World’s best yachtsmen are coming to Croatia.
Excellent sailing news from Šibenik: in June next year, the town will host the Offshore Sailing World Championship, organised by the Val Sailing Club and D-Marin Mandalina. This exclusive news has been confirmed by Val’s president Teo Piasevoli. It is expected that about 150 of the world’s top sailboats of between 9 and 20 metres in length will participate in the competition. They will be divided into three groups, and all sailboats will be stationed at the Mandalina Marina in the centre of Šibenik. The Offshore Sailing World Championship has already been held in Croatia once: in 2011, the prestigious regatta was organised on the island of Cres.
Starting from this year, the two leading handicap systems IRC & ORC have joined their forces, efforts and knowledge into one combined Offshore Sailing World Championship. Racing using a handicap or rating system is a way for yachts of different size, shape, age and performance profiles to compete together equitably on the same race course at the same time. There are many handicap and rating systems in use around the world, but the two most successful in terms of numbers of subscribers are ORC and IRC. Together the two have rated over 15,000 boats in over 50 countries worldwide.
The first combined ORC & IRC World Championship will be held in The Hague in mid-July this year. The World Championship regattas regularly include some 20 best Croatian crews. The exact dates when the Offshore Sailing World Championship will take place in Šibenik will be announced shortly.
