Two teams have been selected to represent Great Britain at World Sailing’s Offshore Double Handed World Championship 2024.
Maggie Adamson and Calanach Finlayson, and Peter Bacon and Louise Clayton, will be competing in Lorient, France, which will host the 2024 Offshore Double Handed World Championship from 24 September to 1 October.
The RYA was one of just six national authorities to receive an invitation from World Sailing for two teams rather than one to take part in the event.
The 22 confirmed entries, which are for mixed teams, come from Australia, Belgium (2), Canada, France (2), Germany, Great Britain (2), Greece, India, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands (2), New Zealand (2), Spain, Sweden, Turkey and USA (2).
All teams in the ODHWC will take part in an Elimination Series consisting of two groups. Each team will take part in one over-night race.
The first five boats of each group will qualify for the Final Race. The winner of the Final will be the 2024 Offshore Double Handed World Champion.
The course area for the ODHWC will be north of Lorient, along the rugged Atlantic Coast, as far west as the Isles of Scilly, and to the east, the western approaches of The Channel.
In September, westerly winds and strong ocean currents are expected to produce complex and thrilling conditions for the Offshore Double Handed World Championship.
The teams will race 10.4m monohull One Design Sun Fast 30s supplied by the Cap-Regatta. The Sun Fast 30 OD is built in a collaboration between Jeanneau and Multiplast.
The Offshore Double Handed World Championship is organised by Lorient Grand Large in association with FFVoile, the Yacht Club De France and the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) with a charter fleet of Sun Fast 30 One Designs supplied by the Cap-Regatta.
The 2024 event will be the first of three editions, moving to Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 2025, and then to a third venue to be confirmed in 2026. World Sailing’s ambition is to grow the sport of offshore racing.
