International One Design Class
World Championship 2022
Fishers Island, New York
Hosted by the Fishers Island Yacht Club
September 17th – 23rd 2022
Welcome competitors, family, and friends to the 2022 International One Design World Championship. The host Fishers Island fleet looks forward to sharing our delightful sailing venue with old friends and sailors new to Fishers Island.
We sail off West Harbor, which is part of Fishers Island Sound. September conditions bring summer winds from the southwest or frontal-passage winds from around the clock. Water conditions are generally smooth inside Flat Hammock. Current is quite predictable and island features provide protected areas from the tidal currents. The racing area is mostly free from interfering motorboats wakes and other traffic. It is largely free from rocks and other treacherous obstructions along its shorelines.
At the end of this regatta, the Class will crown a new World Champion. Tom Fremont-Smith will look to defend his hard-fought 2021 win in Bermuda, and there will be 15 eager competitors looking to unseat him. The first IOD World Champion was crowned in 1959, Herman Whiton, founder of the highly competitive Sail Training Facility, who won in Bermuda. It will take some serious sailing over many years to reach Marblehead’s Bill Widnall’s record of 10 World Championships, but no doubt there are those who aspire to that achievement.
Our fleet is a mix of wooden and fiberglass boats. We have two boats from Herman Whiton’s racing school in Long Island: Norwegian Wood and Etesian, built in the late 1950s. We have fiberglass boats from several builders plus a couple of true classics: Jester, completely rebuilt by Charlie Van Voorhis and Jim Thompson (Fishers Island’s top qualifiers in this championship regatta), which was sailed in her first season, 1937, by Arthur Knapp, author of the infamous “Race Your Boat Right.” Allegra, owned by Kip Williams, was one of the first three boats delivered in late 1936 and raced by Allegra (Leggy) Knapp; it has the distinction of winning the very first IOD race sailed. The trophy won in that race was gifted to the Class by Leggy (Knapp) Mertz and is awarded to the second-place finisher in the World Championships; it is known as the Allegra Trophy.
Fishers Island often sees up to four past world champions competing on any given Saturday. Waiting in the wings are a number of top sailors, who are formidable on the water. Your host fleet is competitive and those not racing will be watching this regatta closely in hopes of gaining insight into how to sail their boats faster. They are all looking forward to sailing in regattas your fleets host in the near future.
Fishers Island thanks the Bermuda Fleet for the superb job done conducting the 2021 World Championships under difficult circumstances. We are introducing the round-robin format in an effort to allow more sailors in our Class to compete in our signature Championship. By bringing more sailors into our championship, we hope to broaden the appeal of our boats and class among the best sailors in the venues where fleets exist. Our goal is to attract the finest sailors in the world to race the finest yacht available for one-design sailing.
Good luck and may the fastest team win!