Strong line-up

A preview of this week's Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship, this year taking place in Mahon, Menorca

All is set for the start of the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship, now in its seventh year, this year taking place in the Balearic island of Menorca for the first time. 48 yachts will be racing with crews from Argentina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Uruguay.

The Rolex IMS Worlds, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the Club Marítimo de Mahón, will run over five days from 13-17 July and includes both windward/leeward races and a coastal/offshore race in the waters off Menorca (scheduled for Thursday/Friday), for a maximum total of seven races. The event is open to IMS Cruiser/Racer and Racing boats with a minimum length overall of 9.8-17.5m and a GPH of between 635 and 495. Boats with only amateur crew (with a current ISAF Group 1 classification) will make up the Corinthian category; boats including more than one sailor of Group 2 or 3, will make up the Non-Corinthian category. The World Champion title will be awarded to the winner in each category, together with a Rolex watch.

The competition will be fierce, with world class sailors such as double Olympic gold medalist (1992 and 1996 in the 470 class) and five-time world champion Theresa Zabell racing aboard the Spanish JV 57 Tau Ceramica of Javier Domínguez Banderas (brother of Hollywood star Antonio). Pedro Campos, former America's Cup skipper, ten-time world champion and general manager/inshore helmsman of the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race Team Movistar, will be sailing his Evento 46 Telefonica Movistar. Campos, who sailed the Rodman 42 Telefónica Movistar to a Class 1 victory in the 2003 Worlds, recently won the Trofeo de S.M. La Reina in Valencia in the IMS 500 division.

Spain's most prestigious entries also include the Farr 54 Cam owned by Olympic medal winners Fernando León (Gold, Tornado class, 1996) and Kiko Sánchez Luna (Gold, 470 class, 1992), who took first place in the 2001 edition of the Rolex IMS Worlds in Valencia and was recently second at the Trofeo de S.M. La Reina in Valencia (IMS 500). Iker Martínez, gold medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in the 49er class and co-skipper on Telefónica MoviStar with Pedro Campos and Bouwe Bekking in the Volvo Ocean Race, will be skippering the GS 42R Movistar owned by Italian Lorenzo Bressani; Fernarndo Echavarri, 2005 Tornado world champion, will be mainsail trimmer on board Movistar. Also on the starting line, there are three other Spanish and highly competitive GS 42Rs: Andalucia te Quiere, winner at the Trofeo de S.M. La Reina in the IMS 600 division, Fermax Electronica and Forum Filatelico.

The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the Club Marítimo de Mahón will officially greet the competitors tonight with a welcome party at the Race Village, located on the deck of the yacht club overlooking the fjord-like natural port of Mahón. One of the highlights of the week will be Saturday night's Rolex Dinner at La Mola, the fortress built in the XIX century to defend the port of Mahon. The week will finish with Sunday's Rolex Prize Giving Ceremony at the Club Marítimo de Mahón.