China Club J/80 Match Challenge announcement

J80 fleet © J/Boats

The famous China Club Match Challenge event will be taking place off Xiamen, China from November 19th to 22nd.

The event starts with fleet racing for forty-four J/80 teams from across China and Asia. That event then qualifies twelve teams to sail in the final match-racing event to determine the overall winner.

The level of sophistication of the sailing teams has increased dramatically over the years. The top Chinese teams are now doing a lot more boat preparations, with bottoms being worked on for hours before practice. That is a large improvement over years ago, when they ignored the bottoms altogether. This will be the largest ever keelboat event in China with a one-design class.

Then, in December, Xiamen is also hosting the first Asian J/80 Championships. This is an open event, but using International J/80 class rules. However, the Chinese J/80 Class has modified the class rules for championship events, with no restriction to professional sailors, since most Chinese sailors are professional (they have sailed for prize money in many local events).

So far, teams that have committed to participate come from Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia. The event organizers are expecting 40 to 65 entries! Boat weights, sail measuring, safety gear and crew weight will all be done in the three days before registration.

For anyone interested in attending either the China Club Match Challenge or the Asian J/80 Championships, please contact Jim Johnstone on or at China cell +86 185 7722 9501.