The cruel reality of summer is that, eventually, it must end. It feels like an endless cycle of evening boat rides, weeknight racing, and weekend adventures throughout the Pacific Northwest. Looking back on the warm season is always bittersweet, but the change of the season helps to make it special. You must take advantage of the warm days because they don’t last forever.
Reflecting on a fantastic racing and sailing season with Ballard Cup Monday nights rolling right into the one-design start lines on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and, of course, the chaos of Duck Dodge—they all blend into a symphony of after-work shenanigans. With the weeknight series coming to an end, there is a bright spot: weekend regattas are upon us!
This fall’s overwhelming focus centers around the most significant event in the Pacific Northwest in years. The J24 World Championship, hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club and presented by Beechers Cheese, is in town from September 28 through October 5, perhaps even right now as you read this missive.
The stacked registration list is truly the top of class, with a handful of teams pulling out all the stops to win the world championship. Sailors will be shipping their boats to Seattle from across the United States and eleven countries spanning the globe, from Japan to Greece, to converge in Shilshole Bay for this anticipated event. The top teams represent decades of experience with the J24 class and bring many top professional sailors worldwide who can push these old boats well beyond their original speed potential.
All 56 teams will compete together on the same racecourse and score overall for the top prize; the fleet is also scored within their division and separated into a handful of groups to let similar teams measure up to one another. The Corinthian class limits all competitors to “amateur” status, meaning no professional sailors or sailmakers on the boats. The under-25s welcome young sailors to line up against the best of the world, and there was also a new All-Female division with teams made up of some of the top women sailors in the country.
A unique feature of this regatta is the integration of several new groundbreaking technologies that will assist the race organizers both on and off the water. Remote control and GPS-guided racing marks, created by Mark Set Bot, will be used for the race course, making the challenge of anchoring marks in the deep water of Puget Sound a thing of the past. To go along with the robot marks, connected GPS devices will be placed on every boat on the course. These units, designed by the sailing instrument company Vakaros, are revolutionizing large fleet racing. The entire fleet’s devices are connected to a mesh radio network and will be centrally controlled by the Race Committee. These units provide start timing and position information to racers and give start line feedback to the race committee regarding who is over early and who has cleared themselves at every start.
Thanks to countless hours of volunteers and race organizers, the 2024 J24 World Championships are set to be groundbreaking and will undoubtedly go down in the history books of Pacific Northwest sailing. If you want to get involved, contact the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle and they can point you in the right direction to sign up to volunteer both on the water and ashore. Learn more about the event and track the racing at: J24WorldsSeattle.com.
While the spotlight is on the J24s, it is officially fall, meaning the saltwater keelboat racing is starting in earnest. The fall calendar is stacked with significant events that bring racing boats out of the woodwork. Things kick off with the handicap fleets with the CYC Edmonds Foulweather Bluff race on October 5 and roll right into the CYC Seattle Puget Sound Sailing Championship on October 12-13. The Seattle racing calendar cultivates with the three-day Grand Prix Regatta on October 25-27, hosted by the Seattle Yacht Club. Finally, to wrap up the season and send us into winter, the keelboat fleet heads north for the Orcas Island Yacht Club’s classic Round The County event on November 9-10.
Be sure to check back here for recaps of these significant races and many others, as things are just getting started for this fall’s racing calendar!
