(Howth, Ireland)- The venue for the BMW J/24 World Championship 2013,
sailing from August 24th to 30th, is Ireland’s largest sailing club,
Howth Yacht Club. Located northeast of Dublin, the club promises very
straightforward tides and no wind obstacles or commercial shipping
traffic, the sailing waters north of Howth are arguably the best in
Ireland!Howth recently hosted the BMW J/24 European Championship and competitors were given a mix of windy, moderate and light conditions around courses set by PRO David Lovegrove. David is again the Howth YC PRO for the Worlds and had the pleasure of managing the Irish Nationals over the preceding weekend as a fine-tuning session for his race management team.
Howth’s strong relationship with BMW continues. Visitors to the Europeans were treated to an impressive display of beautiful new BMW cars and a dramatic evening lighting scheme. In 2012, BMW sponsored the Irish IRC Championship in Howth, launching a new car at the event. Who knows what will be on show this year?
To
enjoy the social festivities, great sailing and awesome BMW automobiles
are forty-one J/24 teams from ten countries around the world-- truly an
impressive showing for a 36 year old International One-design offshore
keelboat class. There will be many top teams present with one crew, in
particular, looking to match Ken Read's (now President of North Sails)
remarkable record of five J/24 World Championship titles. That person
is the current J/24 World Champion Mauricio Santa Cruz from Brazil,
sailing his famous BRUSCHETTA! Santa Cruz, a four-time winner of the
title, was so keen to defend his title that he was the first overseas
entry in the competition. He also won the J/24 Worlds in 2006, 2007 and
2009.The top British team is the 2011 J/24 European Champion Ian Southworth (a three-time winner of the event) from Royal Corinthian YC in Cowes and the recent J/24 Irish National Championship in the Open Division. He will be piloting IL RICCIO GBR 5219, the same steed he rode around the track for the Irish Nationals.
The leading Irish contenders will be the current National Champion JP McCaldin from Lough Erne sailing JAIME ENCORE and Irish Class President Flor O’Driscoll of Howth YC skippering HARD ON PORT!
Leading the US challenge will be this year’s J/24 North American Champion Mike Ingham and runner-up Travis Odenbach, both from Rochester, NY. Included in the mix will be past J/24 World Champion Tim Healy from Newport, RI sailing HELLY HANSEN; 2013 Italian Open Champion Keith Whittemore sailing FURIO from Seattle, WA; and past North American Champion Tony Parker sailing the redoubtable, ultra cool BANGOR PACKET from Georgetown, DC.
Luis
Olcese from Peru will be sailing SCARAMOUSH and the Japanese entry Koji
Matsumoto sailing TEMPUS G represent highly competitive challenges as
both are recognized as notable performers in J/24 circles and have
finished well at previous championships. Top contenders from Monaco
include two members from YC Monaco- Dennis Frederiksen on PAGET and Ian
Illsley on JAWS. Germany has four entries including JJ-ONE from the
Joersfelder Segel Club, ROTOMAN from the Blankenser Segel Club and
Rosemarie Eckhoff sailing the all-women's team on TINTO. Finally,
France is fielding two teams include JINETTE skippered by Charles Gury
and JAGUAR helmed by the Garcia/ Vaulcon team-- both are from YC
Crouesty Arzon.The sailing should be extremely competitive as many of the top teams are fast, sail smart and conservatively. In fact, Santa Cruz may face a far tougher challenge in this year's event than he did in the 90+ boat Rochester J/24 Worlds last year-- it's harder to get away from the other smart crews in smaller fleets, so small errors translate into significant changes in fleet standings! Stay tuned, should be an interesting event to watch! For more J/24 World Championship sailing information
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