The port of Plymouth is set to host the 45th edition of the J/24 World Championship.

Plym Yacht Club and Saltash Sailing Club together with the UK J/24 Class Association will jointly run the event which takes place between the September 6 and 14, based on the Mount Batten peninsula.

Supported by Yacht Havens Group and the Port of Plymouth Sailing Association, partnered with charity The Island Trust, there are five days of racing planned for the south of Plymouth Sound.

Event co-director Sam Marshall said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been given the privilege and honour of hosting the 2025 World Championship.

“J sailors across the country were gutted to not have the opportunity to race in the 2020 Worlds in Poole due to Covid, so to be able to host boats from around the world in the UK will be fantastic.

“The Port of Plymouth has had an active J/24 fleet for at least 30 years, and we are expecting some strong competition in the lead up to the event over the next three years.

“Events like SailGP have done a phenomenal job of showing what Plymouth has to offer on the water, and we are sure that people will want to travel from across the world to get a chance to sail in the same waters that they have now seen on television with the likes of Ben Ainslie and Tom Slingsby.”

More than 50 boats are expected to take part in the championships with about hundreds arriving in Plymouth for the event. The host clubs are expecting to see a diverse selection of sailors from local amateurs to international professionals.

The J/24 was designed by Rob Johnson in the early 1970s, and is the most popular keelboat in the world with some 5,500 boats sailing worldwide.

It still attracts large fleets internationally, including fleets that actively race in port at the host clubs with a fifth of the fleet in the competition from Saltash.

Chris Randall, hon treasurer at Saltash Sailing Club and owner of J/24 Hitchhiker, said: “Fleets have been quite big over the years but then got smaller as new sports boats have come along.

“The J/24 is an accessible sailing boat due to its size and relatively low cost; it’s a very friendly class, fantastic for the sheer fun and affordable; you can’t beat it.”

Crews from Saltash and Plymouth will be battling it out in the Sound against crews from many European countries as well as from further afield such as Japan, Australia, Argentina and America.

The jam-packed schedule of racing begins on the weekend of Saturday September 6 with an opening ceremony on Monday, September 8.

The Island Trust schooner Johanna Lucretia is now based is now in the port to be used as a spectator boat for the championship, with a race week raffle raising vital funds for the charity which aims to motivate young people through sailing.

Racing begins in earnest on Tuesday, September 6 with Saltash Sailing Club hosting a Cornish cream tea on Wednesday to give competitors a taste of the South West.

Sam added: “The racing is seriously close and there will be plenty of spectacular boat-on-boat action for the racers and spectators alike. We can’t wait!”