Class 40s in Hamble

Looking ahead to this week's World Championship

Following a superb race last week in the Rolex Fastnet Race, ultimately won by Tanguy de LaMotte and his Initiatives Saveurs - Novedia Group, so the Class 40 have headed back to the Solent and Hamble. The latter part of this week will see many of the Fastnet boats sail in the class' first World Championship since becoming an ISAF-recognised class, the racing run by the Royal Southern Yacht Club.

The schedule is for a practice race to be held on the Solent today with racing proper taking place from Wedneday to Friday this week. On one of these three days, there will be a race around the Isle of Wight, but this will be dependent upon the weather.

The wind is looking light to moderate tomorrow for Wednesday and Thursday this week, but picking up on Friday.

15 yachts is possibly not the greatest turn-out in a class where there must be around 90 boats now. This is probably due to the high entry fee, a result of the lack of sponsorship for the event. For example while de LaMotte is entered, Giovanni Soldini says his sponsor, Telecom Italia, didn't want to back him to do the Worlds and so he is going on holiday with his family (however one of the other three Verdier Class 40s will be present in the form of the Chilean Portimao Global Ocean Race entry, Desafio Cabo de Hornos. Similarly Boris Herrmann's new Akilaria, Beluga Racer is not taking part.

Nonetheless, there are good boats taking part this week, with five from the UK, the most competitive being Mike West, who did extremely well with Paul Worswick in the Class 40's Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables race earlier this year, and was fifth in the Fastnet. Simon Clarke, a man who knows the Solent better than most, has got his Akilaria back, it having been chartered to Peter Harding earlier this year and is taking part.

Among the French entries, De LaMotte is obviously on a roll, but without Liz Wardley, who is returning to her duties with the glamorous LadyCat D35 team, while Wilfrid Clerton and his CGMER have probably the best track record and French Rolex Commodores' Cup team leader and past winner, Gery Trentesaux, obviously also has good local knowledge.

Aside from the red Chilean Verdier boat, another new boat to look out for is the new Owen-Clarke design Red, owned by Mathias Mueller Von Blumencron, Chief Editor of the respected German magazine, Spiegel.

Entries

Name	Boat Name	Nat
Tony Lawson	Concise	GBR
Tom Hayhoe	Orca	GBR
Mike West	Kerlaria	GBR
Felipe Cubillos	Desafio Cabo De Hornos	CHI
Gerald Bibot	Zed 4	BEL
Wilfrid Clerton	CGMER	FRA
Tanguy de Lamotte	Initiatives Saveurs - Novedia Group	FRA
Alexis Guillame	Merena	BEL
Gilles Dutoit	Techneau	FRA
Andrew Dawson	Spliff	GBR
Arnaud Aubry/ Gery Trentesaux	Courrier de L'Odet	FRA
Simon Clarke	Clarke Offshore	GBR
Marc Lepesqueux	Les Conquérants de Normandie - Caen la mer	FRA
Mathias Mueller Von Blumencron	Red	GER
Denis Lazat	Jumpa Lagi	FRA