Field filling for Offshore Sailing Worlds

The entry list is near finalized for The Hague Offshore Sailing World Championship, which will be held July 12-20 in Scheveningen, Netherlands. With a deadline of May 14, there is still room for Class A and B boats but Class C is now complete for this first-ever regatta using both IRC and ORC scoring to crown three new World Champions of offshore sailing.

The Class C entries include three brand-new custom designs built especially for the Worlds by three different designers and built in three separate countries.

These new boats are Sven Nuutmann’s Eestii Meedia Sailing Team, a new boat from the Cossutti design studio in Italy and built in Estonia; Nightshift, Marco Scholten’s new Judel/Vrolijk 36 built in Poland for his Dutch team; and another entry that is all-Dutch eco-friendly design and build – Erik Van Vuuren’s Waarschip 36 named Hubo.

Scholten said Nightshift has been a dream in the making for a few years, having first approached family friend and designer Rolf Vrolijk about this project in 2014. The original design parameters were then changed in 2015 after ORC established their CDL class divisions to give a new target for size.

Construction of hull and deck then started in Poland at Rega Yachts, but then a battle with health issues over the past year or so slowed progress while Marco’s father Jan led the effort to finish the construction and commissioning of the boat to their specifications…Jan was a former boatbuilder at Bavaria Yachts.

“Our team has been loyal throughout this long process,” sais Marco, “but we are very much excited to finally have the elements come together for our campaign for the Worlds. We have a very strong team who has been training and preparing for this event, and their initial results are promising.”

Jan has one more health procedure to go through soon, but hopes to be able to join the team himself by the time the racing starts in Scheveningen in July.

“Regardless, this boat will race, and we will be working hard to be on the podium in July.”

For more information: https://offshoresailingworlds2018.com.