), VRIJGEZEILIG (Michel Heidweiller), and JAI ALAI (Alain Bornet). For more Offshore World Championship sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.
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