• Race one completed but race two abandoned due to dying wind at 2025 Six Metre World Championships on Long Island Sound

• First victory in the Open Division goes to reigning World Champion Jamie Hilton of the New York YC and his team aboard Rainer Müller’s brand-new Ian Howlett designed Au Vive

• Classic Division first win claimed by the 1931 S&S designed Jill of Alessandro Maria Rinaldi from the YC Costa Smeralda

23 September 2025 – Oyster Bay, NY, USA – After the disappointment of a wind and raceless day one, the 2025 International Six Metre World Championships at the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club finally got underway in warm sunshine and a south-westerly of around 6-8 knots. Although two races were scheduled and started, only race one could be completed. The second race was started, but towards the end of the first lap the breeze began to breakdown and the decision was made to abandon the race for both fleets and send them home.

All images ©SailingShots by Maria Muiña

The one race that was completed saw some really close light airs racing for both fleets. In the Open Division reigning World Champion Jamie Hilton of the New York YC and his team aboard Rainer Müller’s brand-new Ian Howlett designed Eau Vive got a great start to led the race from the off. Dieter Schoen’s new Judel/Vrolick designed Momo II was the only boat to seriously challenge them and these two gradually stretched out from the chasing pack with Eau Vive looking super-fast downwind and pulling out her led on the final run to win by some 40 seconds. Behind them the battle for third place was fierce, with boats constantly changing places as the breeze clocked right. Ultimately third place went narrowly to Reigh North racing Sting for the Royal Vancouver YC, with Foti Lykiardopulo’s Aera of the Royal Yacht Squadron fourth, Laurence Clerc and Nicolas Berthoud’s Junior of the SN de Genève sailing Junior fifth, and Basil Vasiliou’s Jane Anne from the New York YC sixth.

In the Classics the 1931 S&S designed Jill of Alessandro Maria Rinaldi from the YC Costa Smeralda proved that she’s not just a pretty girl. A solid start in the middle of the line set her up nicely to lead at the first mark and she elegantly defended from there. But behind her it was like snakes and ladders. At the first mark it was the young team of Cameron Wallace aboard Ca Va (1938) from the Royal Victoria YC that led the chasing pack, closely followed by His Majesty King Juan Carlos’s Bribon (1947) from RCN Sanxenxo, with Greg Stewart from the San Diego YC sailing Sprig (1930) fourth and Louis Heckly’s Fun (1937) from YC de France fifth. But it was all change on the second lap, where Fun dug deep, did a great job with the shifts and sailed impressively fast to finish second, with Bribon a very close third, Ca Va fourth and Spring fifth.

Third placed Reigh North was particularly pleased with their performance aboard Sting. “The wind was good when we first went out and then it was slowly dying as the day went on. They got the first race off and we had maybe 7-8/9 knots of breeze, it was shifty, and you had to play the current and we did that well, and we’re confident in our boat that it’s going well, so we were happy with where we ended up today. We love the Six Metre Class, and we love it when all the boats get together to race. They are just incredible boats, they are so powered up, and they move and the technology and the design effort that goes into them, and they’ve stood the test of time. Some of the Classics out here are 100 years old and they’re still racing on the water today. And the level in the class is very very high. We’ve got some of the top people in the world here so it’s fun. It’s nice rubbing shoulders with them.”

After racing Louis Heckly summed up their day saying, “We are lucky to have our first race in, which opens the Championship and already we are able to see the big guns and a couple of teams that can pretend for the world title this year.  We have not had such a bad start for the whole season, until today, but we managed to go on the good side of the course and make it OK at the end, so we were quite happy to end up in second from ninth position on the first leg. I think it is amazing to see this one class with two divisions coming together on the same racecourse. It’s such a pleasure to see 100-year-old boats playing just as hard on the same racecourse as boats that were built this year.”

Bribon also very much enjoyed their day out as Ross MacDonald explained, “It was good, I think the conditions velocity wise were maybe a little bit lighter than we were expecting really. I think everyone was having a little trouble figuring out the wind shifts. There was a general consensus that at some point the wind would go to the left, but it never really did so that kept us all guessing a bit. It’s fun being in a somewhat new location because you see some different boats that you don’t normally see and some of the other Six Metres here, especially the classic ones, are just spectacular. It was great to see Jill have a win today. They deserved it, they had a great start, and they went in the correct direction, so it was nice to see Jill on top in their first World Championships.”

Alongside the fleet regulars there are a number of newcomers taking part in their first major Six Metre regatta. These include JP Blaise of the Seawanhaka CYC, who summed up his feelings after his first ever world championship race aboard Nuvolari. “I think it was fantastic. The Race Committee had a very hard call on Monday, the first day of the event, to postpone ashore, but clearly it was the right call, so we weren’t out there just floating around doing nothing all day. And it gave a chance for the teams to really kind of mingle a bit and get to know each other. This is our first event, and we’re super thrilled to be here. We’re under the very generous eye of Rainer Müller who has graciously lent several boats to the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club so we are able to compete in the event. We’re having a fantastic time, the class if very competitive and very humbling but our boys are really enjoying it.”

With only one of the possible eight races completed so far, and a minimum of five races required to validate the championship, the Race Committee has revised the schedule to allow 2 races to be sailed on each of the remaining three days. Racing is due to start at 11.30 again on day three, when the forecast promises more light and tricky conditions, with the added delight of drizzle.

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Provisional Race 1 Top Five

Classic Championship
1. USA56 – Jill – Alessandro Maria Rinaldi
2. FRA11 – Fun – Louis Heckley
3. ESP16 – Bribon – Real Club Nautico Sanxenxo
4. SUI112 – Ca Va – Rainer Müller/Cameron Wallace
5. USA43 – Sprig – Greg Stewart

Open Championship
1. SUI144 – Eau Vive – Rainer Müller/Jamie Hilton
2. IVB145 – Momo II – Deiter Schoen
3. SUI127 – Sting – Rainer Müller/Reigh North
4. GRE1 – Aera – Foti Lykiardopulo
5. SUI177 – Junior – Laurence Clerc/Nicolas Berthoud

FULL RESULTS

Photo Galleries

Videos

Entry lists

Members of the press wishing to attend the event or requiring additional information or images should contact ISMA Press Officer Fiona Brown on email fiona.brown@fionabrown.com or Tel/WhatsApp +44 7711 718470.

All images ©SailingShots by Maria Muiña

Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (SCYC) and the Six Metre Class have a long and illustrious history. Founded in 1871 and located on Oyster Bay, New York, SCYC is America’s oldest yacht club and its association with the Sixes goes right back to the class’s foundation in 1907. The club last hosted a Six Metre World Championships in 1987 and so the class is excited to be returning to this very special venue for its 2025 Worlds from 22 to 26 September 2025.

Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound are renowned as some of the best sailing waters in the world and more than 30 Sixes from across the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Greece and the United Kingdom will come together to race for the World Championship Trophies.

Competitors will include the defending Six Metre Classic World Champion, His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain, racing his beloved Bribon, the 1947 Arvid Laurin design which was built by Plym in Sweden. Having won three of the last four Classic World Championships, His Majesty will no doubt be keen to claim the trophy again.

In 2023 Jamie Hilton and his crew won the Open Division World Championship sailing Scoundrel. This year Jamie and his team will return to the fray, but this time racing a brand new boat, designed by Ian Howlett for the legendary Six Metre owner Rainer Müller. Currently nearing completion at Demon Yachts in the UK, this is Ian Howlett’s first new Six in some years and is a direct descendent of his Battlecry and Soundrel designs, which have been so successful in recent years.

Ian Howlett explains that the boat will only be completed just in time for the championship. “Around the turn of the new year the intended build time was foreshortened when the decision was made to take her to the 2025 Worlds in Seawanhaka. She will be sailed by the highly accomplished group, led by Jamie Hilton, who raced Scoundrel so effectively in 2023 at Cowes, and this group have also specified her deck layout, equipment and rig. Those contributing to the build at this end will do all we can to make things work out well for them, as racing a new and untried boat in a major regatta is always a considerable challenge. For me the pleasure and excitement of seeing a new Six take shape had almost been lost in the “Mists of Time” so above all Thank You to Rainer for making this possible.”

Back in the class for their first World Championship since 2015 will be Matt Brooks and his stunning classic Lucie, a 1931 Clinton H Crane design which was built by Nevins for Briggs Cunningham, the famous America’s Cup skipper. Lucie was launched into the heyday of Six Metre racing at SCYC and was shipped to the Solent as part of the US team for that year’s British-American Cup team racing, which the US team won in four straight races.

“We’re looking forward to returning Lucie to the starting line at a World Championship on her original home waters of Long Island Sound—Lucie was built at the Nevins yard in 1931 on City Island, New York. Hailing from the Bay Area and flying the St. Francis Yacht Club burgee, we have an experienced team including helmsman Craig Healy, and our philosophy is like the Oakland Raiders’ Al Davis always said: ‘Just win, baby!’” – Matt Brooks.

Such is the resurgence of interest in the Six Metre Class at the current time that there will be two brand new Sixes on the starting line for the worlds. Mr America’s Cup himself Dennis Conner will participate aboard his new boat Ole Miss, a Javi Cela design launched in San Diego in late 2024. Ole Miss continues the recent trend of radical developments in the Modern Sixes, and it will be exciting to see her line up against the likes of Henrik Andersin’s Oiva, the reigning Six Metre Open European Champion, which was designed by Allan Savolainen and built by Red Sky yachts, launching in October 2022, and of course the new Howlett boat.

Registration and measurement for the Championship starts on 17 September, on September 20 and 21 there will be warm up racing, and World Championships will run from 22 to 26 September, with a total of eight races scheduled. The club will also be hosting Six Metre regattas on 21-22 June, 19-20 July and 16-17 August for competitors who wish to familiarise themselves with the waters.

Further information about the event can be found at 2025.6metreworlds.com