2016 J/111 World Championship to be held in Cowes
by Esta Cooper 11 Sep 2015 14:58 BST
1-4 August 2016
The 2016 J/111 World Championship will be held in Cowes © Rick Tomlinson /
www.rick-tomlinson.com
The J/111 class is pleased to announce that the 2016 J/111 World Championships will take place 1st to 4th August, hosted by the Island Sailing Club in Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The Championships dove-tail perfectly with Cowes Week, an enormously popular regatta with J Boats teams.
The highly anticipated regatta will make a welcome return to Cowes, where the first ever edition was held in 2014. On that occasion it was British team Shmokin Joe, owned by Phil Thomas and Duncan McDonald who took the prestigious title. This year the Brits lost out to US team My Sharona, skippered by George Gamble.
The J/111 is a thrilling, 36ft racer, with enough headroom and comfort below decks for the occasional cruise. Capable of planing at boat speeds of 20 knots plus, the J/111 has achieved some excellent results this year, including 3rd place in IRC 1 at Cowes, 6th in IRC 1 at the Fastnet Race, and 3rd in IRC 1 at Dartmouth Regatta. The class delight in highlighting the appeal of the boat to such a wide spectrum of sailors, with a number of families and husband and wife teams racing in the fleet.
"2016 is going to be the best season of J/111 sailing ever", commented J/111 UK Class Chairman Chris Jones. "We are planning to match this year's fantastic World Champs that were held in Newport RI and add a season long festival of J/111 class sailing starting with our open Nationals at the J-Cup in June, a series of practise events, to the Royal Southern pre-worlds in July. The Worlds will be followed by a chance to sail with friends and family in a classic Cowes Week, not to mention The Round the Island Race and a chance to see the America's Cup World Series.
We already have a crew from Australia and a crew from Chicago on the waiting list for charter boats, and the excitement will only build from here. We do need every European J/111 owner to join the party, either by bringing their crew to take part or helping us to charter their boats to the many oversees teams that we are expecting to travel to for this remarkable opportunity."
The Island Sailing Club are well accustomed to the J Boats family, having hosted the J-Cup 2015 and numerous J Boats owners' social events. The club are renowned for creating an extremely welcoming atmosphere and delivering excellent race management.
The Island Sailing Club's Rear Commodore Mike Peskett said "We are delighted to have been asked to run the J/111 World Championships in 2016, and particularly pleased to see the J Boats returning to the ISC after such a successful J-Cup Regatta in 2015. We also hope that many of the J/111s will stay and compete in Cowes Week"
Regatta information will soon be available at www.islandsc.org.uk.