A total of 34 sailing teams from around the world will compete at this year’s Wilson Trophy on West Kirby marine lake.
The event, described as the world’s premier team racing event, takes place from Friday 2 – Sunday 4 May, organised by West Kirby Sailing Club.
This year’s event is the 76th and features teams from as far away as Baltimore, Yale and New York in the USA, as well as Oxford and Cambridge, London, Rutland and two teams from West Kirby Sailing Club.
Around 200 competitors will descend on West Kirby for the competition, which will see roughly 300 races taking place on the water over three days.
Last year’s competition saw Rock City Cruising Club from the USA emerge victorious, with West Kirby Hawks the runners-up.
West Kirby Sailing Club Commodore, Chris Gatenby, said: “We have excellence on and off the water with a full social calendar to match the racing!
“Please be ever thankful to the volunteers who make this event really happen. Hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of work are done by the unpaid club members. And, where would this event be without the hosts opening their doors for the teams?
“From IT input to boat fettling and launching ‘Jons’ to sleeping bags on blow up beds, and from the Catering Massive to the Umpires covered in sunscreen, this event has something for everyone to put in, to make it a truly legendary 300 races in 2.5 days sailing, for all the Competitors.”
The history of the competition dates back to 1948 when West Kirby Sailing Club was invited to send a team to Dun Laoghaire for a mixed class team racing event competing against teams from the South of Ireland. To the surprise of the Irish, West Kirby were runners up in the final to Royal St. George Yacht Club.
That evening over a celebratory drink in their hotel room, Cyril Clarke, Harry Dennis, and Glyn Evans discussed the possibility of holding a similar team racing event in West Kirby but limited to one class only – the Firefly One Design, with the first event held in the summer of 1949.
