More sailing news

Thirty-one boats are sailing the 2019 J/22 World Championship in Warnemuender, Germany in the coming week.  Hosts are the Warnemuender Segel-Club with help of Berliner YC and YC Berlin-Grunau, held in concert with Warnemeunder Week from the 6th to 13th July.

The Royal Ocean Racing Club's 2019 IRC National Championship has been won out of the blue by a first timer not from the Solent. The 22 boat IRC Two fleet was led from the outset by Stuart Sawyer's J/122 Black Dog, rounding off the series today with a final bullet to win ultimately by 15 points from the Blair family's King 40 Cobra.

On the 20^th of June, X-Yachts launched the smallest member of the Pure X Range, the X4⁰. Back in January the 21^st, the new model was presented for the first time to journalists and potential clients at the largest boat show in the world, the Boot in Düsseldorf.

The IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran arrived back in her home port of La Trinité-sur-Mer yesterday morning after a quick journey to the Mediterranean and back. Francis Joyon has been carrying out public relations work in Cagliari (Sardinia), showing off his maxi-trimaran, which won the Route du Rhum and the Jules Verne Trophy.

The Mirpuri Foundation has announced that it will soon be ‘Racing For The Planet’, as it confirms both its environmental message and the name of its new VO65 racing yacht for the next edition of The Ocean Race, beginning in 2021.

Despite a dismal light wind and strong tide forecast that had most crews preparing for an afternoon ashore, a light breeze built early in the afternoon, miraculously allowing the Royal Ocean Racing Club's two race committees to lay on a full three race opening day of the IRC National Championship.

In just one month from now on Saturday 3rd August, 21 double-handed crews in the IMOCA category will line up off Cowes for the start of the 48th Rolex Fastnet Race, the classic biennial offshore race.

A strong line-up, ranging from TP52s, FAST40+s and Performance 40s, down to nimble HP30s and the cruiser-racers majority will take to the Solent this Friday for three days of intense competition at the Royal Ocean Racing Club's IRC National Championship. The event returns after a year's hiatus when the RORC hosted the IRC European Championship in the Solent.

While crew lists for August's Rolex Fastnet Race are far from finalised, currently just over 10% of those competing in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's biennial voyage from Cowes to Plymouth via the Fastnet Rock will be women. While this is a long way from parity between the sexes, it is at least a step up from races say 20 years ago when the equivalent figure had yet to reach 5%.

Fredrik Lööf, from Sweden, has secured his second successive OK Dinghy European title in Kiel with a race to spare after winning the first race of the day on the final day on Tuesday. Valerian Lebrun, from France took silver, while Thomas Hansson-Mild, from Sweden took a late bronze after his best day of the championship. Bo Petersen, from Denmark, won the final race. The 2019 OK Dinghy European Championship was sailed within Kieler Woche.