Final countdown for 2025 International Six Metre Worlds at Seawanhaka Corinthian YC
by Fiona Brown 21 Aug 05:54 PDT
September 22-26, 2025
International Six Metre Worlds © SailingShots by Maria Muiña
With just a month to go until the start of the 2025 International Six Metre World Championships at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (SCYC), boats are starting to converge on Long Island Sound, NY in preparation.
The Open and Classic Six Metre World Championships will run concurrently from 22 to 26 September with at least 30 teams travelling from across North America and Europe to participate.
The crews from Greece, Canada, Germany, Sardinia, Spain, Switzerland, France, The British Virgin Islands, California, the Pacific Northwest and along the US Eastern Seaboard will compete for seventeen historic and prestigious trophies, including the stunning Six Metre World Cup Trophy, which was presented to the class in 1973 by the Puget Sound Six Metre Association and the Port of Seattle.
SCYC's links to the Six Metre Class go back over a century and the class is delighted to be returning once again to this historically important venue, as International Six Metre Association President Louis Heckly explains:
"Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club has a long and illustrious association with the Six Metre Class and so we are delighted to see our beloved yachts returning to Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound for this year's Worlds. With its beautiful waterside clubhouse, well-deserved reputation for excellent race management and superb hospitality, we know we are in good hands at SCYC and look forward to a fantastic week both afloat and ashore. I am also delighted to note that thirty teams have already registered with a month to go, and that the fleet is split very evenly between the Open and Classic divisions. With the arrival of many newcomers in the Class, including three brand new boats, I look forward to some great competition and plenty of fun!"
Registration and measurement checks for the regatta will open on Wednesday 17 September and continue until Friday 19 September. Practice racing is scheduled for Saturday September 20, and Championship racing will take place from Sunday 22 to Friday 26 September, with up to 8 races scheduled. The extensive social programme will commence with an Opening Reception and Competitor Briefing on Saturday 20 September and will conclude with the Championship Prize Giving on Friday 26 September. Further information can be found at 2025.6metreworlds.com.
Open Championship Contenders
At any Six Metre Championship we can expect competition to be fierce and this year we have three brand new boats racing in their very first championship, making it even harder to predict who might claim the Open Championship victor's laurels.
Reigning Open World Champion Jamie Hilton, who claimed the title off Cowes in 2023 aboard USA126 Scoundrel, will be racing Rainer Müller's brand-new Ian Howlett designed SUI144 Eau Vive, and tells us how he comes to be sailing this new boat:
"The Scoundrel team was looking for a Six Metre to charter or borrow for the 2025 Worlds. I had chartered Scoundrel in 2022 and 2023, and the charter had run its course. The team had grown enamoured with the Six Metre Class and the people who sail them.
"Last winter good fortune connected me with Rainer Müller. After several conversations Rainer and I decided to combine the new boat project he'd started with Ian Howlett and boat builder Matt Lingley of Demon Yachts with the Scoundrel crew and me.
"Suffice to say, we are all very excited to have the honour of sailing Ian's latest creation. Eau Vive is as gorgeous as all of Ian's boats. Matt built a boat that is absolutely first rate in every detail. Rainer over saw the whole project with an experienced and watchful eye. Now it's up to the crew of Eau Vive - Addison Caproni, Dave Hughes, Mike Marshall and me - to get all we can out of her at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in the 2025 World Championship.
"Speaking for the former Scoundrel now Eau Vive crew, we are honoured to be part of this project. We understand the long history of Six Metre sailing at SCYC, and the many legendary names who have sailed Sixes there over the years. We hope we can get all of Eau Vive's enormous potential out her as the field of competition will be fierce this September!"
The second new boat will be Dennis Connor's latest Javi Cela design, which is a development of his very successful Ginkgo Too. Dennis last sailed in a Six Metre Worlds in 2017 in Vancouver, where he raced USA87 May Be VII to fourteenth place. He has been racing the boat out of San Diego for the past couple of months and the international fleet is eagerly anticipating the chance to line up against Dennis and his crew in this new boat.
The third brand new boat will be Dieter Schoen's IVB145 Momo II, a Judel/Vrolijk design only being launched just in time for this regatta. Typically, one would say it takes a couple of seasons to get a Six Metre fully up to speed, but in their original Momo, also a Judel/Vrolijk design, this team won the 2022 World Champion fresh out of the box in Sanxenxo, so one would be a fool to underestimate them.
Travelling from Finland comes the reigning European Open Six Metre Champion, Henrik Andersin's Allan Savolainen designed FIN81 Oiva, which was built by Red Sky Yachts. Launched just in time for the last World Championship in Cowes, she finished that regatta in 13th place, but this super strong team brought the boat on in leaps and bounds, and in 2024 they won the European Championship in Sanxenxo, making them another strong contender for this year's World title.
Whilst the arrival of new boats is always exciting, one of the great strengths of the Six Metre Class is the longevity of the boats. One boat to always look out for in the Open Division is the legendary SUI77 Junior, also owned by Rainer Müller, which was designed by Pelle Petterson and built by Båtbyggarna Ab in 1981 for Baron Edmond de Rothschild, which is widely regarded as one of the most successful Sixes of all time with five World Championship wins to her name. She also enters the regatta as the defending Corinthian Open World Champion, so is definitely one to watch.
A strong contingent of some eleven boats will be travelling across North America from the Pacific Northwest, including five boats from Canada. In the Open Class, Erin Parker's USA125 Tempest, designed by Sparkman & Stephens, built by Eric Goetz Custom and launched in 1986, is a mainstay of the Pacific Northwest Fleet and we can expect a strong showing from this hugely committed team.
Classic Championship Contenders
Challenging for the Classic Six Metre World Championship will be some of the most beautiful and elegant race boats in the world. But don't be fooled by all that gleaming varnish and polished brass, the Classics are raced every bit as hard as their Open counterparts and no quarter will be given in what promises to be a fierce competition.
The hot favourite for the Classic title has to be the reigning Six Metre Classic World Champion His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain, who will defend his title aboard the Arvid Laurin designed ESP16 Bribon, which was built by Plym in Neglinge, Sweden for Harry Nystrom in 1947. She underwent a significant rebuilt at Eric Jespersen Boatbuilders in the mid 2000s, and in 2009 she won her first Classic World Championship, skippered by Eric Jespersen, who was crewed by both his father and his son. His Majesty took over the boat in 2017, winning his first Worlds in her in Vancouver that year, his second in Hanko in 2019 and his third in Cowes in 2023. Bribon is also the reigning Classic European Champion, so this is definitely the boat to beat.
The oldest boat competing and one of the very latest to enter, is Robert & Farley Towse's USA14 SYCE. Designed by John G Alden, built by G Lawley & Son of Massachusetts and launched in 1922, SYCE's last World Championship outing was in 2009 at Newport, RI. At 103 years old Syce may be the grand dame of the regatta, but she can still put in a great performance on the day.
The second oldest boat will be USA21 Madcap, which was designed by C Sherman Hoyt, the renowned America's Cup helm, yacht designer and sailing broadcaster, and built by the Henry B Nevins of City Island, New York. Launched in 1924 she has been beautifully restored and maintained and still puts in a racing performance that belies her 101 years under the leadership of local Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club members Hugh Jones and Russell Byers.
Also fast approaching her centenary is Willets Meyer and William Mooney's USA40 Saleema, which was launched in 1928 and is another Hoyt/Nevins collaboration. Saleema was a member of the victorious USA Team for both the 1932 and 1936 British American Cups and will once again race for Seawanhaka CYC.
From Spain comes Mauricio Sanchez-Bella's stunning ESP72 Titia, which was designed by David Boyd and built in 1952 by Woodnuts in Bembridge, Isle of Wight, UK, for Sir Kenneth Preston and Robert Steele, to represent Great Britain at the 1952 Olympics. In the 1960s she came under Canadian ownership with Fred Brock, and she raced from the Rothsay Yacht Club for many years, before being sold to Nantucket in the early '70s. She was discovered by Matt Cockburn and brought to Cornwall in the UK, where she was beautifully restored by Brian Pope and Andy Postle. At her first post restoration outing in 2006 she won the French Classic Championships, winning six of the nine races. A regular podium finisher at major championships Mauricio will be hoping that this is finally the year he can engrave his name on the Classic Worlds trophy.
Matt Brooks will be racing the stunningly restored USA55 Lucie. Launched in 1931 by Nevins to Clinton H Crane's final and arguably best Six Metre design for legendary America's Cup Skipper Briggs Cunningham, Lucie was part of victorious US Teams in the 1932, 1934 and 1936 British American Cups. After a successful 75-year racing career she was rebuilt to match her original construction, which included shellac between her double planked hull, by Brion Rieff's boatyard in Maine. Matt Brooks purchased Lucie in 2011 and oversaw the completion of her restoration in time to ship her to Helsinki for the 2011 World Championship, where she finished in sixth place and won the Baum + Koenig Trophy for the highest placing boat with a wood mast and Dacron sails.
International Six Metre Association President Louis Heckly will be racing his Olin Stephens designed FRA11 Fun, which was built by Nevins in 1937 and was also part of the 1938 winning USA Team in the 1938 British American Cup. Louis won the 2022 Classic World Championship in Sanxenxo aboard his previous Six, Dix Aout, and finished fifth sailing Fun at last year's Classic European Championship, so will definitely have his eyes set on a podium finish this time around.
Latest entry list
Further information about the International Six Metre Class can be found at www.6metre.com