J/80 Worlds Marseilles Preview

(Marseilles, France)- With 119 teams participating in this year's J/80 Worlds in Marseilles, France, it look like the J/80s have again set the record for the most Worlds with 70+ boat fleets for any International ISAF one-design keelboat class-- four Worlds over the last ten years, quite a remarkable achievement!

The J/80 dominates the European one-design racing circuits and France, in particular, where it is by far the most favored racer-cruiser. Indeed the Coupe de France (French Cup) circuit, organized by the French J/80 class, has nearly 200 boats that participate in the circuit of ten events every year.

The City of Marseille is hosting the event in a remarkable setting; a wide-open gateway to the Mediterranean and the second largest city in France, Marseille is a multi-cultural metropolis with international influence.  Furthermore, Marseille is the European Capital of Culture in 2013 with a great many events organized as part of the celebration.

From the sailors perspective, Marseille is at the centre of water-sports in the Mediterranean with a fabulous sailing area, recognized as one of the finest in France thanks to its 2 natural bays, a vast, protected race area, easily accessible from the harbor, and its steady sea-breezes.  No wonder major sailing events have been sailed in Marseilles; including the America’s Cup circuit, the World Sailing Games, the World Match Racing circuit (on J/80s no less), the Medcup and the MOD 70 European Tour in 70 foot multihulls.

The sailing schedule starts with a the practice race Monday, July 8th followed by five days of racing with up to three races per day, concluding Saturday, July 13th.  With 119 teams from 12 countries (France, Spain, USA, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, Russia, and Oman) many will be looking to see how well they've improved their performance over the past year of sailing and training with their boats.  No question, there will be some new faces that will surprise some in the top ten and the event may possibly be the first to dethrone the "Spanish armada" that have dominated the past few J/80 Worlds.

As the most recent World Champions, the Spanish are determined to retain the title but the chances of sweeping the top three spots on the podium may be more difficult this time.  They're sending seventeen boats with many of their top teams, including the current World Champion José María Van der Ploeg sailing FACTOR ENERGIA; past World Champions Rayco Tabares on HOTEL PRINCESS YAIZA and Carlos Martinez on ZHIK/ NOVASAIL; and Volvo 70 TELEFONICA star and World 49er Champion Iker Martinez sailing ENBATA 80. That's a formidable group of sailors!

The French are countering with many top teams, including Eric Brezellec's INTERFACE CONCEPT, Simon Moriceau's INTERFACE CONCEPT II, Vincent Vandekerkhove, Pierre-Loïc Berthet at the helm of Nicolas Lunven's GENERALI, Laurent Sambron's ATLANTIS, Luc Nadal on GAN'JA and the team of Arthur Herreman/ Romain Bethune sailing MATCH THE WORLD!

The next strongest group of teams may be the British and Swedish teams.  The Swedish teams include Anders Rosenberg sailing DYNAMANT, Ingemar Sundstedt, and Lars Gellerhed on MK-PRODUKTER.  The British teams include Jon Powell's BETTY, Patrick Liardet sailing AQUA-J, Allen Higgs skippering JUICY, and Stew Hawthorn sailing J'AI DEUX AMOURS- all very strong teams with a shot at the podium and certainly the top ten.

Highlights of leading teams from other countries include the lone American team sailing- Brian Keane's SAVASANA; top Netherlands team sailed by Laura Vroon on JOI DE VIVRE; Thomas Dehler's ANEGADA from Germany; Massimo Rama's JENIALE! from Italy; Asrar Al Ajmi sailing TEAM AL THURAYA BANK MUSCAT from Oman (the first Omani team to sail a J/80 Worlds); Pawel Boksa on MOONRAKER from Poland; Maxim Kuzmin on J-BLUE 8 from Russia (the first Russian J/80 team to sail a Worlds); and Yannick Preitner sailing POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE from Switzerland.

The Worlds promise to be another competitive, if not epic event for the 119 teams sailing for the next week!  Marseilles weather can be capricious if fronts are moving quickly across continental Europe, especially if some of the classic "mistral" conditions kick in and blow cold, strong winds out of the lower French Alps!  Shifty winds and massive blasts rolling off the mountains can be quite a challenge in the Bay of Marseille.

Meanwhile, here's a YouTube of a French team recently practicing in windy, wavy conditions off Marseille.  Looks like they had some fun learning how to gybe better in the big breeze!  Watch on YouTube here.   Spanish Sailing Photos- Jesus Renedo / Trofeo Conde de Godo and Elena Martinez / RCMS.  For more J/80 Worlds sailing information

J/80's Challenge Lidingo Runt Race

(Lidingo, Sweden)- The Around Lidingo Island Race was first organized by the Lidingo YC in 1949 as a small competition amongst friends to have some fun in the early part of the Swedish summertime.  The start is below Foresta / Millesgarden and the finish is at Old Torsviks lighthouse, north of Lidingobron.

For the first few years around fifty or so boats sailed, but the numbers began to increase quite rapidly. During the 2000s, the race had about 400 to 450 participating boats. The event is the start of the season for many East Coast sailors in Sweden.  In fact, the race has grown in such popularity that even Super Maxi 100 footers, Open 60s and 80 ft trimarans have participated for honors of "first around Lidingo"!

This year, a modest fleet of 280+ boats registered to sail the event, including a very strong class of a dozen J/80s sailing one design.  It also marked the debut of the first J/70 to participate in this famous "round island" race.

The J/80s saw the event as the first part of their training program to get teams ready to sail the J/80 Worlds in Marseilles, France as well as the J/80 Europeans.  Leading the pack home were the HAPPY team led by Johannnes Bergh.  Second was the DYNAMANT Consulting team with skipper Anders Rosenberg several minutes behind.  Third was MK-PRODUKTER sailed by Lars Gellerhed. Fourth was the HEAVY DUTY crew doing heavy duty work for skipper Pontus Tornlund. Rounding out the top five was TEAM SEGER led by Andreas Seger.

Sailing in by far one of the largest classes in the fleet was J/70 JULIA!  With next to no practice and little knowledge of how to make the J/70 go fast, it was amazing the Jan Nillson managed to skipper the J/70 to a third overall in their SRS-1 Handicap class against 23 other competitors.  For more Lidingo Runt sailing information

J/80 Sweden "SeglarPub" Training

(Stockholm, Sweden)- While they may be enjoying ice-bound -20 C weather conditions, the Swedes will still get together and "talk shop".  To that point, Anna Drougge and Isabelle Mungsgård have taken the excellent initiative to collect all the sailors in Stockholm and invite them to the first "SeglarPub".  Yes, "sailor pub" networking event!  Cool idea.

The first "SeglarPub" event is scheduled for February 21st in Stockholm at the "Odengatan". Come and talk old memories and plan for new great things on the lake. An occasional beer might slip down too!
For more Swedish J/80 SeglarPub "training" information

DYNAMANT Wins J/80 Cup Sweden

J/80 Sweden End-of-Summer Update
(Marstrand, Sweden)- The J/80 fleet in Sweden continues to have a very active schedule, despite having one of the shortest sailing seasons in the world for any J/80 fleet!  With their J/80s spread across Sweden from Stockholm in the northeast to Marstrand on the west coast to Gothenburg and Malmo further south along the Baltic, the Swedish J/80 sailors make it a point to travel around to some great places to sail during the summer just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle!

The SM Regatta in 2012 again goes to ROCAD RACING, for the second consecutive year they sailed home with the gold for being top Swedish J/80 in this event.  The team has been on the podium before and during the past year they have also participated in several International J/80 events, including the J/80 Worlds in Dartmouth, United Kingdom. 

Finally, the J/80 Cup 2012 was settled over this past weekend and it was also the last regatta of the J/80 Cup season.  This year's winner was the team at DYNAMANT followed by HAPPY, HEAVY DUTY and MK-PRODUCTS. The TEAM DYNAMANT winners were rewarded with gift cards sponsored by BUBBLE and also the IT consulting company DYNAMANT (ironic, right(?), to win your own sponsor's trophies?).  Many thanks must also be given to all others - both sailors and officials who helped out over the course of the season.

As teams are now beginning to haul their boats, many were contemplating plans for the 2013 sailing schedule. There seems to be many who are eager to trade down to France during the winter and sail in both J/Cup French Championships in November and SPI Ouest France during Easter/ Holy Week in La Trinite sur Mer, France.  Then, of course, the Swedish teams could then sail the J/80 Worlds in early July in Marseille, France along the French Riviera!  More news on this concept soon!  For more J/80 Sweden sailing information