European Clubs Qualify for SAILING Champions League 2018
Port Edgard Yacht Club from United Kingdom © SCL/ Lars Wehrmann
Next year, 66 clubs from 17 countries will compete for Best Sailing Club of the Year 2018 in regattas at Porto Cervo (Sardinia), St. Petersburg (Russia) and St. Moritz (Switzerland).
The SAILING Champions League 2018 season kicks off with Act 1 in Porto Cervo, Sardinia from 31 May to 3 June, where the best 32 sailing clubs from the first group will meet. The qualifying races for the second group will take place in Act 2 in St. Petersburg, Russia in August. The top 15 teams from each Act will battle it out in the final in St. Moritz, Switzerland (30 August – 2 September), where the winner will claim the title.
The SAILING Champions League is an international competition between the top sailing clubs from each nation, featuring world-class sailors from dinghies, keelboats and offshore racing. Each country holds its own National Sailing League and the four top clubs qualify for the Acts. The British clubs that qualified through the British Keelboat League in 2017 are: Itchenor Sailing Club (British Champion 2017), Royal Ocean Racing Club, Wessex Sailing Club and Port Edgar Yacht Club.
Among the participants already qualified for next year’s Acts are such high calibre teams as Sweden’s Cape Crow Yacht Club (winners of the 2016 Swedish Championship and the 2017 Nord Stream Race), Denmark’s Kongelig Dansk Yachtclub, the UK’s Royal Ocean Racing Club, Russia’s Lord of the Sail – Asia and Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (German Champion 2017) from Hamburg.
At each of the four-day Act regattas, the top clubs from all the participating European nations will fight to qualify for the finals. They will be joined at the final on Lake St. Moritz by the reigning champions, the Italian Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (Sardinia).
The regatta format is Fleet Racing in the one-design J/70 Sportsboat class, with eight boats in each flight. Racing is fast and furious, with up to 60 short, sharp races right next to the shore for maximum spectator excitement.
The post European Clubs Qualify for SAILING Champions League 2018 appeared first on All At Sea.
