A Fraternity of Champions Re-Unite(Dartmouth, England)- Seventy five boats and 350 racing sailors from nine nations will begin to arrive in Dartmouth next week to compete at The MIQ Logistics 2012 J/80 World Championship Powered by SLAM. The World Championship opens on Friday 8th of June and the practice race takes place on Monday 11th in Start Bay, just outside Dartmouth Harbour. The regatta is being organised by the Royal Dart Yacht Club and the senior hosting club is the Britannia Yacht Club. Racing for the World Championship title starts on Tuesday and three races are scheduled each day until Friday 15th June when the final two races of the series will be sailed. The new MIQ Logistics 2012 J/80 World Champion will be crowned at the Closing Ceremony and Prize-giving at Britannia Royal Naval College on Friday evening.
To have so many International teams traveling to this island nation to take part in the championship is an amazing feat in itself and it is a credit to MIQ Logistics, to SLAM and to all of the others supporting this year's J/80 Worlds. The fleet will be 40% bigger in Dartmouth than when the World Championship last came to the UK back in 2005.
Dartmouth offers the potential to deliver extremely challenging and exciting conditions for those racing at the event. Couple this with the splendor of the coastline and the warmth and support of Dartmouth residents and it is clear to see why the entry number is so high. The result is that some of the best sailors on the International racing circuit along with World Champions both past and present are coming to Dartmouth to compete. Jay Lutz of the USA and Ignacio Camino Rodrigues of Spain, the current J/80 World Champion will both be hoping that Dartmouth affords them a second opportunity to take the top spot on the podium this year.
Ruairidh Scott of North Sails won the World Championship for the UK when the event was last here in 2005. Scott returns to the J/80 fleet for the 2012 World Championship and will be racing with Simon Johnson in their boat Joyeuse. Ruairidh said ‘It’s good to be back in the J/80 fleet. Over the last few years I’ve been closely involved with the development of the class through work but I have not actually managed to fit in much J/80 racing myself. Simon and I have my Spanish colleague Gustavo Martinez as our tactician and he was second at the J/80 Worlds a few years ago so we are hoping to put together a strong campaign in Dartmouth’.
Kevin Sproul of Ultimate Sails helmed the top British J/80 at Spi Ouest Regatta in France earlier this year. Canny Scotsman Sproul sounded confident but cautious about his prospects for 2012. ‘The French and Spanish are very strong at the moment’ said Sproul. ‘They’re spending a lot of time on the water and they will not be easy to beat but my crew are absolutely ready.’ Sproul and his team won the UK National Championship which was raced in Dartmouth in 2011 and so he knows the waters well. Having just come back from winning a major International regatta in a forty foot race-boat in Barcelona last week it is clear that Sproul is at the top of his game just now.Nick Haigh (a familiar name in UK sailing circles with vast experience ranging from Lark dinghies to his most recent DK46 yacht) will be sailing his new J/80 with his wife Annie and the current SB3 World Champion Geoff Carveth. Nick explained ‘Geoff has campaigned J/80s before and when he called me to suggest putting a team together, I could not resist. Annie and I live in South Devon and with the J/80 Worlds sailing in our home waters we had to do it. We are fully revved up and ready to go with our new boat, Slightly Steamy.’ For Carveth, of course, the J/80 Worlds represent unfinished business.
Rayco Tabares (Spain) who won the J/80 Worlds in 2009 explained, ‘I started to sail J/80s in 2006 and in 2009 we won the World Championship in our country, at Santander. We thought then that it was a difficult year because there were so many boats with such good sailors, but the crews competing this year are even stronger! I love the J/80 class: it’s amazing for us to be competing against so many other teams, at regattas all over the world. I’m so happy to get the chance to race in Dartmouth this year and we hope to have great racing with good winds’.
It promises to be an extraordinary regatta. French Teams like Eric Brezellec and Jean Charles Moriceau on INTERFACE CONCEPT I & II, respectively have been at the top of their game in both French regattas and J/80 Worlds. Fellow Frenchmen Luc Nadal and Pierre Follenfant will also be in the hunt. On the English side, Ian Atkins on boats.com, Stew Hawthorn and Patrick Liardet will all be forces to contend with and are all capable of top three performances. From Denmark are top contenders Tom Klok and Will & Marie Crump. Hong Kong are fielding two teams for the first time, Bruce Perkins and Andrew Moore. From Sweden is their national champion, Ingemar Sundstedt. And, from Netherlands is one of their top teams with Laura Vroon skippering. For more J/80 World Championship sailing information
