J/News Articles: J/80 Student Yachting World Cup Update

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

J/80 Student Yachting World Cup Update

J/80s sailing Student Yachting World Cup

(Pornic, France)- The Student Yachting World Cup, an annual sailing competition organized by students of the École Polytechnique, a French engineering school, has the world’s best student sailing teams racing the International J/80 Class sailboats! The 33rd edition of SYWC is currently being sailed from October 14-19 in Pornic, France, with teams from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland, Ireland and USA vying for the 2013 title. Representing North America will be Dalhousie University (CAN) and the US Naval Academy (USA).

The SYWC is an event organized every year in France by students for students. Created in 1979 under the name of Course de l'Europe, the Cup was just meant to include participants from Western Europe. But, as time went by, more and more Eastern European countries joined the Cup. That's why the Course de l'Europe changed its name to become the SYWC.

J/80 university student sailor at World Cup

J/80 university student sailor at World Cup

The regatta lasts for one week in France and includes about 150 competitors, representing 15 countries from all around the world. During the week, the atmosphere is both fun, sporting and multicultural. The first night, every team has to participate at the crews' dinner by bringing some dishes or some beverage representing their country. This way, the students have an opportunity to meet and discover other cultures before the cup begins. Each night, students can also meet at the dining room and have a nice time with members from other university teams.

So far, the teams have been treated to a wide variety of sailing conditions, from rainy windy 15-25 kts days to sunny, benign conditions in the 6-12 kts range. Kristen Berry from J/World Annapolis reports that the US Naval Academy teams has been sailing well. Berry says the USNA trained on their J/80s in preparation for the SYWC. Evidently, it has paid off since winning the practice day and leading after the first day, they are still in contention for a podium finish. The French team (the prestigious Kedge Business School) are clearly familiar with sailing the J/80s-- as of Thursday they were leading by a substantial margin. However, with racing so tight in the lighter conditions, anything can happen with upwards of 3-4 races being sailed per day!

With two days of sailing left with a good forecast for breeze, the French Kedge BS school is leading with 14 pts, followed by the Swiss Ecole Polytechnique FL school in 2nd with 39 points. Third is the American US Naval Academy with 43 pts, 4th is the Australian Macquarie University team with 51 pts and 5th is the Scottish Universities team with 56 pts.